Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, wants to add one more Wild Card team, as soon as next season, to the playoff in both leagues according to Harvey Araton of the New York Times.

“I’ve been working on that just this afternoon,” Selig said. “It’s under very serious consideration. It’s got to be negotiated, but if I have my way it’ll be in time for next year.”

Even though there are a lot of “baseball purists,” as Araton points out, that still believe the “old-fashioned” pennant race is the way to go. Selig defends the Wild Cards arguing that it gave us the 2003 Marlins and 2004 Red Sox, among others.

It is still unknown how this two Wild Card teams will work out. One-day playoff game, or a best-of-three games series could be the most logical choices, but the international soccer playoff model has been suggested.

That means two games, one at each team’s home field, with aggregate scoring. The aggregate scoring will settle a tie in case each teams wins a game, meaning that the team that scored more runs, or recieved less runs will win the playoff.

Araton says though that Selig seemed to think that suggestion was intended as a joke. Even if it’s approve or it doesn’t, I (Juan Dominguez) don’t think it’s a bad idea. This will give teams like the Angels, Pirates or Diamondbacks a well deserved chance to get to the post-season.

The Marlins have won the World Series twice while clinching the Wild Card (1997 and 2003). The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won the 2002 World Series as the AL Wild Card team, beating the San Francisco Giants, the NL Wild Card team. The Boston Red Sox, won the 2004 World Series after clinching the playoff berth as a Wild Card team.

Image by Ken Lund under the Creative Commons License.