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Major League Baseball Wild Card
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Major League Baseball’s wild card playoff system was started in 1995. Before 1995 there where the same two leagues, the American and the National League. In each league there where only two divisions and each division had one winner, each winner played each other in a 5 game series, which was changed to a 7 game series in 1985. The winner of the American and National league championship series played each other in the World Series. The wild card system saw each league separate from its two divisions into three divisions. There is a winner in each division and then a wild card winner. The wild card winner is the team with the best record that did not win their division. The wild card winner then plays the team with the best record in their league unless they are in the same division. If the wild card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record in their respective league then the wild card winner plays the team with the second best record. Baseball purists are the biggest critiques of the wild card system, purists usually being, “baseball conservatives.” These are people who think that baseball was best before any of the current innovations took place such as the designated hitter, interleague play, elimination of the day/night doubleheader, and of course the wild card. These baseball purists would like baseball to go back to the old two leagues, only one division in each league, and one post-season series to determine the champion. Years ago when this was actually the system, baseball did not have any competition and whether it was know then or not, baseball is a business. In the past baseball did not have other sports as major competitors. Now the baseball season only has about 7 weeks where they are the only major sport playing. This means more needs to be done to keep fans interested in baseball towards the end of the season. Divisional baseball was started in 1969 to extend the post season and increase television revenue. The wild card is a further extension of this divisional baseball, and this is done to increase the interest of fans whose teams normally would not have a chance in making the post-season. The National Football League has become so popular, which is another reason something had to be done to increase fan interest in baseball during the final month of September. This year for example provides a great example of how the wild card created a great race for the post season during the month of September. This past September saw over 7 national league teams competing for the wild card spot. If not for the wild card all games in September would have been useless because the Atlanta Braves had their division won easily and it did not appear that the San Francisco Giants would have given up their division lead. Critiques also say that a system that allows teams with a winning percentage under .500 to stay in contention is bad for baseball. Going back to baseball being a business, then this is good for baseball. More teams being in the race in September means more ticket sales and higher television ratings. Parity in sports is good and the NFL who has been very successful with “League think” as their motto proves this. “League Think” has allowed any team to win any given game in the NFL. This will obviously never happen in baseball but the wild card winner has won the world series three times now. The wild card has created much more exciting post-seasons, if it was not for the wild card this past post-season would not have seen the dramatic play at the plate finale between Florida and San Francisco.
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