1)It’s a pattern, like argyle, except it’s bad
One more thought on the expansion of MLB’s already long season: on Saturday, 14 October 2006, the Tigers won game 4 of the ALCS to complete their sweep of the A’s; on that same day in 1984, they won the World Series. The 2006 World Series will not even start until 21 October.

Also, it seems three extra rest days will be introduced into the 2007 MLB season. It has not yet been determined whether they will be added to the regular season or the postseason.  In either case, next season will be even longer.

2)Wait, don’t you know you’re supposed to lose?
In another baseball note, there is talk of making the postseason more difficult for wild card teams. One idea being floated is to give wild card teams only one home game in the first round, rather than two.

I fail to understand this line of thought. Having wild cards win division, conference and even World series is not a problem — not unless wild cards themselves are problems. The last few years have featured a wild card team in the World Series, and somehow this is a problem for baseball?

Bud Selig: either keep the wild cards and consider them full participants in the postseason, or drop the wild cards altogether. Do not make the wild cards second-class postseason citizens. If they meet your wild card criteria, then they deserve to be in the playoffs.  The only fair choice is between wild cards and no wild cards.

The 2006 Tigers have won playoff games fair and square, and previous wild card teams have done the same. If these Tigers and the previous successful wild card teams don’t belong in the playoffs, then the playoff critera — not the wild card teams — are the problem.  Don’t punish wild card teams for meeting the current playoff standards.