From the Windup: Thank Bud for Wild-Card Intrigue

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

Bud Selig has been rightfully blamed for many of baseball's ills, like the notorious "juiced" era, the debacle during the 2009 World Series and a myriad of other issues. It's easy to paint him a scapegoat for everything -- and, make no mistake, I do it often. If for no other reason than for the purposes of symmetry, though, we should give him credit when it's due. So, Bud, I'd like to say thank you for the wild card.

A quick perusal of the standings, with more than six weeks left to play in the 2009 season, shows what appear to be some pretty unexciting divisional races. The Yankees and Dodgers each have a 5-1/2 game lead. The Angels hold a five-game advantage. The Phillies lead their division by 4 1/2 games and the Cardinals lead the NL Central by four. Obviously, there is a lot of baseball left to play, but each team on the list has a pretty firm grip on the division. A good judge of how quickly standings can turn is a series. A normal series is three games. Can a team sweep another and jump them in the standings? If not, it's not all that close of a race.

Out of the six divisions, there is only one with a race close enough to have fortunes reversed in one series: The incredibly mediocre AL Central.

The Detroit Tigers lead the Chicago White Sox by just two games. Of course, the Tigers would be in fourth place in the AL East, AL West, NL East and NL West and second in the NL Central. So, yeah, the division is just really bad. Once again, we can thank Bud for the wild card.

Can you imagine all the complaining from baseball fans about how boring the pennant race would be down the stretch if there was no wild card? Before the wild card, there were two divisions in each league. Had those remained the same, the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers and Phillies would be cruising to the playoffs right now, just as they are in the wild-card system. The amount of teams who still would have a chance at the playoffs would be little more than a handful. The Red Sox, Rangers, Cardinals, Marlins and Rockies would be hanging in the five-game range of contention, and that's about it. Everyone else would be looking to 2010, with more than six weeks to play.

Instead, Mr. Selig brought us divisional realignment and the wild card. Now, four teams from each league make the playoffs. The additional interest across the league just for the four extra playoff spots was huge enough on its own, without even considering how many more teams have a shot at the postseason down the stretch.

The following teams would either be in the playoffs if they started today, or are within 5 1/2 games of a playoff spot: Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Tigers, White Sox, Twins, Angels, Rangers, Mariners, Phillies, Braves, Marlins, Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Rockies and Giants. That's 17 of 30 teams. We can't totally bury the Brewers or Astros mathematically, just yet, either. Even if we don't count them, that means 57 percent of the league has a chance at the postseason with roughly 70 percent of the season completed. Considering only 27 percent of the league makes the playoffs, that's a staggering amount of interest being generated simply because our bumbling commissioner decided to switch things up.

Obviously, it's a bit of a stretch to include some of those teams. Above I noted you need to be within a series to make a quick turnaround, but there are more than six weeks to play. Teams within 5 1/2 games have a shot to make it if they get hot. Whether it's a legitimate shot to make the playoffs or not, fanbases have a reason to believe.

The Mariners, for example, are 5 1/2 games out of the wild card and trail three superior teams. They aren't making the playoffs. Do you want to tell Seattle to quit rooting for their team, though? The same Mariners fans who saw the excitement of the wild card the first year it was instituted, when Edgar Martinez doubled home Joey Cora and Ken Griffey, Jr. to win the first ALDS in extra innings of Game 5 (the team they beat, the Yankees, were the wild card)? You wanna tell them their team doesn't have a chance?

For as much flak as baseball takes from casual sports fans, the sheer amount of teams still in the race flies in the face of the antiquated notion that most teams don't even have a chance once teams head north from spring training. Seriously, people -- mostly the NFL fans who hate baseball -- still say that. Do 18 NFL teams still have a chance at the playoffs after there are 11 games in the books? Using the percentages, that's how things stand in baseball at present. This isn't to knock the NFL, because I love the NFL. I'm just saying there is a bit of a double-standard among the general sports fan population when it comes to the NFL in this case. Major League Baseball has just as many teams involved in the race each year.

Die-hard fans know we owe that to the wild card, which means we ultimately owe some gratitude to Allan Huber "Bud" Selig. Score one for the bumbling commish. I guess even he can't lose them all.