You can't believe the extra playoff spots are actually happening, and neither can any of your internet friends. This is because you live in an baseball-nerd bubble.
It's unanimous! There's not a single person in the entire universe who's not in favor of adding two teams to Major League Baseball's postseason tournament!
Well, not exactly. But when Selig took a poll, everyone was on his side. From his visit to the TBS broadcast booth on Sunday afternoon:
I am [looking at expanding the Postseason], in fact, John Schuerholz of the Braves and David Montgomery of the Phillies, both are club presidents and they are on that committee and we've had conversations about it ... I really believe that 10 out of 30 [teams making the postseason] is still a good number. It's by far the least number of any other sport as you well know. We've run all kinds of schedules and things and we have a 14-man committee with four managers, Joe Torre who now works for us, but [also] Jim Leyland, Tony La Russa and Mike Scioscia, and four general managers, four owners and then George Will and Frank Robinson [are on the committee]. I can tell you, and everything has been very confidential but they won't mind. This group has voted 14-0 for more playoffs. We're moving there but we have details to work out and the details are difficult. But I'm very confident that we're moving inevitably.
As usual, when Commissioner Bud puts together a Blue Ribbon Committee he somehow forgets to include anyone from the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Which isn't a fair criticism, I know. The Players Association probably wouldn't care to be included, because it would upset the natural order of things. But the fact is that nothing can happen to the playoffs unless the MLBPA signs off, and all those "details to work out" must be worked out with the union.
I think Selig's right, though: like it, don't like, or ambivalent, this probably is inevitable.
When Bud Selig said that baseball was moving "inexorably" towards expanding the playoffs, it felt safe to assume that more wild-card teams were going to be added. After years of people just not shutting up about how exciting the NHL regular season was, MLB didn't really have a choice.
Union chief Michael Weiner told ESPN.com that the two sides have so far to go in negotiating expansion that "it's just too early" to predict anything.
Well, that's a little different. Of course, the MLBPA isn't necessarily appalled at the idea of expanded playoffs. This is likely just the union testing the waters to see what sort of concession baseball will give the players for agreeing to play an extra two games. Still, it's worth noting that MLB can't just push an extra-playoffs button and make it happen -- there will need to be some compromise between the players and the powers-that-be.
