Wildcard Playoff game hurt or help MLB?
 

Being in St. Louis you would think I would be happy with the two wild card spots.

I know that if I was in Atlanta's spot and knew that I could lose play off contention because of one bad game after a very competitive year by ending at least 5 games (currently 6 games) ahead of the Cardinals and at most only two games behind (currently 1 game) the worse non wild card playoff team (SF Giants), I would not be happy.

(All that said, if the Cardinals make it to the Series I will be enjoying it)

A one game playoff certainly adds to fan enjoyment because it's do-or-die and there is so much riding on every pitch.

And it certainly helps the fifth seed in the league who would otherwise be going home without a chance to advance. But I would hate to be the wild card team with the better record who ultimately loses that game. A whole season down the tubes with no chance to come back tomorrow.

I see pluses and minuses with the new system.

I know it isn't helping with ticket sales. Last year it was a lot of holding and it was hard to get through to buy tickets. This year the division series tickets took over a week to sell out, and the nlcs tickets haven't been going very quick. I can log in and buy them without fuss.

i don't like it at all, i would be for a best of 3 series. I don't think it's fair to put a 162 game season on the line for just 1 game.

+1

It might be exciting for the fans but it's hell to the team that loses that game.

Heck, it used to be two 8-team leagues and you only got to the playoffs if you won the division. Now you have fewer teams in your division and it mathematically easier to make the playoffs even if there were NO wildcards

Bottom line - win your division and reap the benefits.

I hate divisions all together. I wish the format was 2 leagues with the top teams in each league making the playoffs. East, Central and West rewards mediocrity IMO.

I always wanted them to go back to 2 leagues for the same reason. And then 2 WC's.. I guess I'd be ok with 3 WC's under the current format, maybe with the worst two playing one game(I'd still find the one-off kinda silly though). This format, I really don't care much for..

NY, Baltimore and either Oakland or Texas could easily end up tied for the best record in the AL. NY's already at least clinched a share of that already. and they'd be stuck in this one game mess. Hell, if NY and Balt tie, they'll have to play a game to decide whos the division winner and who's the wildcard(because there are NO tiebreakers anymore), and then the loser will have to go on and play another one off vs either Texas or Oakland the following day. Exciting, yes! But I think it's f'ed up that they'll have to jump through all these hoops..

Basically, a team could realistically play 4 consecutive games against 4 different teams..

Yeah, I forgot to mention the AL side of this when I post the OP. It is a mess over there with the one off game possibilities, yet Detroit with the 7th best avg is automatically in because of the division breaks.

I was thinking the same thing. The Yankees could play Boston tonight and lose and end up tied for first; lose to Baltimore tomorrow night and be the wild card; beat Oakland the next night; and then advance to play a division winner. Four consecutive different teams. Crazy!