Major League Baseball is beginning to recognize that one wild card per league is not enough to keep fans of also-rans buying tickets and riveted to their television sets in the dog days of summer.
The league's latest proposal is an interesting one that will make baseball purists run screaming for the doors like never before! The plan being discussed will eliminate divisions, add another playoff team per league, along with moving one team from the National League to the American League, making the leagues even with 15 teams apiece.
The rumor is the Houston Astros will be the team to make the move from the Senior to the Junior Circuit. It's an idea that certainly has merit. Since arriving in the expansion year of 1962, along with the Mets, the Astros (or then Colt .45's) have never had a true rivalry. This move would give Houston a natural rivalry with the Rangers, up the road in Arlington.
As far as adding playoff teams goes, Major League baseball needs to be cautious that it doen't end up like the NBA and the NHL, where regular seasons mean little and the opening rounds lack drama. Adding a single playoff team from each league still keeps 22 teams out of the post-season, however it's the trend of increasing the size of the postseason pool that is a concern.
Baseball, with it's 162 game regular season schedule, is far more vunerable to making it's playoff system more important than it's regular season than the other 3 major sports, meaning they need to keep the postseason an exclusive party.
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