Two weeks ago (yes, that’s all it’s been), Major League Baseball announced they were expanding the playoffs to include 16 teams this year, rather than the now-customary ten. It’s a significant expansion, significantly raising the probability of sub-.500 teams making the field, and it’s no secret that the owners’ side of the powers that be would like this to continue into future seasons.
But baseball could do something better.
Baseball could institute an NIT.
People like college basketball because of the NIT. They like soccer because of the Europa League. They like football because of the AFC South. Baseball needs its own equivalent. Here’s how it could work:
Good, Not Great
When the league expands to 32 teams, split the AL and NL into two divisions each. Make the four division champions make the playoffs (this’ll get the Yankees out of the way). Put the eight teams below them—four from each league—into Octoballfest™, the October baseball festival that will titillate the nation. Start Octoballfest™ with group play, held at Fenway Park and Wrigley Field, while the official playoffs dither on. Two groups of four, full round robin style (home-and-home), double headers one day (two if you want a mid-week off-day to preserve pitching), done in a business week. Heck, if you want two groups of six, or two groups of five, you can do it. Make a single-elimination bracket for the bottom half of each league to get two teams in. Get crazy. Blank canvas, TV executives.
This way, you get the good teams but not the great teams. The teams people can aspire to, as opposed to those only money can buy.
Group winners move on, in addition to…
Make It Complicated
The success of the Europa League—and the NIT, for that matter (though this isn’t as prominent of a facet of the NIT)—is directly tied to its complexity. You need a team to drop down from the official playoffs into Octoballfest™, and they need to drop down in a bizarrely complicated manner.
Runs allowed.
Use runs allowed to pick one LCS loser to drop down into Octoballfest™ while a group play wildcard—using runs allowed again—also advances. So we’ve got the two group winners, one LCS loser, and one wildcard going into…wait for it…a double-elimination tournament.
Yes, Little League style (at least in Illinois circa 2007—not sure how other states were doing it). Four teams, double elimination, played this time not at Fenway or Wrigley, but at that minor league field at Williamsport, with blimps full of fans circling above the action.
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Here’s your chance, Manfred.
