Bud Selig plans on retiring at the end of the next year, but not without leaving one last turd in the punch bowl.
"The more we've talked about it, I think we're moving inexorably to that," Selig said about the 10-team playoffs, five in each league.
“Inexorable” is one of my favorite words, but it very rarely describes anything good. Can you think of anything positive that follows the word inexorable? No, right?
Decline. Death. Taxes. The Next Justin Bieber Album. Those are unalterable and inevitable events. Inexorable. Inexorable, and awful.
"I would say we're moving to expanding the playoffs, but there's a myriad of details to work out," commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday at his annual meeting with The Associated Press Sports Editors. "Ten is a fair number."
Ten is a fair number. So is sixteen. So’s 30. How about after a 162 game schedule, every team will make the playoffs. We’ll seed them 1-30, and they can play one-off games for the championship?
Maybe I’m just getting heated, but it all seems rather stupid to me. Apparently the League and the Player’s have come to an agreement to expand the playoffs next season, from eight to ten teams. In this scenario, two wild card teams would play in a best of three play-in series, before joining the division champions. This is a terrible idea for any number of reasons. For one, the first round would be best of three at most- in an era of five man rotations, how does that determine who’s the better team?
Secondly, this is simply a down payment for further expansion. Thus far in the history of baseball, (with the brief and notable exception of the Temple Cup in the 19th century) the powers have avoided the temptation to allow shitty teams into their playoffs, like the NFL, NBA, NHL, and worst of all MLS do every year. Major League Baseball only allows the minimal amount possible- six division champions, and two wild cards to even it out.
It’s what makes baseball special. And now they’re making an effort to piss off what few fans they have left, trying to lure the ones who watch football and basketball. Like that’ll work.
There’s also a problem with the logic. All sides seem to believe that by allowing one more playoff team in, that’s one more successful season. One extra division runner-up gets to say, ‘At least we made the playoffs’. And that’s true. But it only dilutes the playoffs, and that doesn’t fool anyone.
Here’s an odd way to look at it. A few decades ago, advocates for the developmentally disabled made an effort to get society to stop using the word “retarded”. There’s nothing in and of itself offensive about the word retarded; it means slow. But the way it was used, as a slur, was offensive, and the efforts of said advocates were both laudable, and largely successful. Nowadays, the more accepted term is special, and using the word retarded is seen as mark of ignorance or insensitivity.
So is retarded no longer a slur? No, of course it still is. Only now, special is used as a slur as well. In a noble effort to remove a slur from the vocabulary, we simply added a new one. I believe adding a playoff team would have a similar effect on baseball.
But I digress. If baseball wants more playoff games, how about they expand the tiebreakers playoffs to best of three, and the division series to best of seven?
No. That would make too much sense.
…
Selig also expressed confidence the New York Mets will be able to sell a minority interest in the team and raise money, relieving some of the pressure caused by a lawsuit from the trustee seeking to recover money for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.
Here once again is old Uncle Bud, giving the fans what they want before they ask for it (having the All-Star game determine home field advantage in the World Series, anyone?) Mets fans have dealt with a lot of indignities over the past few years (apart from simply being Mets fans), and giving the Wilpons breathing room and allowing them to keep a controlling stake may just take the taco.
"Selig, who has headed baseball since September 1992, repeated his often-stated intention to retire when his current term expires at the end of 2012 but admits owners are skeptical.
'My wife said, "Buddy, cut it out, nobody believes you, starting with me,"' he said."
You know Bud, I’m not inclined to agree with a woman with the poor taste to be with you for more than a few minutes, let alone the better part of a lifetime, but I’m with her on this one.
Cut it out.
Chris Capuano, 
