It turns out it’s neither rocket science, nor is it the way the NFL does it, since it relies on a combination of tiebreaker rules (which are helpfully laid out in the article @ekedolphin linked to) and tiebreaker games.
Exactly. The NFL went from having quite possibly the world’s most perfect playoff format to this seven-team morass they have now, all to get two more games during wildcard weekend.
It’s absolutely not how the NFL does it, because the NFL would eliminate teams based on a tiebreaker formula. MLB never eliminates a team, or even relegates one to wild card status, based on tiebreakers; all spots must be determined by playing additional games.
Had Boston and New York lost Game 162, thus creating a four way tie, MLB would have held two Game 163s to determine the two wild cards. Boston and Toronto would have been given the option to host the games, which of course they would have accepted, because of those four teams, they had the best collective records against the other three. New York, having the third best record, would have then chosen which of Boston and Toronto they preferred to play; Seattle would have gotten the opponent New York didn’t want.
Then how about this proposal: if Wild Card team #1 has a regular season record that is ≥ 10 games better than the regular season record of Wild Card team #2, then the two teams play a series where Wild Card team #1 has to win only one game to advance, but Wild Card team #2 has to win two games to advance.
Team #1 wins Game 1 → Team #1 advances to divisional series
Team #2 wins Game 1, Team #1 wins Game 2 → Team #1 advances to divisional series
Team #2 wins both Games 1 and 2 → Team #2 advances to divisional series
Also, Team #1 should host both games.
If Team #1 has a regular season record that is only ≤ 9 games better, then they play 1 game with Team #1 hosting (same way as it is done right now).
Because it is a rare occurrence for the higher-ranked Wild Card team to have a record ≥ 10 games better than the lower-ranked Wild Card team, in most seasons this proposal will not come into play, and the division winners will not be disrupted. And even when this proposal does comes into play, it can only be up to 2 games at the worst.
I think that proposal is far too confusing to the casual fan, possibly even to the average MLB player.
Well … yeah, I can kinda see why it would be, but then again NFL playoff tiebreakers are just as if not more confusing, and fans seem to be ok with those.
What I wanted to gauge was: how do you feel about my proposal from a fairness perspective?
Don’t like it, too complex and it burns too many pitchers. Burning one pitcher is enough of a disadvantage for the WC teams, burning two starting pitchers in elimination games puts them in a horrendous hole. And the 10 game thing is just contrary to so much history of baseball, it’s really arbitrary.
I’m not sure why it’s a good idea to have such a rule. If there’s gonna be a Wild Card game, just have it. Or make it a series. I don’t see enough of a difference in “Fairness” between a nine and a ten game lead. If you wanna avoid the wild card game, win the division.
My grand 36-team plan keeps looking better and better to me. We just need six rich corporations to start six new teams. Then you could just have sixteen playoff teams and to hell with wild card games. 152 game seasons, four rounds of playoffs, 5-5-7-7.
Really? Tell the Dodgers that. The Dodgers are the “lowly Wild Card”, and their record is a “meager” 106-56! Thank God they won that stupid one game “series”.
So what? How is that fair to the Cardinals? You want to avoid a wild card game, win your division. Seems fair to me.
Tell them what, that the playoff system should be changed for them?
Teams with great records have been missing the postseason for rather a long time. The 1993 Giants went 103-59 and played exactly zero playoff games. The 1980 Orioles went 100-62 and watched the postseason from home. The 2021 Dodgers, at least, got a shot at making it. The 1961 Tigers, 1962 Dodgers, so on and so forth.
I again stress I am not a fan of the wild card game; I get that it enhances late season interest because more fans are engaged, but I would prefer a full blown four round system. A one-or-two game process doesn’t seem like an improvement, though. Might as well genuinely improve it.
In the 50s; only the 1954 Yanks won 100+ games and they missed the World Series. That was always an oddball stat. The other year they missed was 1959 and they had only 79 wins.
The announcers on ESPN mentioned that if the Yanks went deep in the post season this year, that Gardner would catch Yogi for post season games. I had to laugh at that. I always think it is a joke to directly compare the current players in the expanded playoff system to the guys that only played the one round.
Basically all playoff records now are set since 1995.
The all time record holder for playoff homers is Manny Ramirez, who hit 29. That’s awesome but it took him 111 games to do it. Mickey Mantle hit “just” 18 postseason bombs - ALL of them in the World Series, just 65 games.
Of course.
But being baseball, they keep stats on World Series records too. Speaking of the Yankees, Reggie Jackson has 10 World Series HRs as part of the 18 overall he’s hit in the playoffs.
World Series homers are a rather Yankee dominated list to say the least:
Mickey Mantle, 18
Babe Ruth, 15
Yogi Berra, 13
Duke Snider, 11
Lou Gehrig, 10
Reggie, 10
Joe DiMaggio, 8
Bill Skowron, 8
Frank Robinson, 8
Yes and for other teams that are in the same absurd situation as they were. Why do you find that so outrageous?
When we have to give “others have suffered” as the reason not to change something, I become rather skeptical.
Heck, the 1981 Reds won more games than anyone in the MLB and didn’t make the playoffs! 
But yes - there’s nothing to tell the Dodgers. They’re not complaining about any unfairness - they were well aware they needed to win the division back in April.
The situation wasn’t that absurd.
Would the Dodgers really have been in a less absurd position had the other wild card gone 97-65?
Less or more is irrelevant. The key word is “absurd” and, as far as I’m concerned, making a team play 162 games of a seemingly endless season only to Bum’s Rush them out in a one game playoff is ABSURD. The end!
Then let’s go back to what it was before - either win the league or win the division. No wild cards.
The concept of a wild card is not about fairness, it’s the reverse. It adds a random element where a team that didn’t perform as well in the regular season gets a shot at winning the whole thing. It’s less fair to those teams but playoff expansion is fun for fans and generates more revenue.
Making things more “fair” to the wild card teams makes it less fair to the teams that put in that effort through those 162 games only to have their shot stolen by an upstart that didn’t perform up to that standard.