WPCNR’S VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By John Baseball Bailey. October 4, 2005: The chorus of praise for baseball’s “fantastic finish” over the weekend overlooks the pall of anti-climatic contrivance, dishonesty  and convenient “pulling of punches” that the “fantastic finish” turned out to be. That Commissioner Bud Selig went to NFL "tiebreakers" to decide who gets into the playoffs is a disgrace. It is his seventh major bungle as a commissioner.

The first  Bud Bungle being the 1994 strike, the second the shrunken strike zone, the juiced ball, the condoning of steroids, interleague play without reason, the wild card, and the seventh being use of tiebreakers. All bungles have arguably made baseball more successful, and that is the bottom line, but in the great box score of the game, it is a lot of unearned runs in my scorebook.

Fenway Park, 1999. Photo, WPCNR Sports Archive.

When the Texas Rangers pulled all their starters against the Los Angeles Angels, was Buck Showalter, avowed Yankee hater, arranging to lose, even when his team had the lead, so as to “give” the Angels home advantage against the Yankees – as sportscaster Warner Wolf pointed out?

When Bud Selig, baseball’s Commissioner went to the NFL system of tiebreakers popularized by the National Football League, where your season record against another team, head-to-head, determines whether you finish ahead of them for post-season positioning if tied,  he created a situation that allows baseball teams to consider not to  compete in an important game for the team they are playing, which compromises baseball’s integrity.

Had the Yankees had to beat Boston Sunday to avoid a one-game playoff with Boston on Monday for the actual Division title which might give the Yankees Chicago as an opponent instead of the Angels then Cleveland might have had a chance to get in. I guess, baseball does not have time to have a one-game playoff to determine who finishes first (when the Yankees and Boston were tied at the end of 162 games). But they should have a playoff, this tiebreaker business is hockey, football nonsense, it does not belong in baseball, you have to play and compete your way in in baseball, or at least it used to be that way.

To avoid this unseemly appearance of a collusion between the Yankees and Red Sox, the Bosox and Yanks should have played Monday to decide the outright division winner. Then the loser of that game should have played the second place team with the next best record to assure 100% effort in all games. In fact to make absolutely sure teams give their best effort there should be a best 2 of 3 series for the two best second place teams, in this case this year it would be the Yankees and the Indians. This would preserve intensity of competition, and not give Wild Cards a free pass into the playoffs, it would provide incentive to finish first, to avoid a 2 of 3 playoff. It would also prevent the Wild Card team from saving their best pitcher to open up their first Division Series Game.

The Wild Card Season

If you enjoy living in a fool’s paradise – the sucker world of the Wild Card fan, this was the season for you as the sports media establishment just concentrated on the Wild Card races, oblivious to the Division first place races.

What was the concentration all season long? It was not who was going to win the division, it was on who the Wild Card Teams were g to be. Not until the Boston-New York race and Chicago-Cleveland race tightened up did sports pages begin to even talk about the first place chases.

Believing you’re team isn’t good enough to overtake first place, so we can get the wild card, is a lot like waiting for hurricane aid from FEMA. You’re still hungry, thirsty, and living in a fool’s paradise.

I hate the Wild Card because it mocks excellence and consistency to the sentimental contrivances of sentimentality and underdogism. Did the contending wild card teams make deals to finish first? .They went with what they had and what happened? Cleveland and Philadelphia did not have it in the last week of the season, lacking that one late acquisition that might have put them over the top. But, they made business at the box office, providing fans with false hope.

Wild Card is all about false hope, about sneaking in, getting there with less effort and less talent and some how cheating your way in.

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So what is wrong with the Wild Card? Nothing if you like beefing up attendance and as long as fans buy the ability to have a chance by finishing second. If they’re o.k. with that.

It was never that way in baseball until the wild card came along. But now, it is all about contriving and “second seeds” and the playoff mentality  where regular season performance is only “good enough to get in.”

Some teams in baseball have the pride to play contending teams tough instead of rolling over for them in September. Kansas City did. Tampa Bay did.

And, didn’t you wonder just a little why Boston left its starter in so long Saturday until the Yankees had built up a hefty lead. I mean, It was clear, low humidity, high pressure weather – absolutely the worst weather conditions for a knuckleballer, which is what Boston’s pitcher , Tim Wakefield is. It was obvious in the first inning his ball had nothing. So you get him out of there in the second inning. Instead he is left in until the game is gone.

What did that do? It assured baseball of having high profile, high ratings markets in the playoffs instead of Cleveland. Then on Sunday, the Red Sox were assured of getting a Yankee “batting practice” pitcher whom they have not relied on at all during the regular season. Boston gets in. Cleveland is out.

That’s what the Wild Card does to you. It creates advantageous scenarios that can be manipulated, while building fan interest.

The Wild Card machinations are another example of how the commissionership of Bud Selig has egregiously, irreparably eroded the integrity of the game. There was the awful strike of 1994 that destroyed the myth of baseball as something beyond a business. I have never felt the same about professional baseball (minor leagues excluded) since the strike. I simply can not bring myself to care about what the teams do.

There was the condoning of steroid use that has cheapened and made baseball records meaningless. The records of Sosa, Bonds and McGwire should be stricken from the record books, as they were achieved with steroids.

There is interleague play which is interesting, but instead of reorganizing divisions along geographic lines, building rivalries and playing a balanced schedule, the interleague play becomes a series of exhibitions in the middle of the season. Give us divisions like this:

Empire Division : New York, New York, Boston, Toronto, Balt. Wash

Golden West: Seattle, L.A., L.A., S.F. Oakland, San Diego

Great Lakes Division:: Chicago, Chicago, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland,

Prairie League: Colorado, St. Louis, K.C., Houston, Texas, Arizona

Mason-Dixon Division: Pittsburgh, Phila, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Cincinnati

Baseball simply has to get rid of the Wild Card, by expanding to 32 teams giving you 8 divisions of 4 teams each. I recommend expanding to Las Vegas  and San Antonio, or Tokyo and Honolulu,  or Portland and  Mexico City. Personally Las Vegas and San Antonio appear the most viable, though Tokyo and even Venezuela intrigue. Expanding to 32 clubs would eliminate the fall-back nature of the Wild Card position

Add Las Vegas and Tokyo….and you go to 8 Divisions of 4 teams each, three rounds of playoffs.

Empire Division: NY, NY, Boston, Toronto

Atlantic Seaboard Division: Phila, Pitts, Balt. Wash.

Great Lakes League: Chicago, Chicago Detroit, Cleveland

Corn Belt League: Minnesota, Milwaukee, K.C., St. Louis

Prairie League: Colorado, Arizona, Texas, Houston

Dixie Division: Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Cincinnati

Golden West: Seattle, S.F., Oakland, Tokyo

Sun Coast: L.A., L.A., San Diego, Las Vegas

The advantage of adding the two teams, eliminates the Wild Card contrivance. You could add a one-game play in to assure that below .500 teams do not make it in.