Changing the Wild Card Round to Best-of-Three Games

I know what a lot of you may be thinking, especially non-Yankees fans, here comes one of those spoiled rotten Yankees fans ready to complain about the fact that his team lost in the AL Wild Card and now he wants to change everything around to better suit him and his team. Well… yeah and no I guess. The good thing about everything I write is that it’s on the internet and can be researched back either on the blog or on twitter, I wanted a best-of-three series when they announced the one-game playoff and I’ve wanted it in every season since. Look it up. I understand the reasoning behind a one-game playoff, money and viewership on television, but it’s not a great way to reward a team for their 162-game grind of a schedule (even if you’re trying to punish the teams a bit for not winning their own division).

Take the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates for instance. Both teams had better records than the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers but are being punished for playing in the same division as the St. Louis Cardinals. Pittsburgh won 98 games this season and barely had an advantage in the standings to host the one-game playoff. Sure the ratings for the game between them and the Cubs were great but would two more games just like it not be even better?

Two more games equals more money in the pockets of the owners and the television markets but it’s also more money in the pockets of the players, the league and the participating teams. A best-of-three series showcases the immense amount of young and possibly unknown talent to the casual baseball fan of the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Houston Astros the night before in a record-breaking ratings matchup with the New York Yankees, and could possibly bring more hardcore fans into the game with this new knowledge of the players and teams.

Sure expanding the season and the World Series into November sucks but you have to give something to get something. Give up the one-game playoff and grow the brand, the teams and the sport. It’s a risk and a “give” worth taking in my opinion and that’s whether the Yankees are in it or not.