FanPost

Wha??? They're expanding the playoffs to 10 games???

I was casually perusing the Denver Post's Rockies flex page when I came across this little nugget about the playoffs. No, it didn't answer why JR Smith didn't play in game 2 or why the hell Raymond Felton guarded Kevin Durant all game. Apparently, Commish Bud Selig wants to expand the playoffs to 10 teams. That's right, he wants to expand to three rounds, adding a wild card series before the divisional playoffs. Why? My guess is that the motive is purely capitalistic, as adding an extra round  will add that much more elevated playoff revenue into the coffers of the MLB and its owners.

To hear Selig talk about it, he thinks it's an inevitability. Check out the story, written by the AP.

"I would say we're moving to expanding the playoffs, but there's a myriad of details to work out," Selig said Thursday at his annual meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors. "Ten is a fair number. ... The more we've talked about it, I think we're moving inexorably to that."

I wanna hear some 'pinions. I'm against it, but then again, I'm a  baseball curmudgeon -- I'm against every major change to the game. Why fix what ain't broken? Baseball is the only major American sport with two rounds before the finals; if you say a team made the playoffs, it actually means something, damn it. Under-.500 teams make it fairly regularly in the NBA, NHL and NFL -- well, maybe not so much in the NFL, but come on, how many of you guys' favorite teams had a better record than the Seahawks last year?? -- baseball feels like it has a certain playoff sanctity thanks to the scarcity of teams actually playing in October. Plus, the season is long enough as is. Adding an extra five to seven games (who knows how long it will be) puts wild card teams at a serious disadvantage. Percentage-wise, it ain't much, but after a 162-game regular season, you bet those extra five games are gonna wear on you. I know owners are looking for ways to increase revenue, but this seems like a pretty typical corporate move in a down economy -- make your employees work more instead of increasing sales. I say to you, Bud Selig, your idea is sound -- nothing but sound. (Thank you, Ben Franklin.)


Eat. Drink. Be Merry. But the above FanPost does not necessarily reflect the attitudes, opinions, or views of Purple Row's staff (unless, of course, it's written by the staff [and even then, it still might not]).

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