Bud Selig Doing His Best To Ruin Baseball

I completely disagree with the decision to extend the playoffs to ten teams. That's pretty much the crux of it.

If you haven't yet heard, Selig is going to have the wildcard berth be decided by a one game playoff between the top two non-division record teams in each league. It cheapens everything.

Baseball has the greatest playoff system of North American professional sports. Only eight out of thirty teams make the playoffs. At 27%, it's the lowest percentage of playoff teams of any major sport, and it makes the long 162 game season mean something. In the NBA, does anyone pay attention to the regular season until there's about 30 games left? No. It doesn't matter. Do people always pay attention to all 162 games of the MLB? No, but every one of those games matter. Adding the two teams only cheapens it.

Flash back to the last day of the regular season this year. With Tampa Bay and St. Louis completing impossible comebacks in dramatic fashion to secure their wildcard births. That night doesn't happen. Both all of those teams rest their starters to wait for the playoff. Now, maybe the playoff provides drama of its own, but why fix what ain't broke?

Next argument: it means that more teams are competitive longer. Meaning September attendance numbers should be up at a few more stadiums. Maybe. But when I looked at the top three finishers in the Wildcard in each league over the last ten years, more often then not the disparity is wide enough that adding a fifth team doesn't add much in the way of competitiveness. Also, there are plenty of times where a team gets penalized for winning. Take the 2002 Angels, for example. If a fifth team was in the playoffs, their 99 regular season wins would have meant nothing if they lose one game against the 93 win Red Sox or Mariners, who would have had to play their own playoff. So yeah, it creates some drama of its own. But the next best team? The 81 win White Sox. Not too much more drama late in the season.

And it penalizes that wild card team. Remember, the wildcard was created after expansion had happened long before, and really occurred because the 103 win Giants lost the West division crown to the 104 win Braves (East Division champion Phillies only won 97 games). Why should the Wildcard team have to trot out its ace against a team that won 6 games less than them in the regular season. I suppose you could argue that the division winners should have some sort of advantage, however, this system almost guarantees that you won't see a 02 Angels, 01 Diamondbacks, 11 Cardinals, or 04 Red Sox. Imagine playing the best team in your league and not getting to use your ace twice while the other teams get an extra day to rest up. Ridiculous.

I know just the fact that the playoffs exist, no matter what the format, there will be drama, there will be fun. However, when you look at what has happened since the expansion to the 8 team format, there's not much argument for a second wild card team. And when you get down to it, and you ask why is baseball doing this, you come to the obvious answer. Money.

More butts in seats, more television contracts, more advertising, more sponsorships. More dough. Another set of tradition set aside for the sole purpose of generating more money. It's sickening. So, to Mr. Selig and the baseball owners, I hope you sleep better at night after deciding to cheapen America's pastime.

Cal Men's Basketball: It's happening

Judging by the amount of people at last nights game, I'm not sure you knew. Cal Basketball, however, is in full swing. People should be paying more attention than they currently are because this year, this team could bring home a Pac-12 title and get pretty deep in the tournament. That's right, you heard correctly. Cal basketball is good.

In the fourth year of his tenure, Mike Montgomery is playing with a team of his design, and it shows. Almost every player on the court is playing with energy and a defense first mindset. I can't look at a single one of them and put them down for being selfish or lazy. In the three games they've played so far, they've crushed their opposition and allowed their bench players to get on the floor for invaluable early season experience. This is maybe the deepest team I've seen since following Cal basketball These guys deserve your attention. They are currently ranked #22 in the nation. These guys are going to make some noise, I highly suggest joining them.

The Giants Make A Move

If you haven't heard about it yet, the San Francisco Giants have traded Jonathan Sanchez away to the Kansas City Royals for outfielder Melky Cabrera.

Frankie's initial reaction? Despondent.

OK well, not despondent, but he generally assumes the worst on any player movement.

My first thought: "Man, if they had done with last year it would have been Jose Reyes."

Well, maybe it would have been. But instead, the Giants have received an emerging 27 year old outfielder for a pitcher who had so much potential, yet can't always seem to find the strike zone.

Cabrera played 155 games for the Royals last year, and will probably take over the everyday centerfield duties for the Giants.


More after the jump.