THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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SPORTS 
DIAMOND MUSINGS Freelance sports journalist Jay B. Webster delivers some chin music from the world of Major League Baseball Wild Like Never Before As September approaches and the pennant races officially kick into gear, we are getting set to witness a finish like none other in the history of baseball. The reason is the tweaks Major League Baseball has made to its playoff alignment, or more specifically, to the wild card. If you don’t know, there will be an extra wild card winner in each league this season. The two wild card teams from each league will meet in a one-game playoff for the right to meet the team with the best record in their league in the divisional playoffs. The new system piles tons of added pressure on teams that win the wild card, as they have to face extra travel and the extra game, thereby putting a premium on winning the division title. In the old system, wild card teams could take their foot off the gas, so to speak, knowing they were essentially on the same footing as the division winners. In fact, four of the past ten World Series winners were wild card teams. It just wasn’t that much of an inconvenience. Now wild card teams face a must-win situation before jetting off to face the best team in the league. They also will be forced to use their best pitcher in the wild card game, which means there is no way that they can send their best arm out three times in a divisional series. And with more teams in the race, there is another potential snafu: the tiebreaker. As of today, a mere two games separate the Dodgers and Giants in the NL West standings. The Giants just lost their best player, Melky Cabrera to a performance-enhancing drugs suspension, while the Dodgers just added former Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (and over $200 million in extra salary). Should the Giants be able to hold off the Dodgers’ charge and the two teams finish in a tie for the division on the season’s final day (Wednesday, October 3), they would then face off in a tiebreaker game the next day. Now it could also come to pass that the loser of that game could be tied with another team for the second wild card, meaning a trip to, say, St. Louis for another tiebreaker on Friday, before heading home to start the division series on Sunday. Wow. The scenarios are mind boggling. The same thing could happen with the Tigers and White Sox in the AL Central. As of today, the Rays, ‘A’s and Orioles are all tied for the AL wild card, with the Tigers a game back, and two behind the Sox in the division. You can bet that both teams will be battling all out not to face a wild card game, and the Yankees, whose lead in the AL East has shrunk to 3.5 games, are surely hearing the Rays’ footsteps for the same reasons. Other teams that would already be out of the picture are having new life breathed into their seasons, however. The Angels have struggled mightily at times this season, and have fallen 10 games behind Texas in the AL West. But a click on the wild card standings shows the Halos within striking distance, at just four games off the pace. The Pirates, who haven’t gotten a whiff of the playoffs since the early ’90s have fallen eight games behind the red-hot Reds, but they are in the thick of the NL wild card picture. Anything remotely resembling the playoffs would be considered a huge success in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the Cardinals, who always seem to find a way to stick around, could push the Pirates out of the picture. The question seems to be whether the Bucs have enough pitching to keep things interesting until the end of September. The Orioles and Athletics are two other teams that were expected to be long gone by this point of the season, but somehow they are sticking around as well. It’s the first time since 1997 that the ‘O’s have found themselves playing meaningful baseball in September, while the ‘A’s chances weren’t helped by the suspension of pitcher Bartolo Colon. That’s two team’s playoff chances affected by performance enhancing substances, and Colon and Cabrera should be ashamed not just for the disgrace they have brought upon themselves, but for the damage they have inflicted on their teammates and fans. (Just had to get that off my chest). There is no doubt that we will see twists and turns like never before as we hit the stretch drive. I can’t wait. |
