The new playoff plan might just be the best thing Bud Selig has ever brought to baseball… hell, it might be the ONLY good thing he’s done as Commissioner. The fact that he says he was the only person among on the committee looking at this issue who DIDN’T like the one-game wild card playoff format should tell you right away what a good idea it is!

In fact, this is the “Knuckleballs Playoff Plan”. I declared as much back in April. I also advocated for this plan in September of 2010! I love this plan… and you do, too! You just don’t realize it yet.

(Here are the links to those two posts: http://knuckleballsblog.com/2010/09/lets-have-another-game-163-every-year/ and http://knuckleballsblog.com/2011/04/call-it-the-knuckleballs-playoff-plan/ )

You say you don’t like extending the season, but then you lament “no more game 163 seasons”. Did those seasons extend the playoffs too long… or at all? I don’t think so. Likewise, there’s no reason ONE extra wild card play-in game in each league should either (but a best-of-three series that Selig preferred would have!).

As for not having any more game 163 “magic moments”, nothing could be further from the truth. There will be guaranteed TWO “game 163 magic moments” EVERY SEASON! Nothing in baseball is as exciting as a “deciding game”… a “game 7″ (or “game 5″ of the LDS). But in some seasons, you never have ANY of those “deciding games” if none of the playoff series go the full number of games.

That can never happen again. There will ALWAYS be at least two “no tomorrow” games. On top of that, there can still be “game 163″ possibilities because adding an extra wild card spot doesn’t preclude the possibility of seasons ending in ties that would still occasionally require a “game 163″.

As a bonus, it means there’s finally a serious incentive for teams to go all-out to win their division instead of coasting to the finish once they have a wild card spot wrapped up. Teams have done that often because they’ve been more concerned about setting up their rotation than whether they have home field advantage in the LDS.

I love this idea and if taking the Astros in to the AL is the price, I’m OK with that.