Two More Wild Cards Will Not Cheapen Winning the Pennant and World Series

Purists believe that the last “real” baseball season was played in 1968. Ultra-purists (never heard that term before) are convinced that 1960 was the last “real” American League season and 1961 was the final “real” National League season.

From 1903-60. each league consisted of eight teams. In 1961, two teams were added to the American League. The following year, two teams were added to the National League.

Ten-team leagues produce too many losers. There were nine teams in each league that lost. Two winners and 18 losers is unacceptable.

In 1969, each league expanded to 12 teams and was split into two divisions. The winners of each division faced each other in a best-of-five playoff series.

The team with best record in each league was no longer guaranteed to play in the World Series.

In 2012, it is a virtual certainty that each league will have three division winners and two wild cards. Ten of the 30 teams will have a chance to become World Champions, meaning that there will be only 20 losers. One-third of the teams will be “winners.” Don’t tell that to the New York Yankees.

Purists work off the premise that because so many teams will make the playoffs, the chances increase that the World Champion will not be the best team. According to them, the World Series winner used to be the best team most of the time.

Well, purists, that is far from reality.

From 1903-1968, not including 1904 when there was no World Series, the team with the best record in the major leagues has won the World Series 34 times. The team with the best record lost 29 times. Teams that met for the World Championship had the same league record three times.

Were 29 World Series winners the second best baseball team because they won fewer games than their World Series opponent?

Which league was stronger? Unless the leagues were equal in strength, the team that won less games might have played in the better league or the team that won more games might have played in the weaker league.

There is no way of knowing. There never will be.

The problem is the premise that claims when there were eight-team leagues, the pennant winners were the best teams because they reigned after a long 154 game schedule. The statistics don’t support that belief.

The World Series winner may not have been the best team in baseball. The pennant winner may not have been the best team in the league..

In a seven game series, players often perform above or below their ability. That’s why so many average players excel in the Series. Pepper Martin, Billy Martin Billy Hatcher, Mark Lemke and David Eckstein are excellent examples.

In the 21st century, the goal of the regular season is to make the playoffs. The media, for one of the few times, have it right when they state that the playoffs are another season, not only in baseball, but in all major sports.

This past season, the Philadelphia Phillies (102-60) and the New York Yankees New York Yankees (97-65) had the best records in baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers met in the World Series.

In 1993, the last year before there was a wild card (the 1994 season ended at the end of play on Aug. 12), the second place San Francisco Giants won 103 games. The World Champion Toronto Blue Jays won 95 games.

If the purists could support the contention that in the “old days” the best team won the World Series, the claim that adding two wild cards would decrease the chances of the best team becoming World Champions would be reasonable.

It is not.


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