On Friday, Major League Baseball announced that it was expanding its playoff system to include an extra wild card team. The change was made mainly to improve the regular season and keep an extra team in contention. At the end of the season, the two wild card winners will face each other in a one-game playoff to determine who moves on to the divisional round.
Reactions to the expansion have been mixed thus far, but Red Sox slugger David Ortiz may have taken the cake on Thursday when asked for his thoughts. His issue? Having to pack up your stuff and travel just for a one-game playoff.
“One game? That’s kind of crazy,” designated hitter David Ortiz said according to ESPN.com. “You know how many things we’ve got to move around and pack for one game? It’d make more sense for two wild cards to play at least a two-out-of-three series while the other teams take a break for three days because they won their divisions.”
Take the sentence about having to move around and pack out, and Ortiz may have a point. It’s tough to determine anything that follows a 162-game season with just one game. But Ortiz’s argument about having to pack all your stuff up to play just one game makes him sound like your stereotypical spoiled pro athlete. Not to mention, the Red Sox would have been the beneficiary of the expanded playoffs last year, as they finished fifth in the A.L. and would have had a chance at the one-game playoff even after their epic meltdown. Maybe Big Papi should stick to flipping out over his personal stat issues.
