Tomorrow is September 1st, the day the Major League Baseball home stretch officially begins. Before 1995, and the advent of the Wild Card, this was the most exciting time of year for the top teams in the league - neck and neck for weeks on end, fighting for a division title.
Now? Sure, there are a few relatively close races - the Atlanta Braves lead the Philadelphia Phillies by 3 games, and the Minnesota Twins lead the Chicago White Sox by 4 games. But the tightest race of all, the American League East, where the New York Yankees and Tampa Rays have been deadlocked for the last 8 days, means absolutely nothing at all.
That's because the Yankees and Rays, are not only tied for the A.L. East lead, they're also tied for the best record in baseball. That means the "loser" of this race, won't really lose at all. The second place team will easily win the A.L. Wild Card, and all they'll lose is one measly home game in each playoff round.
Don't get me wrong, I like the Wild Card. It gives more teams a chance at making the playoffs, and that's good for baseball. But something needs to be done to penalize the Wild Card team in the playoffs, and make winning the division mean something.
How about adding a second Wild Card team in each league, and have them play a one-game "play-in" game to make the playoffs? Perhaps make the Wild Card team play an extra road game each round? Or maybe even give them no home games at all?
The saddest thing of all about this, is that we'll never again see a game quite like the Yankees-Red Sox "Bucky Dent" game in 1978. If the Yankees and Rays finish the season tied, they won't even play a tie-breaker game. The team with the best head-to-head record wins the division, and the other teams grabs the wild card.
Yep, on September 1st, and the A.L. East will be all but over. That may be nice for fans of the Yankees and Rays, but for baseball fans in general? It's boring as heck.
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