The midway point of the MLB season is just around the corner, and with the All-Star Game comes the first mention of the post-season.
For those of you who are uninitiated in big league baseball rules, the winning team in the All-Star Game's league gets home field advantage in the World Series.
All of that was said to tie in a serious complaint I, as well as many others, have with the new MLB postseason.
The ridiculous, preposterous and head scratching one shot win or be eliminated Wild Card Game.
I'm not just angry because the Braves lost in the Wild Card Game last year, though that does contribute to a large percentage of my fury. I am irritated with this game because somewhere up the MLB management chain, the bosses decided that a 162 game season should rest on the edge of a knife in the format of a one-game playoff for two teams in each league.
It's absurd. Baseball is the one game in American sports where any team could beat another on a given day.
For instance, in college football there's no way an Alabama is going to lose to a Mississippi State (at least in this juncture in their programs).
But in baseball, even the major league worst Marlins would have a chance (however slim it may be) to defeat the major league leading Cardinals.
The Wild Card Game can be fixed though. The MLB just needs to turn it into a three game series. That way, it's just like a regular season series and the teams can afford to lose a game.
A three game series would also get a better look at which team is actually better, because potentially three starting pitchers and lineups would be used instead of just one.
In the National League Wild Card Game last year, the umpires really worked the Braves over by calling the infamous infield fly rule 30 feet into the outfield. If it had been a three game series that blunder by the men in blue would have had a chance to go unnoticed, but as it was a one-game win or go home scenario the game will live in infamy.
Now, as last year was the first year of Wild Card Games, only two teams and their fan bases have cause to be upset, but if the format does not change soon enough half of the big league supporters are going to be ticked off.
Braves fans, who, like it or not everyone else, make up the majority of fans around these parts, are furious about the debacle last October. There was garbage, bottles and worse things thrown onto Turner Field during the Wild Card Game last year, and it may not get better for the MLB any time soon.
As long as the MLB just makes it a three game play-in, none will have any cause to complain, because after three games in baseball, the winner has won fair and square.
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