If by "unless of course they end up playing each other" you mean some permutation of the Yanks and the Sox getting in after multiple 1-game playoffs, remember that they cannot face each other in the ALDS. Wild cards play the team with the strongest record unless that is their division winner, in which case the strongest division winner plays the weakest, and the middling winner plays the wild card in ALDS play.
I suspect this complication, more than anything else, is why the league didn't seriously consider saying "screw it" in the NL, where the West will be won by default, and most of the teams in the east (plus Houston in the central) all are more deserving of playing lots of October baseball.
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Date: 2005-09-30 05:33 pm (UTC)I suspect this complication, more than anything else, is why the league didn't seriously consider saying "screw it" in the NL, where the West will be won by default, and most of the teams in the east (plus Houston in the central) all are more deserving of playing lots of October baseball.