MLB considering diluting its regular season even more

It all started to go bad in 1969.

Before then, the winner of baseball’s National League played the winner of the American League in the World Series. That was the playoff scenario. Simple, but absolutely effective. It also meant the 162-game regular season meant something.

Then in 1969, each league was split into two divisions and the winner of each division played each other in something called the League Championship Series. The winner of that series met in the World Series.

That worked fine until 1994 when, after the leagues had split again into three divisions, baseball instituted the dreaded “Wild Card.” That came about because one year there was a team (San Francisco Giants, as I recall) that finished second in one of the divisions that had a better record than a team that finished first in one of the other divisions.

That’s the system that is being used today.

But wait. Now comes word that Major League Baseball is, in the words of commissioner Bud Selig, “moving inexorably” to adding another wild card to the mix. That would mean fully one-third of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams will now qualify for the playoffs each year.

Here’s the rub. Selig doesn’t want the season extending into November like it did last year. That’s the reason this year’s season began a week earlier than ever before. The owners don’t want to cut any games from the 162-game schedule (decreases owners’ revenues, you see) and the Players Association doesn’t want the schedule contracted with the addition of more doubleheaders.

But Selig still predicts the new playoff system will be in place by next season.