Why the Wild Card Round in Baseball Should Remain a Single Game

The Wild Card games are over. We now know that the Yankees and the Diamondbacks will move on to the next round in the playoffs. 

But for many Twins and Rockies fans, this outcome may seem unfair. They played an entire 162 game season for it all to be decided in just one game?  What if my pitcher had an off-night?  What if my best hitter were in a slump? Seems like this was all left to chance. In baseball, things are decided in a series. 

Historically, there is an argument here. Baseball is the only sport where the season is built around playing a series of games against your opponents. Your team plays three games at home, and then three games on the road against a single team. Well, except for that pesky interleague play stuff where you may only have either a home or an away series. But that’s just a modern invention, and anyway you are still playing games in a series, not single games against your opponent. 

The fact is that the series is deeply ingrained in baseball history. Going back to the pre-professional days, teams typically scheduled a series, with the same number of games played at home and away, and a final game at a neutral site if needed to determine the series winner. When the first “World Series” was implemented between the National League and the American Association in the nineteenth century, the champion was decided in a series, not a single game. The notion of a series of games was adopted for the modern World Series since its inception in 1903. The inevitable ups and downs of player performance is evened out in a series. So it seems only fair that the two Wild Card teams should duke it out in a series, not just a single game. 

But there are practical reasons why the Wild Card round should remain a single game. They have to do with the length of the season and the down time for the other teams in the playoffs. 

While the Wild Card round is going on, the division winners are waiting. It could be a good three or four days after the season ends before the divisional series begins. And unlike football or hockey, where a few days off to rest is a good thing, in baseball too many days of inaction is bad. More than any other sport, baseball is a game of momentum. Hitters get in a groove. Pitchers find their rhythm. As the great Cash Davis said, “Never mess with a winning streak.”  

Time off means hitters aren’t working on their timing. Pitchers aren’t keeping with their rhythm. Think of times when a team will put their closer in a game when it’s not a save situation, all because it has been five days since he last saw action. Now think about how pitching rotations are already disrupted by four days off. The fourth and fifth guys in the rotation may not have pitched in a week or more by time their first playoff start comes around. 

That is why Wild Card teams have had such good success in the baseball playoffs. The days off are bad for rhythm. But a Wild Card team can ride momentum from the last day of the season all the way to a World Series victory. Unlike the football playoffs, the Wild Card teams in baseball have an extra advantage. While they are still in a rhythm, they get to play a team that may have gone stale during the wait. 

But the rhythm and momentum are not the only reasons for keeping the Wild Card round to just one game. The other reason is the length of the baseball season. Baseball needs good weather to play. Adding rounds to the playoffs means playing longer. Either the regular season must start earlier, or the World Series ends later. 

Before the divisional series was added, the regular season was played from April to early October. That meant that for most of the country the season was started and completed during the months when there is the least chance for snow. Now, at times, the season has started in late March. And the World Series ends in November. We have already seen a World Series game postponed in the middle by a cold down pour. If the games are pushed back further, it is not out of the question for a blizzard to force the shut down of games played in a place like Denver, Cleveland or Boston. 

Although it may seem unfair to the fans of the teams who lost the single game Wild Card round, the demands of the long season require it. Baseball executives should resist the call to lengthen the round to a full series, thereby complicating the length, timing and rhythm of the baseball season. 

William J. Kovatch, Jr.