As another October has come and gone, a team has accomplished the ultimate task, winning a World Series. This year is the third straight year in which a Wild Card team has won it. Great for baseball? Maybe for one year, but not three years in a row. Why should a team that is not able to win their division be eligible to win the Championship?
In 2002, the first year of this wild streak, the Anaheim Angels and San Fransisco Giants faced off. Both of these teams were wild card winners for their leagues. Maybe one Wild Card winning team should be in the World Series, but two? It was the Championship of second place teams. (I am reminded of the BCS rankings blunder in college football for the 2003 season after the second-ranked and third-ranked teams played in the national championship game.) Once all was said and done, the Angels were World Champions. Was this Cinderella Story good for baseball? I, for one, don't think so.
When October of 2003 rolled along, the American League East Division Champion Yankees were in the world series, yet again. Opposing the dominating team were the Florida Marlins. During the season, the Marlins compiled a record of 91 – 71, ten games behind their National League East nemesis Atlanta Braves. The Marlins were lucky enough that no other second place team in the National League had as good a record as they managed to squeeze out. After winning their first two series of the playoffs, the Marlins were bound for the World Series for the second time in seven years. After a series that went to six games, the Marlins were World Champions. This was the second time in a row that a Wild Card team had won the Series, and the third team in two years which had been in the series.
The exciting season of 2004 brought us amazing comebacks and amazing domination. The Cardinals and Yankees dominated their divisions, with the exception of the Boston Red Sox who squeezed out enough to win the Wild Card, again. The amazing comebacks were mainly in the National League with the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros. After being denied a thirteenth consecutive division title by almost every so-called “baseball expert” in America, Atlanta came back and had virtually another “worst-to-first” year. The Astros also came back from a deep hole midway in the season to winning the Wild Card, with their brand new manager. Once the first two series of the playoffs were over, the World Series had the Cardinals competing against the American League Wild Card Champion Red Sox, who were fresh off the greatest playoff comeback in sports history. Once the short four game series was over, it showed the Boston Red Sox with their first championship in 86 years. Another Wild Ca
rd champion. The 2004 series winner is different than the previous two series winners in the “good for baseball” aspect, however. The reason this situation is different is because of the talk of the curse being over and the Red Sox long awaited Championship. I do believe that it would have been better if the Red Sox would have been the division champions which won it, not the wild card winners.
Something needs to be done. The repeated winning of the wild card team has tarnished baseball. Why should we give a second place team the chance to apparently “be the best in baseball”? There are many options that the Commissioner could decide to use. One example is that every playoff game in which a Wild-Card team plays would be at their opposition's home. In this case, it would give a very big incentive to win the division, so that a team wouldn't just be happy to appear in the playoffs.
Another scenario would be to wipe out the wild card all together. What would need to be done is simple, just realign the divisions, creating a fourth. In the National League there would need to be four divisions of four teams each. The alignment of the American League would need to have two divisions of four teams and two of three teams. I think that these solutions are very reasonable and the Commissioner should look into using these, possibly as soon as the 2007 season. We need to let winners be the winners, instead of letting losers be the winners.
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Copyright © 2005 by Scott Gladin. Posted September 8, 2005.
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