Baseball. More.

As I sat in a temporary Army tent in Taszar, Hungary in 1996, the professional baseball landscape changed. Intra-league baseball was being introduced and I was against it. Then and now. Now ever more so with the introduction of the MLB network, baseball packages, direct tv. The rule still applies. If you want to watch Seattle Mariner's baseball from Logansport, WestVirginia on a daily or weekly basis you have the option. I didn't care to watch Kansas City vs Montreal then and I don't care about Oakland vs Houston now.

This week, more changes were introduced. Forced tension. Call it reality-tv for the postseason. It's scripted where the action is going to happen. It's scripted when it's going to happen. It's scripted what is going to happen. What is to say that they won't actually just extend it and script the actual outcome as long as they are at it? In essence, they already have.
Facts: A 2nd wild-card team will be added to each league with the opportunity to make the playoffs. The two wild-card teams will meet after the season's 162 games have completed and play one game. The winner of this one game, goes on to the Divisional playoffs. The one game will be played at the site of the wild-card team with the best record.
Aside, I will say that the one good thing to come out of this was that there will no longer be a restriction that the wild-card team cannot face a team from within it's own division. For that I approve. I digress.

Conjecture: The essence that has already been scripted is the inclusion of either the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox in every playoffs going forward. MLB was embarrassed last year when Boston failed to make the playoffs in the original system that was designed to get both the Yankees and Red Sox in every playoffs and they vowed they would not have a repeat. Ratings and Fox network demanded that either the Yankees or Red Sox be in the playoffs to recoup current financial commitment. The same way that Fox went to MLB and designed a way for a ratings increase to the All-Star game (winner gets home-field advantage in the World Series), I believe they went to MLB with this same proposal for the post-season.

Here is an actual scenario that could occur in 2012. American league team wins 116 games in the regular season (71.6%) and advances to the World series. Wild Card Team 2 (5th best record in the National league) qualifies for the playoffs with a record of 82-80 (50.6%) and advances to the World Series. National League wins the All-Star game. Wild Card team 2 will now host 4 home games and the American league team will host 3.

Seems to me that this is turning into Professional wrestling. The league sets the storyline, hires the actors, creates the tension/drama, hires the publicists (major media all-sport networks), allows the star actors to enhance their reputations (PED) while cracking down on the lower echelon players to perpetuate the idea of policing and brings the carnival like atmosphere's to multiple cities around the country. The variable factors? Percentage of players who won't follow the script (which can only be enforced when their production is lowered); Statistical anomalous years, overall fiscal economy.

5 years from now, if there comes a point where the Yankees or Red Sox are not making the playoffs, the number of teams will be adjusted, to whatever it takes, to make sure the Yankees and Red Sox are both in the playoffs every year.