Which I can say most definitely was true this season. It was the first season where 2 wild card teams instead of 1, would be chosen from each league. How this works is that the 2 teams who win the wild card would play a one game playoff to decide who would move on to the division conference.
Why was this put in place? Well, I see several reasons. The one that MLB has consistently stated is that they wanted to give teams more incentive to win their divisions. In the past, winning the wild card didn't seem to really be all that bad. Sure, you had the play the team with the best record in the division series, but if you won the spot, you at least were ensured that you got to the division series.
With a 1 game playoff, now it's much harder for the wild card team to get there. So I do believe that MLB did accomplish their goal of giving the division winners more incentive. Most teams would prefer to not have to play in a do-or-die situation to move on in the playoffs. It's a very foreign concept for baseball, which is used to a minimum of a best of 5 series.
The second thing the added wild card spot did was make the race to the end more exciting and kept more MLB franchises engaged. In the National League alone you had the Cardinals, Dodgers, Brewers all fighting for that last wild card spot to the end. If there had only been 1 wild card team, all 3 of these teams would have been out of the race much earlier, and so would have many of their fans.
Think about it. From MLB standpoint, the 2nd wild card kept many franchises still in the race, so fans wanted to buy tickets to watch these last nail biting games. What does that mean?
MLB baseball is "cashin' out" at the end of the season by adding this 2nd wild card team. It's a matter of simple economics. First off, there are now 2 more playoff games (one in the NL and one in the AL) so they get additional revenue from those playoff games.
But it also helps increase the probability that there will be more sold out games towards the end of the season because of the simple fact that there are more teams in the race down the stretch which keeps the fans interested and wanting to go to the games. Because truth is, once your team is automatically eliminated from playoff contention, many fans lose interest (unless your Cubs fans, who expect the Cubs to not make the playoffs every season).
So, I get the benefit of the 2nd wild card. At first, I wasn't so sure how I felt about it and about the 1 game playoff. But I liked the thought that it gave more teams a chance to compete and that finally division winners can feel like they have more of an advantage.
Wild Card Friday was yesterday, and I suppose you could say the suspense of a one game playoff definitely delivered?
The Texas Rangers lost the division title in the last days of the season to the...Moneyball Oakland Athletics. That lead to a one game playoff against the Baltimore Orioles. Both teams finished the season with 93 wins, so it wasn't going to be an easy game, most of us thought it would be close.
But it wasn't. Baltimore crushed Texas 5-1, and will now face the Yankees in the ALDS. The lesson here that Texas learned the hard way? Win your division. If Texas hadn't let that division title slip away, they'd be in the ALDS and who knows who would have won in a Baltimore-Oakland showdown.
Then there was the Cardinals-Braves matchup in Atlanta.The Braves won 94 games, the Cardinals 88. On paper, Atlanta seemed like they had the advantage. But if there's one thing I've learned about the Cardinals in recent years is, they don't give up and never think that they don't belong there.
It was going to be a tough win on the road for them though. The Braves had their ace Medlen ready to go, who has only lost 1 game the whole season and was considered un-hittable. The Cardinals gave Kyle Lohse the start, who had a pretty stellar regular season but historically had been dreadful in the post-season. As a Cardinals fan, I had prepared myself for a nail biting stressful game.
When Lohse gave up the 2 run homerun in the 2nd? I thought "oh no, this is going to be hard to come back from." And then the Cardinals did what they always seem to do: surprise me. They came back in the 4th inning to go up 3-2, though a throwing error by Chipper Jones helped. After that, Atlanta seemed to self-destruct. The Braves had 3 throwing errors which ultimately helped the Cardinals to roll to a 6-2 lead.
Then...all hell broke lose over an extremely controversial call by the umpires after a late infield fly rule was invoked which lead to this...
And inspired this...
In short, it was a bad call by the ump, and instead of Atlanta
having the bases loaded with 1 out, it was 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.
Atlanta fans immediately started booing
and throwing bottles and debris on the field after the call was made. It lead
to a 19 minute delay of the game as they had to clean the field, and Atlanta's
manager told the umps they were playing under protest. MLB didn't allow the
protest and the game continued, and ultimately the Cardinals won the game 6-3.
MLB is saying that the umps made the right
call, yada yada. They have to, they have no choice. It's not a play that can be
reviewed. It's a subjective call and it was made, whether right or wrong.
Unfortunately in this situation I do think it was the wrong call. However, the
behavior of the Atlanta fans was completely unacceptable and immature.
Booing, okay, I get that. But throwing
your beer on the field (first off, that's an expensive beer. And second, that's
a waste of good beer!) is just awful. If the game had been in St. Louis and
that call had been made, I would hope that St. Louis fans wouldn't do that. It
doesn't accomplish anything but make you look bad as fans, and now the whole
country has seen the footage.
There's no way of knowing what would have
happened if the infield fly rule hadn't been in play. Maybe Kozma would have
caught the ball. Maybe the Cardinals would have turned a double play from the
next batter. Maybe the Braves would have hit a grand slam to take the lead. Maybe
not.
I'm thrilled that the Cardinals won and
are advancing to the NLDS. I just wish it wasn't tainted by this awful call.
But the reality is they won, and now we have to move on.
The Cardinals now face the Washington
Nationals, and that is not going to be an easy series. But I have confidence in
the Redbirds. They have something that the Nats don't have: experience. The
Cards have been there, they know what it's like to be the underdogs. So I don't
expect it to be an easy series. It should be fun to watch.
Go Cardinals! #12in12!
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