Thursday, September 24, 2009

Not Wild About Another Wildcard

If you watched any of the morning shows on ESPN today you heard about a new idea that Hall Of Famer Peter Gammons has thrown out about adding one more team to the playoffs in each league. I respect Gammons more than I could ever say in just this short blog, but I really think he has missed the mark on this one. The beauty of the 162 game marathon that is the baseball season is that only the best teams get rewarded by making the playoffs at the end of the season. My question is do we really want to dilute the regular season anymore, to the point that it is like the NHL and NBA and just about anyone with half a pulse makes the post season. Also with five teams making the playoffs that would mean you would have to have byes for the first round for some teams and I just don't see that working in baseball. Having 4-6 days off after the season will do more to hurt the bye teams than help, because baseball players really do cherish their routines and this would wreck havoc with them. Just because this season doesn't have any nail biting chases to the end doesn't mean we need to hit the panic button and scrap what has really worked well for 15 years. Also the American League Central race between the Tigers and Twins might just develop into a good fight to the end so it may be too early to say that the last week of the season will be completely devoid of drama. If this becomes a problem for a few years than I would be happy to reevaluate the situation but for now this falls under the old adage if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Be sure to check out the first few chapters of my baseball novel 33 Summers at www.darrenpare.com Just click on the announcements tab.

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