I think my problem is with the wild card setup the most. As I said earlier, something about it just doesn't feel right. As someone mentioned, teams really didn't fight that hard for the division, just kept fighting to get to the wild card, while the ones with the division locked up, sorta sat back.... maybe that losing the edge is what bothers me the most and why the WC teams always seem to have that edge, that hot streak.
I DO like the extra baseball, I do like the quality of baseball now. But there's something about the wild card that has always irked me.
I'd wouldn't mind going back to 2 divisions with divisional playoffs. (course I could never understand why St. Louis was in the Eastern division but Cincinnati and Atlanta was in the West??)
Maybe if baseball would implement a salary cap, that could do more good than a playoff change. And the Luxury tax doesn't count as a salary cap. really. Get some 'competitive balance' back in the game. Isn't that what Costas called it in his book...
Sure we may be having a bit of sour grapes, and the playoff losses always leave some sour grapes taste regardless of your team, but we wouldn't be fans if it didn't bother us a bit.
I think what makes this year worse is the WC berth being fostered in by the 1 game playoff. I dearly hate those more than anything. 1999 anyone? If they want a second WC team it should be a play in series?? But the logistics of that would be maddening...
Oh and Roy had to look that name up, because I didn't really get started watching the Reds until '68...