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Call from the Bullpen by David Maull

The Bullpen | Major Leagues | Sports Front Page

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Wild Card Still Bad for Baseball
From the August 13, 1998 TV Times

All hail the wild card.

Let us jump for joy that the evils of major league baseball's divisional structure have been conquered forever.

Let us sing the praises of a system that allows teams 10 games under .500 to stay in postseason contention until mid-September.

Let us rejoice that teams with only the faintest playoff hopes can swing lopsided, late-season trades for marginal starting pitchers or journeyman outfielders.

But remember one thing - it won't always be like this.

If the 1998 baseball season has taught us anything, it's that occasionally the wild card system has some value.

If the previous alignment in place from 1969-1993 were used today, the Yankees would have a 14-game lead in the American League East and Boston and Cleveland would have virtually no playoff hopes.

As it stands now, Cleveland will easily reach the playoffs as a division champion and Boston has a good chance of being a wild card team.

For this year anyway, the wild card is generating interest in a season that has seen teams like the Yankees, Atlanta and San Diego run away with their divisions.

But not every season will be like this one, and before long the flaws of the wild card system will be exposed again.

By now, you've heard all the rantings. The wild card cheapens the pennant races. It lowers the standard of excellence required to reach the postseason. It rewards mediocrity.

But lets put things into a historical perspective by pointing out two great pennant races that would not have occurred under the current system.

In 1980, the Orioles notched an outstanding 100-62 record but lost the A.L. East title to the Yankees, who were an even more impressive 103-59. The gripping pennant race the two teams waged that summer would have been mostly meaningless now because the Orioles, while losing the A.L. East title to New York, would have won the wild card race by 14 games. With both teams having easily clinched playoff berths, the September duels between them wouldn't have had the same intensity.

Another example is 1982, when the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Orioles on the final day of the regular season to capture the A.L. East title. That race would never happen today because the Brewers would be in the National League. But assuming Milwaukee was still in the American League, the Orioles would have won the East title by five games over Boston and Milwaukee the Central Division by five games over Kansas City.

And one of the greatest pennant races in history would have never happened.

Another interesting postscript to the 1982 season: the Angels, who won the West title that year by three games over Kansas City, would have won by 17 games over Seattle under the wild card format.

Now I ask you, is that more exciting?

Also dying a slow death in the wild card system is the one-game playoff.

For years, a tie for first place in the standings at the end of the regular season was resolved by a one-game, winner-take-all playoff. This resulted in some of the most memorable games in history, including the 1978 A.L. East playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox. Most remember it as the day Bucky Dent broke the Beantowners' hearts.

The National League once used a best-of-three playoff format and perhaps the most memorable home run ever hit - Bobby Thompson's three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth that gave the Giants a 5-4 third game victory over the Dodgers and the 1951 pennant - was part of that.

Under the current system, two teams tied for the division title but both headed to the postseason do not have a playoff. The team with the better record in head-to-head competition between the teams is declared the division champion.

We can thank the NFL for that wonderful little nugget.

The only time there will be a playoff is if two teams are tied for the division title and neither can reach the postseason as a wild card. That scenario was played out in 1995 when Seattle defeated California in a one-game playoff for the A.L. West title.

But for the most part, the wild card destroys more pennant races than it creates.

While it may look good in this season of runaway division winners, there will be other years when it won't be so attractive.

If the previous two-division format were in place this season, the only blowout pennant race would be the A.L. East. Texas and Anaheim would still be battling in the A.L. West, Chicago and New York would be going head-to-head in the N.L. East and the two best teams in the National League, Atlanta and San Diego, would be engaged in a dogfight in the west.

Instead of four noncompetitive division races, we'd have three competitive ones.

One last sobering wild card thought: At the time of the season-ending players' strike in 1994, Texas had a pitiful 52-62 record but was in first place in the A.L. West.

It won't be long before a sub-.500 team really does make the playoffs.

At least the strike was good for something.