Bud Selig open to expanding playoffs

[JonLP24]

<snip>

Several years ago, Major League Baseball formed a committee to examine expansion but Selig said there were several factors that ended the discussion. Now, he thinks the time is right to revisit it

"It's a fair question," Selig said Friday before the St. Louis Cardinals played the Chicago Cubs. "We have less teams than any other sport. Eight teams make the playoffs. One wild card in each league. We certainly haven't abused anything."

He's not afraid of upsetting the purists, who were vocal in their opposition when the sport added the wild card.

"As the guy who brought the wild card and took a lot of abuse -- maybe from nobody in this room -- it's worked out great, nobody's against it," Selig said.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5612433

:popcorn:

[wilt the stilt]

1. He's a moran

and some people are against it. me. It would be better to expand to 32 teams and then have 4 divisions and the top team makes it to the playoffs.

[JonLP24]

2. I'm against it myself

I mean why play 162 games if he decides to expand?

Are you saying you want four divisions in each league or just 4 total for MLB? I think expanding to 32 and having 4 divisions in each league rather than 3 could work.

[wilt the stilt]

5. 4 divisions in each league

we no longer have "pennant races". Pennant races is what lore is made from. Selig is an idiot.

[KamaAina]

7. So the loser of the Yankees-regrettable expansion team race would go home

with the second-best record in baseball?

[wilt the stilt]

8. yep

That was the way it was for oh maybe a 100 years. The last great pennant race was the Braves against the Giants in '93 when Atlanta ran them down to win. The Giants went home with 103 wins. Can you imagine how intense the last 6 games would have been between NY and Tampa. That my friend is a pennant race and what legends are made from. Giants- Dodgers in'51 and Boston- NY in '78 when the Yankees ran down Boston.
Name a single memorable "wild card race"

[KamaAina]

9. Thanks for the memories, NOT

and right when it looks like this year's Giants could easily fall one game short, too. :grr: :banghead: :argh:

[fishwax]

10. that was definitely a great race

Man, that made for a fun September.

[El Supremo]

14. Ahem...

2007 when the Rox got the Wild Card on the last day after the September to Remember. The Brewers beat the Padres to make it happen.

[wilt the stilt]

16. right up there

with Giant's Dodgers in '51. Why isn't it remembered by anyone but you.

[Chan790]

24. Neither is 1951 for the most part.

I mentioned Bobby Thompson and Ralph Branca in passing to a sportswriter who looked at me as if he had no idea what the hell I was on.

It's hardly eternally-memorable.

[JonLP24]

25. I had to look up Ralph Branca

Thompson I know him as the "Shot heard around the world" guy. I had no idea Branca was the one who threw the ball. I'm in my 20's for disclosure.

[wilt the stilt]

26. Then that sportswriter is an idiot

It is absolutely one of the most famous pennant races with the Giants running down Brooklyn and it is easily looked up If you don't think so then I question your baseball knowledge. One of baseball's passions is it's history and the only sport where records are important. Records in football and basketball are secondary but in baseball it is really meaningful. Don't think so then why is so much made of Hank Aaron's HR record and Pete Rose's base hit record. No other sport relishes it's records and history like baseball fans.

[frylock]

21. i was up in san fran at the time and caught one of those games..

that was an epic pennant race.

[joeybee12]

12. So am I, the season is long enough...

it's fine the way it is.

[Auggie]

3. I'm against it. Leave it the way it is and shorten the playoffs

by kicking TV out of the scheduling process.

There isn't enough talent to field or support 32 teams either.

[rocktivity]

6. I agree--the playoffs are too long as it is

But what Selig is really thinking is that the more he can draw the playoffs out, the more TV money he can rake in.

x(
rocktivity

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Selig's been drinking too much beer

I'm not against a wild card, but good grief. Four teams is enough for each league's post season.

Selig is a dope.

[dakota_democrat]

11. You wanna be like basketball or football or hockey?

Where .500 teams make the playoffs, or (especially basketball's Eastern Conference) where teams with losing records are playoff-bound?

If you want to fix something in baseball, get rid of inter-league play. That novelty has run its course.

[Jack Rabbit]

13. If you want to fix baseball, get rid od Bud Selig

. . . and dump the DH, while we're at it.

[frylock]

22. get rid of inter-league play..

word up.

[El Supremo]

15. How I'd "fix" baseball:

balanced schedule
no divisions
no interleague games
top four teams from each league in
make the NL use the DH

[TZ]

19. No divisions is a BAD idea

It makes geography a much more important issue if you have coast teams constantly criss crossing the country. As of now, those long distance road trips are difficult enough. I'm sorry, I don't want a playoff race decided because one city happened to be easier to travel to and from.

[El Supremo]

23. A balanced schedule then. Like we had before Selig screwed it in 2001.

The teams criss-crossed the country all the time before then.

But I still don't like the idea of a team with a better record than one in another division not going to the post-season.

[Ganja Ninja]

17. There already playing the World Series in November.

A 160 game season is too long. They need to cut it by 30 games if they want to expand the playoffs.

[wilt the stilt]

18. No chance

Baseball has always been a long season and that is why finishing first it everything. Baseball needs the revenue. There are two ways to shorten the season. Start one week earlier and throw in 5 day night doubleheaders per team. This will shorten the season by 2 weeks. When I grew up we had doubleheaders all the time. Now I realize that is not realistic today but day night ones would work.

[charlie and algernon]

20. What happened to the talk about the WS winner playing the Japanese Series winner?

There was an ESPN article a couple years ago about Selig and the Japanese leage commissioner talking about the two champions playing each other. I'd be all for that. We don't need a second Wild Card team. But DO send the winning MLB team to play the Winning Japanese team. THAT would be fun.