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(Updated to reflect announcement from MLB) Today Major League Baseball added two teams to the playoffs for the season that begins in April, ayear earlier than the new collective bargaining agreement requires.Under the new format, each league will have two wild-card winners,instead of one, for a total of 10 playoff teams. The two wild-cardwinners will play a one-game playoff to meet the top-seededdivision winners in their league. From there, the basic format willremain the same. We checked with Vince Gennaro author of Diamonds Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball , a consultant to major league teams, and president of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) to break down how the sport s various constituencies willfare from the change. Fans Winners: Baseball lovers got a taste of capping off the 162-game regularseason with an elimination game when the Colorado Rockies and SanDiego Padres played a 13-inning wild-card tiebreaker in 2007 andagain in 2009, when the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins played a12-inning thriller. VG: What they ve essentially done islegislate in a 163rd game in both leagues. Last year, you couldargue, we didn t need it because we had unbelievable stuff going on the last night of the season, but you re not going tohave that every year. Now you ve got a real attraction leadingright into the playoffs. From a fan s standpoint, it stremendous. Plus, with 10 of the 30 teams making the postseason,fans in more cities have reason to care later in the season. New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox Losers: At least one of the two AL East giants has won a playoff berthevery season since baseball instituted the wild card in 1994, thelast time the sport tinkered with its format. Both have qualifiedin eight of the 17 seasons. Under the old system, winning the wildcard was virtually indistinguishable from winning the division.Either way, you played in a best-of-five divisional series. Nowbaseball s two biggest spenders face the prospect of being bouncedin a single game. VG: If the Yankees won the wild card now, itwould be a disaster in the Bronx, because they have to go throughthis toll gate that s a coin flip. Ditto the Red Sox. This comeson top of more onerous luxury taxes for teams that spend above a set level. The Yankees have already declared that they intend to get down to the $189 payroll threshold for2013, now that repeat offenders are hit with 50 percent tax. VG: That [tax] was a punch to the nose. This [format] is a punch tothe gut. The other 28 teams Winners: What s bad for the Yankees and Red Sox, of course, is good forteams that can t or won t spend at their level. VG: We ll havebetter competitive balance this way. TV networks Uncertain: It remains to be seen who will carry the one-game playoffs, whichshould bring in top ratings. The risk for the networks, however, isthat small market teams will be more likely to sneak into the WorldSeries. Unlike the NFL, baseball can t expect to draw viewers nomatter who s playing. VG: Remember [in 2006] when we had theSteelers and the Seahawks in the Super Bowl? If the PittsburghPirates and the Seattle Mariners were ever in the World Series, itwould be a disaster. Fox wouldn t be too thrilled. He doesn tsee that happening soon, but if it does, expect the league torespond: If you had a 94-win wild-card team getting knocked offby an 84-win wild-card team a couple of times, I m sure therewould be an outcry for at least a best out of three [wild card]series. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Professional Air Hockey Tables Manufacturer , Handmade Snooker Cues Manufacturer for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Foosball Soccer Table.
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