Major League Baseball Needs a Facelift

Is anyone as sick of the grumpy old Miami Dolphins claiming they don't get enough credit for their perfect season as I am?  I turned 17 in 1972, and baseball was the national pastime.

In 1972 the Oakland A's won the first of three straight championships.  They beat the Cincinnati Reds in a seven-game World Series where six of the seven games were won by one run.

The A's made the series by beating the Detroit Tigers three games to two.  The same was true of the Reds, who beat the defending champion Pittsburgh Pirates with the winning run scored on a wild pitch.

1972 was also the year of the first of eight all too frequent work stoppages that have eroded a great deal of the sport's popularity.  Baseball has also fallen into a stubbornness to change, so I submit the following.

1. Balance the schedule

Embrace interleague play or get rid of it.  First of all (horror of horror!), this means a team moving to the American League.

With six five-team divisions, playing 18 games against divisional opponents=72 games.  Six games against the 10 other teams in its league=60 games.  Play 30 games against the other league on a rotating basis, like the NFL, playing a three-game series of one division at home, a second on the road, and not play the third=162 games.

No more some teams four games, some three, and some two.  By doing this, there will be some interleague play going on all year.  There's also the possibility of shortening the season to 154 games by playing 16 games within the division.

2. Expand the playoffs

Baseball plays 162 games, and six teams make the playoffs.  The NFL plays 16 games, and 10 make the playoffs.  The NBA plays 82, and 16 get in. The NCAA Men's basketball plays around 30 games a year, and 64 make the "Big Dance" (not to mention the 32 that make the NIT).  To fix NCAA Football is someone else's problem.

Two of the best weekends in sports all year are the first weekend of the NFL playoffs and when the NCAA goes from 64 to 16 teams. 

I propose that Baseball do the following.  Instead of beginning the season at the beginning of a week, begin over the preceding weekend.  On the weekend the season now ends, the division winner with the worst record and the best non- division winner would host a three-game series, opposing the next two best record teams, two out of three, and the winner moves onward.

This serves two purposes. 1. It keeps a lot of teams in contention much later in the season.  2. It creates incentive for the best teams to stay ahead in order to get a bye for the wild card weekend,

If I had my way, the LCS would go back to five games.