Do the Wild Thing

At this juncture, a pregnant pause on the baseball calendar while the eternal enemies the Red Sox and the Yankees are girding their loins for the latest installment of baseballs bitterest battle, it is worth taking a moment to celebrate the implementation of the Wild Card in Major League Baseball on its 10th anniversary.

Let us not forget that if not for the Wild Card, our own Boston Red Sox would not have qualified for the post season either last year or this, and these Yanks-Sox series would never have happened. In addition to keeping the divisional races interesting until the end, in nine seasons since the first wild-card entry, three wild-card teams—the Marlins twice, in 1997 and again last year, and the Angels in 2002—have won the World Series. This means that wild cards, which make up 25 percent of the postseason contenders, have won 33 percent of the Series since they were included.

It is worth noting that in 1994, when the Major League owners voted on the Wild Card proposal 27 out of 28 of them thought it was a good idea. The lone owner who didn’t see the value of the Wild Card? The Texas Rangers owner – one George W. Bush.

Which is more foreboding? That just 10 short years ago our Commander in Chief was running a ball club, or that between opposing the Wild Card and trading Sammy Sosa to the Cubs he went a long way during his short tenure towards running the franchise into the ground?