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Expanded playoffs an easy fix for inequity

By JOHN ROMANO
Published December 15, 2005

Competitive balance in baseball is a sham.

It doesn't matter how the commissioner's office spins it, or if the Players Association continues to ignore it; the idea that major-league baseball's 30 teams begin each season on an even playing field is a joke.

Limited revenue sharing hasn't solved it. Neither has a payroll tax. And momentum for significant realignment is nonexistent.

So where is the hope in Tampa Bay?

Where is the hope in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Detroit and other communities with lower revenue streams?

Perhaps in an expanded playoff system.

It is the one idea that may soon allow a Devil Rays fan to come into spring training with a legitimate reason to believe. It is the one possibility that could permit low-payroll teams to play meaningful games in September.

By adopting a playoff system similar to the NFL - with six playoff teams in each league and first-round byes for the top two - baseball could begin to overcome the inequities that have doomed some cities to failure.

It is not yet a burning issue, but it has been discussed. It is not without its hurdles, but it does have support in certain circles.

And you can bet, in the coming years, teams such as the Rays will push for expanded playoffs as a possible answer to their market woes.

Naturally, the idea is not for everyone. If, for instance, you miss four-man rotations, you're not going to like this. If you believe all World Series games belong in the daylight, you'll probably not climb aboard.

If you miss baseball the way it used to be, this idea basically stinks. And I understand that. Most of the time, I feel that way myself.

But this is 2005, not 1955, and baseball is not the same. You aren't going to buy a bleacher seat for a quarter or a soda pop for a nickel.

Baseball is no longer a diversion, it is big business. A box seat that cost $5 at Yankee Stadium in 1975 went for $95 in 2005. And for that kind of money, fans want more than entertainment. They want a winner.

This proposal is a way to get more winners. Or, at least, the illusion of more winners.

How would it work? Either by having three wild cards in each league, or by splitting into four divisions in each league and having two wild cards.

The four lower seeds would play in the first round, and the winners would face the two division winners with the best records. The League Championship Series and the World Series would follow.

The idea is not perfect. Not by a long shot. Baseball has 30 teams, unlike the NFL's 32, so the idea of four divisions each is problematic.

And an extra round would require the regular season be reduced from 162 to 154 games, although money could be made up through postseason TV revenues.

Mostly, there would be the notion of cheapening the results of the regular season. And, for that, there is no good answer.

Baseball has always enjoyed greater tradition than other sports, and part of the reason is the sanctity of the regular season.

But if you screamed at the idea of steroids giving some players an unfair advantage, how can you not be equally distressed by the Yankees or Red Sox having payrolls that are 500 percent larger than some teams'?

It is, in essence, an institutionalized disadvantage. And it doesn't exist in other sports. It doesn't even exist in the playground, where at least children take turns picking team members.

In baseball, the teams with the biggest wallets are always going to have a better chance at success. Call it athletic Darwinism. Or Seligism. Either way, the richest will continue to thrive.

Now, Bud Selig would have you believe the problem is not that severe. He would point out the Marlins won a World Series in 2003 with a small payroll. And the Twins have been competitive with modest payrolls.

Unfortunately, those are isolated cases. The simple truth, according to USA Today salary figures, is 31 of the past 40 playoff teams were in the top half of the league in payroll. That's about 78 percent.

That type of reliability could make you a rich man if you went to Las Vegas each March with a list of the league's largest payrolls.

The NFL has a salary cap. So do the NHL and NBA. Baseball is the only major sports league without a significant mechanism to level the playing field, and it's time for the commissioner to acknowledge the disparity.

Barring an extension, the collective bargaining agreement will expire at this time next year. What is stopping Selig from broaching the idea of expanded playoffs at that point? The Players Association would have no reason to oppose it. Neither would most of the owners, particularly if they are shown the potential economic benefits of having more teams in contention.

You and I might be the greatest stumbling blocks.

Baseball is going to have to work to convince long-time fans that having more playoff teams is a good idea. That the game has to evolve. It won't be an easy sell, but neither was the division split in 1969 or the original wild-card plan in '95, and baseball has continued to survive.

What MLB needs to see is there is more potential to attract new fans - the people who aren't going to games in Tampa Bay or Florida or Pittsburgh - than to alienate the most vocal diehards.

Baseball can work with an expanded playoff system.

Which is more than you can say for some markets that endure without the hope of playoffs.

[Last modified December 15, 2005, 00:33:15]