Three cheers for the wild card

Baseball purists may hate it as much as they hate the designated hitter and the extinction of the day/night doubleheader.

But, Major League Baseball's wild card playoff system certainly has kept World Series dreams alive for many teams this season.

With about 25 games remaining in the regular season, no less than seven teams remain in contention for the wild card berth in the National League.

The Phillies and Marlins (both 74-64), lead the pack, with the Dodgers, Astros and Cubs all within three games of the leaders.

The Diamondbacks and Expos both are just four games back in the race.

For four of those seven teams, the wild card is an all or nothing prospect.

Florida and Philadelphia are a full 13 games behind Atlanta in the National League East, and have all but been eliminated from that race.

For those clubs, the wild card is the only avenue to post season play. Los Angeles and Arizona are in a similar position.

Since San Francisco is not likely to lose their grip on their double-digit lead in the NL West, the wild card is the only reason September's games have any meaning for those two teams.

In the American League, the divisional races are much closer.

Only in the AL East is the division leader (the Yankees), more than two games ahead of the second place team (the Red Sox trail by four full games after last weekend's series against New York).

But, even with seven teams in contention for divisional titles -- and therefore, playoff berths -- the wild card would seem to be something that helps keep fans' interest alive despite the arrival of the NFL's regular season.

As it stands, the Bosox don't seem to have enough in their collective tanks to catch the Yankees.

Yet, they are 22 games over .500, and have the 6th best record in baseball.

Only the wildcard could save them should they fall short in their quest to catch the "Evil Empire".

The purists argue that the wild card diminishes the importance of the divisional races.

They say it takes away from the truly amazing comebacks that might be possible if, for instance, the Dodgers were able to come back to overtake the Giants.

Purists also argue that the current playoff format -- three division winners plus one wild card winner -- is unfair in that the wild card teams have the same chance of making it to the World Series as teams who won their division.

This is in contrast to the NFL, where wild card teams must make it through one round more than division winners.

However, if baseball's goal is to improve the likelihood that the "best" teams make the playoffs, then perhaps the wild card is not such a bad vehicle to achieve just that.

Consider the 1985 season, when the Yankees (97-64), and Mets (98-64), finished with better than .600 winning percentages and yet failed to make the playoffs.

That same season, Kansas City and Los Angeles both had worse records than the New York clubs, but made it to the post season by virtue of the fact that they won their divisions.

The wild card format gives division runners-up something to shoot for.

To be certain, expansion and the advent of divisional play has changed the face of Major League Baseball in many respects.

One of the most notable changes is that it is easier, relatively speaking, to get into the playoffs.

Prior to divisional play, the winners of the American League and National League went directly to the World Series.

There were 10 teams in each league in 1968, giving each club a roughly 1 in 10 chance of going to the World Series.

Beginning in 1969, a Championship Series was instituted which pitted the Eastern and Western Division winners against each other in a battle for the right to move on to the World Series.

That change coincided with the expansion of MLB from 20 to 24 teams, but the end result was that four teams -- one in six -- qualified for the playoffs that year.

This season, 8 of 30 teams will find themselves in the post season.

There's no question that Major League Baseball has many problems, not the least of which is the embarrassing format of the two leagues.

There currently are 14 teams in the American League, and 16 in the National League.

As a result, baseball finds itself with divisions with as many as six teams (the NL Central), and as few as four (the American League West).

Add to that the continued talk of contraction, and it seems reasonable to think that Bud Selig has far better things to worry about than the wild card.