2015 MLB Wild Card: The One-Game Series Needs To Go
With the 2015 MLB Wild Card games starting on Tuesday night, I wanted to voice my opinion about the one game Wild Card Game.
On Tuesday night, the Houston Astros traveled to the Bronx to face the New York Yankees.
On Wednesday night, the Pittsburgh Pirates play host to the young gun Chicago Cubs.
To be clear, I love the addition of the second wild card team.
It adds another team into the playoff races and gives them that chance at baseball glory.
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The thrill of the one game, the win or go home attitude, is always fun to watch on television.
The thing I cannot stand is that the Wild Card Game is only ONE game.
To put a 162-game season into one game is ludicrous to me.
In one game, a lot of things can happen.
I remember the first year they expanded the playoff format (2012) to include the second wild card team.
The Atlanta Braves were at home against the St. Louis Cardinals. In the 8th inning, Andrelton Simmons of the Braves hit a pop fly to the left field grass.
The umpire called an infield fly rule, with the ball not even close to the infield. The score was 6-3 Cardinals, but that would have given the Braves based loaded with one out.
Who knows what the Braves could have done.
Looking at this year’s Wild Card Games, particularly the National League’s.
The Chicago Cubs (97-65) face off against the Pittsburgh Pirates (98-64).
Their wins, respectively, were the 2nd and 3rd most in baseball.
So, the MLB is telling me that two of the three best teams have to play ONE game to decide whose season keeps going.
As these two teams have fought all year against one another, Wednesday night will be the more of the same.
And the worst part (or best since you would still be alive in the playoffs), the winning team has to face the MLB’s best team St. Louis Cardinals (100-62).
The NL Central had the top three teams in baseball.
I’m not a fan of any of these teams, but it is beside me that they have to face off against one another and one of those games being a one game wild card game.
The baseball season is a season of series.
Every time a team comes to town, they don’t just play one game and move to the next city.
So why have a season of series come down to ONE game for four teams.
My solution or idea, whatever you want to call it, have the Wild Card teams play a 3-game series.
Bottom Line: It’s exciting, but the one-game rule needs to go.
I get that a 3-game series means the teams would play one game and move to the next city as I stated earlier.
But, it also allows for teams to come back if something goes wrong in that first game.
The 3-game series would prolong the already long season by another 3-4 days, not a bad compromise to see two playoff fight for their right to be there.