Contrary To What Big T Said, MLB Would Be INSANE To Go Back To One Wild Card Spot
Listen, I like Big T. A wholesome family man who loves sports as much as I do. He and Smitty have a budding rivalry that puts a smile on my face and cracks me up. He is also very tall which I am jealous of. But one thing I am not jealous of is his take on MLB needing to go back to one Wild Card spot. I think that is flat out wrong. The two Wild Card spots being added has been fantastic for baseball and the games have been damn good. MLB would be foolish to do away with the one game playoff and go back to a single Wild Card team.
And I've seen it from both sides too, the Orioles won the first AL Wild Card game vs the Rangers in exciting fashion and 5 years ago yesterday they got walked off by Edwin Encarnacion while Zack Britton watched from the bullpen. Adding that second team makes the entire season a full on fight. Take the NL Wild Card this season, the Dodgers were by far the second best team in the NL, that would have made every other NL team's season mean nothing for the entire year. If we knew from April that the Dodgers would be in that Wild Card spot, why even have the rest of the teams play? Imagine being the Cardinals and winning 17 in a row but there was only 1 Wild Card spot and you were basically shit out of luck. Sorry you had an all time winning streak, but theres only 1 Wild Card spot so that winning streak didn't mean shit. These 2 spots make every game so important. The entire NL would have packed it up, guys would have been sitting since they were out of it. It keeps the whole season entertaining.
Big T's point of the Dodgers winning 106 games and maybe being out of the playoffs after one game is what makes winning your division so important. You don't want it all to come to a screeching halt in a one game playoff after grinding it out after 162? Win the division. The Dodgers had their shots, they had plenty of shots, 162 of them. You want to get that guaranteed playoff series? Win the division. The second half of every season turns into a full on sprint to see who can put the petal to the metal and snag a spot, it's spectacular. And I haven't even touched on the AL Wild Card race!
The last few weeks in the AL were amazing, the race was one of the best last month of a season we've seen. We had the Mariners storyline, the Blue Jays coming on STRONG, the Red Sox attempting to choke it away, the Yankees treading water and keeping a playoff spot, the Orioles playing 3 of the top 4 Wild Card teams and trying to ruin their seasons, it was amazing. Now if it was 1 spot it would have still been fun, but guaranteeing that 2 of these teams would get in was awesome too. Oh, and the two teams in the AL Wild Card just happen to be arguably the best rivalry in sports. How can you not love that?
In these Wild Card games we usually get the 2 big dogs on the mound going pitch for pitch. That is baseball, not a 3-game series where one team has all the home field advantage. A one-on-one who is going to blink first. Who is going to go to the bullpen first, who is going to strike first with the bat. It is baseball. We don't need to be taking away playoff spots, I think the sport has found something good with these games and the amount of Wild Card teams. If it has taken this long for something to pop up and make people question how the Wild Card game is played, I think that is okay. If it was something every season I would get it, but this is 1 time in almost 10 years. Also, anything can happen in a one-game playoff. That is part of the chaos and tenseness of the games, you can usually tell how a 3-game series will go, but a one-game playoff is unpredictable.
Big T suggested the top seed pick who they want to play, we can't be bringing that stuff into baseball. That is too Mickey Mouse rec league stuff. We can't have a Selection Sunday type show where you have managers and GM's crunching numbers and then they make a big reveal at the end. I also think most managers would hate that type of stuff. Again, you don't want to play in the Wild Card game and risk your season being over that quick? Win the division. Any manager will tell you that is the goal at the end of the season, not playing in this game is a good enough reward for your guys.
Going back to one Wild Card spot wouldn't fix anything in baseball, it would basically render the entire NL season useless if a team like the Dodgers wins 106 games again. And that won't happen every year, but give us the race for 2 spots, multiple teams going head-to-head fighting the whole second month for the right to knock the other one out.
Just look at some of the moments we've had from the Wild Card games.
2012
Joe Saunders outduels Yu Darvish and silences the Rangers.
THE infield fly rule….how can Big T not love this drama?
2013
The Pirates fans getting so far deep in Johnny Cueto's head. Fantastic scene.
2014
We got this all time Wild Card game that spawned the Royals devil magic run they went on, but a great game nonetheless.
2016
Britton in the bullpen. Ubaldo on the mound. That's it.
Connor fucking Gillaspe.
2019
The legend of Juan Soto begins.
Keep the 2 Wild Card teams, it's electric, it's tense, the games are awesome. This is great for baseball, not many times we can say baseball does something right, but this is one of them.