He’d Prefer Old Days to Wild Days

The overwhelming majority in the print and electronic media, who have hopped on major league baseball’s wild-card bandwagon, have failed to consider the alternatives. Imagine that the owners, instead of increasing the playoff field from four teams to eight, had reverted to the pre-1969 format, and let the regular season determine the World Series participants. Can the current excitement surrounding the four-team race for three of the National League’s playoff spots compare to that of a five-team battle for the NL crown? What is more compelling: Boston and Oakland chasing the American League wild card, or four AL teams battling for a berth in the World Series? Consider the alternative on the morning of Sept. 16:

*--*

American League W-L GB Cleveland 89-56 -- New York 87-58 2 Texas 88-59 2 Boston 84-62 5 1/2

*--*

*--*

National League W-L GB Atlanta 91-56 -- Houston 91-57 1/2 New York 90-57 1 Arizona 88-58 2 1/2 Cincinnati 87-59 3 1/2

*--*

Can you imagine the anticipation over the last two weeks of the season? This weekend’s Yankee-Indian series would be elevated to the top sports story in the country. Instead, it is reduced to a contest over home-field advantage, which is hardly an advantage at all. Over the last 10 years, baseball’s home teams are 99-98 in postseason play.

A trip to the World Series should be the reward for six months of sustained excellence, not something handed to the leagues’ fourth-best teams if they happen to have a dominant starter. In expanding the playoffs, baseball sold its soul to sell a couple more tickets in a couple more cities for a couple more weeks and, of course, for the TV money that comes with an additional 12 to 20 playoff games.

If it’s TV playoff money that the owners are after, why not just call it the NBA and invite the Dodgers and Angels to the postseason party?

MICHAEL HAWKINS, Woodland Hills