A quick comment on one of the best days ever in baseball history, last Wednesday, September 28. As those of you who were watching the pennant races know, the Wild Card races in both leagues came down to the last day. Two teams in each league were tied for the Wild Card starting Wednesday. Because the contenders were not playing each other, there were four games for two spots. The Cardinals won their game easily, but the other three games were all won in the last inning, two of them extra innings.
In the National League, the Braves, who had had a huge lead in early September, were playing the Phillies. The Braves knew that the Cardinals had a big lead against the Astros, so they knew they had to win to force a tie – and a playoff on Thursday. And the Braves were winning, 3 to 2, going into the ninth. But the Phillies, who had long ago clinched their playoff spot and really didn’t have anything to play for, tied it up in the top of the ninth. As the Cardinals watched in Houston, the Phillies and Braves kept playing. Finally, in the thirteenth inning, the Phillies won, 4 to 3.
But while the National League Wild Card was exciting, the American League race was mind-blowing. The Red Sox had a huge lead at the beginning of September, just like the Braves, but by Wednesday their lead was gone, and they were tied with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays, however, were playing the Yankees, who had the best record in the American League, on Wednesday, while the Red Sox were playing the Orioles, who had the worst record in the American League.
The Yankees took an early lead against the Rays, and by the top of the eighth it was 7 to 0 Yankees. Meanwhile, in Baltimore, the Red Sox were leading the Orioles 3 to 2 in the seventh, and the game was delayed because of rain. But while the rain came down in Baltimore, the Rays came back in Tampa. The Rays got six runs in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 7 to 6. Then, with two outs and two strikes on the batter in the bottom of the ninth, Dan Johnson hit a pinch hit home run for the Rays (just his second homer of the year) to tie the score, 7 to 7.
As the game went into extras at the Trop (i.e., Tropicana Field, the Ray’s park), the rain stopped in Baltimore, and Red Sox and Orioles started up again. The Red Sox got runners on first and third with nobody out in the top of the ninth, but they couldn’t score. Still, they were leading 3 to 2, going into the bottom of the ninth, and they had Jonathan Papelbon on the mound for the save. Papelbon got two quick strike outs. One more and the Red Sox would either win Wild Card or at least play on Thursday. But the next batter doubled. Papelbon got two strikes on the batter after him, but then he doubled, too. The game was tied. When the next batter singled to left, the winning run scored. The Red Sox had lost. The Orioles’ players mobbed each other at home plate. Buck Showalter just stood in the dugout and smiled.
Meanwhile, in Tampa, the game was in the twelfth, still tied 7 to 7. In the top of the twelfth, the Yankees got runners on first and third with nobody out. But just like the Red Sox, they couldn’t score (except, that it wasn’t just like the Red Sox because the Yankees were already in the playoffs). In the bottom of the twelfth, just a couple of minutes after the Orioles beat the Red Sox (and while the Tampa crowd, what there was of it, was still buzzing about the Red Sox loss), Evan Longoria hit a home run down the left field line to beat the Yankees, 8 to 7! Unbelievable. Except it happened.
So why I am writing about this, other than it was a fantastic night of baseball and it was really fun to write about it. (September 28 is also probably the greatest date in Cubs history.) The reason I am writing about it, is that baseball’s “leadership” wants to change the playoffs in a way that would have made last Wednesday irrelevant and almost boring. Instead of having the three division winners and one wild card in the playoffs each year, baseball’s leaders want to have two wild cards, instead of just one. They would have the two wild cards play a one-game playoff* and then start the rest of the postseason. They claim this would put more teams in the race for the wild card, which would be more exciting, and that the wild-card playoff would be more exciting.** Not this year.
If there had been two wild cards this year, the games on Tuesday and Wednesday would have been almost irrelevant because there was always going to be a game on Thursday. The baseball leaders will claim that the one-game playoff would give us a special day like Wednesday every year. But it wouldn’t. Part of the specialness of Wednesday was that the tension built up all month. Watching the Braves and Red Sox collapse while the Rays and Cardinals (sign) caught up was exciting in a way that a pre-planned one-game playoff would not be. Also, part of the excitement of Wednesday was seeing other teams being involved, too. It wasn’t just the wild cards, it was the Phillies and Yankees, who played into extra innings even though they were already in the postseason. And it was the Orioles, battling back with two runs in the bottom of the ninth, against one of the best closers in the American League, to win. They were so excited; they played such a part in the race. Under the new scheme, it would have been irrelevant.
In baseball, you can’t plan history. It just happens, sometimes when you least expect it, like it did on Wednesday. I hope baseball’s “leaders” don’t mess things up by trying to create something that best happens on its own.
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* They are also talking about a three-game playoff between the wild card teams. The point is the same. Wednesday would have been irrelevant because there would always be a tomorrow.
** They also say that adding yet another team to the playoffs is okay because other sports have even more teams. Huh? It’s okay to water down our playoffs because other sports have already watered theirs down even more? Baseball plays 162 games for a reason. Those games need to count. (Try convincing basketball fans, and players, that the regular season counts.) Increasing the teams in the postseason from eight to ten (twelve would probably follow in another ten years) not only waters down the postseason. And it waters down the regular season.
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