WHY I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MORE WILD CARDS

I was reading that Major League Baseball may be putting the extra Wild Card teams into place in the 2012 season, instead of 2013. That statement came from Buster Olney's tweet HERE. The reality is, Bud Selig wants this and he's pushing and pushing because I guess ultimately, it helps the game of baseball... everyone makes money, except the fan.

Man, I tell you… I am really not a fan of more Wild Card teams… it bothers me. Look, I like the game of baseball the way it is, and while some rules needed to be tweaked as we move forward in life, like challenging home runs with instant replay, adding more Wild Card teams is getting alittle ridiculous now, isn’t it?

Look, the whole idea of a Wild Card is exactly what it is…a WILD CARD. Right now you have 3 divisions in each league and a 4^th team in each of those leagues that has a shot to make the “Wild Card” and get into the playoffs. OK, fine. Never liked it, but to be perfectly honest, I’ve learned to accept it. After all, the Yankees have needed it a few times since the rules existence, you know? But that brings me to my point; if you already have 3 division champs and 1 Wild Card in each league, shouldn’t that be it? We’re already letting in an extra “1^st place of the losers” team to compete... so why more?

All this means to me is Major League Baseball will have teams that "almost win" squeak into the playoffs because they came "close" to winning but didn’t. Or, in other words, the team that missed the “Wild Card” (or the second place winner), now gets a shot to win it all in the playoffs too. What is this, Little League? Should we give out 4 inch trophies to everyone at the end of the season too? After all, it’s no longer about “winning”, it’s apparently now about “trying”. Where the hell did the competition go?

It's always been about climbing the mountain and being the only one on top...that's not only a sports thing, that's a life thing too. What ever happened to “may the best team win?” How can the best team win if you don’t have a batch of best teams competing? Now it’s the best teams and then teams that are less deserving too… all for the sake of making money for Bud.

Sometimes I think it would be a hell of a lot better if there was a 1 Game championship series and no playoffs, just like the Superbowl. What’s next, a 7 game series for all playoff rounds and 6 wild cards? How about this... just call Major League Baseball the Major League Playoffs and have all teams compete in the playoffs. Then... that's it.

My point is simple, we forgot what it's like to be the best in this country and that goes for everything including baseball. It's watered down. It's no longer about being 1st, it's about being 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or in some cases, "just like everyone else" for the sake of being fair. Damn... where the hell did our balls go?

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