Josh-Gold Smith
Sports Reporter
Imagine 50,000 screaming fans filling the stands at the Rogers Centre for the Toronto Blue Jays’ final home series against the Boston Red Sox. Picture Roy Halladay taking the mound with Toronto battling for a playoff spot.
The Jays aren’t the second-place team, but they are still in the running. The buzz around the building hasn’t been felt this late in the season since the back-to-back World Series. Under baseball’s current plan, this scenario is highly unlikely. But the Jays and 21 other teams could benefit if the playoff structure changed.
If you were to place all professional sports leagues on the political spectrum, Major League Baseball would be on the right wing. As the most conservative sports organization of the big four (MLB, NHL, NFL and the NBA), baseball has continually fought change.
As the NHL and NBA playoff races heat up, it’s clear the excitement level peaks this time of year. Sixteen clubs qualify for the post-season in both of those leagues, while just eight participate in playoff baseball. Commissioner Bud Selig has resisted the urge to add more playoff teams but it’s time for a change.
While the grand old game has been embroiled in a steroid scandal, it continues to fight for fans who crave a sport with more instant gratification. Three-hour games and six-month long seasons do little to satisfy this, and allowing fewer than a quarter of clubs into the playoffs gives little hope to excitement-starved fans.
The current system gives the six division champions and two wildcard teams access to the post-season. This means that 22 of 30 clubs will not play in October. It took nearly 100 years for baseball to cave in to a divisional system (in 1969) that increased TV revenue and overall interest.
Now MLB finds itself in a similar situation as the other three leagues have stolen viewers and generated more interest. Purists argue that the exclusivity of baseball’s playoffs makes the game unique and gives greater meaning to the championship rounds. These are valid points, but there are millions of dollars being spent by the majority of teams, many of whom know by June their hopes for post-season glory have faded.
When a team like Toronto is already up against two of the richest clubs in the game in New York and Boston in the American League East, the last thing its fan base needs is to be eliminated from title contention with a month or more remaining.
The vast majority of clubs suffer this fate and with thousands of supporters paying high prices for tickets, they need to believe their club has a legitimate chance of competing for a championship.
Hope springs eternal at this time of year as every team has a clean slate, but with a limited number of post-season opportunities, many of these loyal, paying customers are let down. Increasing the number of playoff berths would generate more money for the league and keep fans in the ballparks all season long.
Most importantly, it would restore hope to fans in competitive markets and make September baseball relevant again.
