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 ing...