The MLB Wild Card Round or I Blame Papa Selig

I wish I grew up as a kid today. And no, it’s not just because of all the increased technology. To be fair, if any iteration of Smash Brothers came out when I was in grammar school, there’s next to no chance that I would have made it out with a diploma. Maybe it was for the best that I was born in the late 80s, when the video games were all different colored blocks attacking other blocks. At least thats how I took it. It was difficult to tell.

No, I would want to be a kid now because kids get a ton of handouts these days. When I was younger, we had to work for everything. Today, kids don’t have to work at all. I’m not just being a crotchety old man- I’m 100% right on this. Perhaps you haven’t been around children because you don’t have any yourself, or are legally unable to be within 100 feet of one, but here’s just a few examples of how cushy kids have it today.

If a kid gets bad grades, the parents blame the education system and not their child. In some instances, I’ve seen kids get emojis on their report card instead of traditional numbers or letters to not hurt the children’s feelings. The only thing I would feel if I got bad grades was a sore bottom from a belt. Instead of blaming the kids for not working hard, everyone’s quick to blame the hard working teachers who taught the syllabus for three weeks, then took a nap while showing a movie. Maybe we should be holding kids responsible for their school results, you know, like every other time period in modern history.

When I was growing up, if there was the need to raise money for a team or a club, we had to go out and do it. I still see this occasionally for little league or the girl scouts. The scouts in particular are trained well to shake down any adult who looks to have a sweet tooth, or a spare tire around their waist. This taught kids how to work hard and earn a reward. You know what happens today? Parents go ahead and bully their co workers into buying cookies for their kids. Right now, there’s a box of Thin Mints just staring at me. Not only did I spend money to buy a child a merit badge, I have to be fat as well. Excuse me why I eat four cookies.

In fear of hurting children’s feelings, many organized sports don’t keep scores at a young age. Instead, the children receive praise for trying, learn sportsmanship and have orange slices. You know how things used to be decided? WITH THE SCORE. Not teaching kids about losing is a horrible, horrible idea. It creates a generation of entitled monsters who seek revenge whenever they take a loss. If the kids are five years old, sure, focus on the fundamentals. But by the time they are seven, they should know both winning and losing.

I don’t blame the children for this. I blame the parents of this current generation. Instead of teaching their offspring hard work and overcoming failure, they decide to coddle. Parents should do things in the best interest of their children, but they doesn’t make them better than every other kid at everything. Competition can be a good thing, and it shouldn’t be feared. The entire generation is becoming so spoiled, god knows what their kids will be like. This is the reason everything is so politically correct. If I made a disapproving remark about Soda, I’m sure I’d get a tweet demanding an apology from big bubbles.

By the way, Pepsi, pretty terrible product. And I don’t know who Mr. Pibb is, but I guess he dropped out of school and never got his degree like Dr. Pepper.

The point is, I don’t think its wise to keep these life lessons away from children. Sure, losing is tough, as is struggling in school. But they can be important lessons to learn to help better are kids. Continuing to tell them everything is fine and it’s others fault creates a world of LeBron James’. Imagine if everybody you knew where LeBron James, except not otherworldly athletic. It would be a nightmare. Plus he’d keep pushing Sprite on you all the time, and honestly, it’s extremely inferior to Sierra Mist and 7Up.¹.* Do you want everyone in your life replaced by LeBron James? No… No you do not.

Much like parents continue to coddle the youth of our nation, sports leagues coddle their mediocre teams and their fan bases, telling them nothing is wrong and that they are all championship contenders. In actually, only a handful of teams can win a championship every season, with basketball being the most predictable. Organizations know this, but rather than admit to the world they aren’t that good, and use the most taboo word in sports: “rebuild”, they were rather lie to their teams and their fan bases.².** And this magical get out of jail free card available in all sports is the playoffs. As long as you’re in the hunt, you can’t be considered a bad team.

All of the leagues cater to the mediocre team’s need by allowing far more playoff spots than their should be. If you’re a professional team trying to make the playoffs and you don’t, you should be relegated to the NCAA. Soccer definitely has the right idea here, making their qualifying matter. For most leagues, even if you miss the playoffs, theirs little punishment, and you can sell to the fans that maybe next year, you’ll make the postseason, where you can lose in a few short games and get a worse draft pick. Unless you’re truly a title contender, it’s best to tear down the roster and rebuild. Teams don’t do this, instead shooting for a pointless goal for the rights to get destroyed by one of the few teams that understands what’s going on.³.***

Let’s take a look at the current playoff structure for the four major sports:

NBA – It makes sense that the most coddled superstar athletes would have the easiest path to the playoffs. Not only do they get superstar calls every night, they barely have to show up to make the post season. 16 out of 30 NBA teams qualify for the playoffs. That’s ridiculous, especially when you consider that every year, three teams, usually from the East would fail to qualify in the West. Teams can easily be under .500 and technically get the right to play for a championship. That’s just backwards.

Consider that any NBA team that doesn’t qualify for the playoffs is entered into a lottery where they may get the number one pick. Also consider the best teams in basketball, the few who can win the title, are composed mostly of superstars taken at the top of the draft. Therefore, it’s probably better to either be good enough to believe you can win, or not be good. Instead Franchises would rather get swept by the Warriors and tell their fans “Hey look, a 32 win team can be a playoff contender!” than except the truth.

NHL – Slightly better than the NBA, the NHL also has a 16 team playoff bracket, but out of 31 teams due to the expansion Vegas franchise. 31 is a terrible number. How does a league not have an even number of teams?

Great Point

Hey, at least adding Vegas worked out for the league – they might win the Stanley Cup in their first year. How does that make all these teams who are struggling to make the playoffs every year feel? Here’s a team who picked from other roster’s scraps, and have a great shot to win everything.

I will say why it’s easy for an under .500 win team to make the playoffs, and the sport gives a point for losing in overtime (coddlers!), the league does seem top heavy. The Devils were in a final playoff spot for the entire season, won nine of their last ten games, and still barely clinched a berth. It feels like teams earn their spots more than basketball, but the divisions are complicated and the point system isn’t as easy to follow, so honestly who knows? I know Bettman doesn’t.

Despite being seven game series, the champions often seem to come from whoever’s goalie is running hot as opposed to the best team. There’s plenty of lower seed upsets, which is great for the fans, and actually should encourage less tanking. I’m not sure if this is the ideal conclusion, but iits better than the NBA here.

NFL – Probably the best format for the postseason, it doesn’t give away too many spots, and the one and done format makes any qualifier at least have a chance to win the title, even if it’s luck driven. Only twelve of the 32 teams qualify, eight of which are division winners who get to host a postseason game. With only four wild cards, two in each conference, it keeps teams alive until the last week, where there are wild scenarios that can get teams in or lock teams out. Typically, there’s still something to play for in week 17.

Usually, the games are competitive, even if the past two season have had some less than stellar teams sneak into the playoffs. Because of the nature of football, upsets can and will occur, unlike in other sports where a series of games determine advancement (hold that hold. Hold it as hard as you can). It’s also not too long, except for the two-week break in the Superbowl, which is great because I like hearing about the same plot line for 14 days with no escape. The biggest issue is that the best teams don’t always win, which may not be an issue depending on how you look at it. Teams can get hot at the right moment and take the title they wouldn’t win if the playoffs started again. Typically, these lucky teams are led by Eli Manning.

MLB – Of all the sports, baseball has the stingiest playoff bracket, with only ten teams out of 30 qualifying. It works similar to the NFL, except all the division winners gets byes in the first round and the two wild card teams play. The format is meant to keep more teams alive for a playoff berth while still making the divisions matter. All of this is accomplished.

Yet baseball has, by far, the worst opening round of the playoffs in any sport. The only way it could be worse is it the winner was determined via coin flip, and honestly, that probably wouldn’t even make me that mad. Who in the world thought of this format? Was it Selig? I bet it was Selig. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Bettman. It’s a disgraceful idea, so it probably came from his desk.

If you don’t know the format of the wild card round for the MLB, it’s a one game playoff. If you don’t immediately see all the glaring, painfully obvious flaws, have a seat and I’ll explain. If you do already understand the flaws, well have a seat too, because we’re still talking about it. Also, why weren’t you people sitting before? Who reads standing up?

Baseball didn’t always have a Wild Card round, or even Wild Cards at all. When it first started, it was just the two best teams playing in the World Series. The champ of each the National and American League would face off. When people started realizing only the same four teams played every year, which never included Boston, the bracket expanded a bit.

Up until the 90s, there was only four divisions with seven teams each. For a while, the Astros and Brewers played in different leagues. It was a simpler time, where winning your division meant making the playoffs and second place was being sent home. See that kids, winning does matter, so put away those participation ribbons and start training. Now, if a team began to run away with the division, the second place team, who in theory could be the second best team in baseball, would not qualify for the post season. Teams began to complain that their season could end in June, much like a typical Padre season today. With baseball on the cusp of expansion, they decided to make a change.

With the arrival of the Colorado Rockies and the Yankees South, aka the Marlins, baseball shuffled their deck and had 30 teams. During this time, the NL Central had six teams and the AL West had four. No, I have no idea how this lasted for nearly twenty-five years either. Again, the division winners would be rewarded, but there was also an additional payoff team added. Now, eight teams would make the playoffs. I’m sure some jerk wrote a complaining article about it as well back then, but he had to use a typewriter, so he was really pissed off.

This change was actually wonderful. The additional playoff teams kept competition high in September, and lead to some classic series. All of those Yankees Red Sox rivalries, such as the Boone Home run, and the Red Sox 3-0 comeback, would not be possible without the inclusion of the Wild Card. This was the rare time that baseball made a change for the better, likely an error by Bud Selig that worked out. He quickly ruined any good will he earned by making the All Star game count, but that’s a different rant. For a long time, this playoff format was perfect. There was no reason to ever change it.

Naturally, baseball changed it. The whiny, needy teams who never made the playoffs felt they couldn’t compete. The begged for rule changes to stop the super powered teams. And some of these changes, namely with the salary cap and luxury tax rules, were great additions. It put a premium on farm systems and developing prospects, evening the playing field. The Astros and Royals do not win World Series without these changes. Of course, the small market teams compete until their players are no longer under team control, where they sign with the Dodgers, Yankees or Red Sox, as per tradition. The exception is Marlin controlled players, who are assigned to the Yankees for no players of note in return. Also, there’s no need to inspect that a lifetime Yankee, who is suddenly in control of another franchise, would ever collude to make a trade to help his former organization. The point is, screw Derek Jeter… Err, I mean, some rule changes in the early 2010s were good.

However, 2012 brought a new rule that was less sensible than a Kanye West tweet. Due to the complaints of all the mediocre franchises, the MLB introduced the second Wild Card. It’s intentions made sense – give two more teams a shot at the World Series, and for the League, more interest and ratings. In theory, this would make sense. But then they moronically decided to make this Wild Card round a one game playoff. They wanted to have a sudden death game guaranteed every year, but all they did was disappoint basically everyone. I don’t think I can possibly express how awful this is without a quick list of the reasons this is an utter failure.

1)            Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint – Look, I love baseball. Really, I do, but pretending that baseball isn’t a long event is just being ignorant. There are 162 games played in the regular season. You know how long the NBA feels? Well if a team plays a seven game series in every round of the playoffs, the most games they can play are 110. That’s 52 less games than baseball without factoring the playoffs. This also doesn’t factor in baseball’s own postseason and Spring training. I mean, has anyone actually watched a full game? Between pitching changes and breaks every half inning, you’re sinking a minimum of three hours, and more if it’s an extra innings game, or even worse, a Yankees Red Sex matchup.

So now you’re telling that after a month long Spring Training and 162 game marathon season, a team qualifies for one additional game that if they use, they are eliminated. This is the worst idea a group of execs have had since Indiana Jones Four was green lit. If baseball is a marathon, this is the surprise 100 meter dash nobody is remotely ready for.

2)            A team with one ace has a huge advantage – Baseball is designed to give the advantage to the pitcher, so this shouldn’t be surprising. However, the one game playoff really changes things significantly. Some teams are built with three to four quality arms, but have no true headliner. Other teams only have one good starter, but said pitcher is one of the eight or nine best in the league. The format clearly makes this one ace team have a huge advantage over a team competently built. Keep this complaint in mind for like four paragraphs.

3)            Baseball teams only play in series – This is the big difference from football. Football fans may argue “But Bloggin Hood, the football playoffs is one game and those are great. Also, I don’t have any logic and comprehension skills”. That would all be correct Bloggin Reader. The main difference is football cannot be more than one game, as it’s a weekly sport where the players would be physically destoryed if they played more than once. You know, like playing on a Thursday after a Sunday. Player safety indeed. Football is designed for one game and is such a short season than any more games would take away from what makes it special.

Similarly, baseball is designed for multiple games. Teams typically play a three game series against one team before moving to their next opponent. Occasionally, they may play a two game series, and sometimes there’s a four, but you know what never shows up? One game. In fact, this is the only time there is a scheduled one game series in the entire baseball calendar. By making the Wild Card round a one game playoff, you’re changing a basic element of the sport. That’s, you know, really bad.

4)            Both teams don’t get to play at home – After a grueling, hard fought, and let’s face it, boring regular season, you don’t even reward each team’s home fans with a home game? Again, football fans, settle down, as you aren’t getting a playoff series. Bu baseball fans deserve at least one home game. I mean, football fans tend to enjoy theirs Sundays. Baseball fans have to endure six months of seed spitting and Michael Kay. Throw them a bone, won’t you?

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m so passionate about this. Well, you might recall the 2016 NL Wild Card Playoff Game featuring the Mets and the Giants. Am I still mad about this outcome?

Of course I am. I mean, I’ve written 3300+ words on the topic so far just to get to this point. That’s right, it’s been a thinly veiled filler 3300 words to really get ranty.

In 2016, the Mets were a broken husk of a team that somehow made it to the playoffs. After their World Series run, nearly every significant player was on fumes. Outside of Thor and about 50% of Yoenis Cespedes, every other relevant Met was either injured, or completely ineffective when September rolled in. In fact with Jacob deGrom on the shelf and Matt Harvey being a jerk,⁴.****  they were carried by incredible down the stretch performances from Seth Lugo and Fake deGrom Robert Gsellman. These pitchers both had sub three ERAs for nearly ten starts and gave the organization the allusion they had depth at the position. 2017 would be a big wake up kick in the pills. Also contributing heavily was TJ Rivera, a player who has been injured for a year and a half since. Rivera seems like a good slap hitter, perfect for the current Mets who couldn’t hit the ground with a shovel. But I digress, this is about my bitterness about 2016, and not 2018.

Now, despite all the injuries, somehow the Mets were the first Wild Card. You know, the good one. The one that people respected and nobody hates. In the past, the Mets would have enjoyed a full series, and while they were crippled, you never know what could have happened in a series.

But instead, the Mets were only one of two Wild Cards. The other qualifying team was the San Francisco Giants. Now, this was fair. I mean, nothing good happened to the Giants in the decade, so it was about time they caught a break and got a playoff berth. This was also the worst possible Wild card match up for the Mets. No, it wasn’t because the Giants were even slightly good. They were actually pretty awful, except for one player – Madison Bumgarner.

Bamgarner is one of the greatest playoff performers in any sport, and some of his postseason feats are legendary. Had the Mets played anyone else, the pitcher they would face would be significantly weaker. Had this Wild Card situation been a series, they would have had the advantage over the rest of the rotation, even in their depleted state. Instead they got dealt the worst had they possibly could because of course. Again, several years earlier, they would have qualified for a normal postseason series instead of fake, manufactured drama from a poor format.

Still, there was hope for the Mets because Thor was pitching. Thor matched Bumgarner pitch for pitch for 7 innings, as the two were locked into a scoreless pitchers duel. But then Terry Collins made one of the worst decisions of his career. He pulled Thor for Jeurys Familia, who promptly ended the tie by serving up a 3 run homers. Familia continued his streak of being one of the least clutch pitchers in baseball history. His blown saves in big spots makes Brad Lidge giggle. Seriously, he’s shit the bed more times than Frank Reynolds

The Mets made contact with the ball about 4 times in the game and Bumgarner pitched a complete game shutout. Had this been an actual series, this might not have happened. Of course it wasn’t. The Giants went on the prove they only had one above average player as they were wiped from the playoffs pretty quickly afterwards

But to be honest, even this loss isn’t what really makes me hate the second wild card. Oh no. What makes me the most mad is that this was implemented after 2007 AND 2008. I don’t need to tell you all what happened then. Had the second Wild Card existing then, the Mets would have been in the playoffs both seasons. They could have rebounded, however unlikely it might be. Instead, I’ve spent a decade hearing about multiple collapses from every fan bases, including the Red Sox fan base, who while clearly more successful, had a worse collapse more recently, but nobody cares. My life would have been better with a second Wild Card in 2007. That’s not even hyperbole – it actually would have been better.

But no, of course it wasn’t improved. And instead, we’ll just give teams like the Giants who won 3 titles in five years more changes when they don’t deserve it. That’s fine. Let’s give the Yankees Bryce Harper for Jordan Montgomery while we’re at it. Can we put a former Yankee star in more front offices to make this easier?

Solution: I mean, this is easy. Make the Wild Card round a three game series. I’d like the second Wild Card to have a home game, but that’s too much, so give the actual deserving Wild Card the home advantage for the series. This rewards the division winners with extra rest and gives qualifying teams a fair shot. If any of the division winners complain about the rest taking them out of winning, let’s be honest, they weren’t winning the World Series than anyway.

I’d expand on this, but it’s pretty straight forward. Plus I’m too angry right now to keep going. I’m throw to go release Familia repeatedly in the Show for Therapy.

1. *This isn’t true as Sprite is great, but I wanted to keep the soda insulting theme going. 
2. **Not to be confused with the most Tebow word in sports, which is Tebow.
3. ***This will be long since I couldn’t fit it in the main article. What was refreshing about the 76ers “process” was they were honest. They took advantage of a broken system and realized that being awful isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Now, after five years, they have a realistic shot of making the Finals next season and with another piece or two, might be a threat to win it all. Could they have won it this year? No, of course not, but they have the talent to try. There’s no trickery and deceit here. This is all I can ask for in sports – realize when you’re flawed and start over.Do you think the Sixers would high such a bright future if they actually competed for those 4-5 years? No, no they wouldn’t have.
4. ****There’s plenty more Harvey tidbits coming soon.