On the eve of Thursday's soft deadline for finalizing details of the implementation of a 10-team playoff field, Major League Baseball and its players association are close to announcing the change that would take effect in October, sources said Wednesday. As of Wednesday afternoon, there was no announcement scheduled. At the time baseball's labor agreement was forged in December, sources from both sides said the expanded playoff field would be put in place for the 2012 season, provided that the two sides could figure out how to squeeze in the extra playoff required. It has been a complicated process because there is very little flexibility for baseball's October calendar. But last week, sources reiterated that this would happen.
It took an extra day, but as anticipated, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association today agreed to a 10-team format that includes two additional Wild Card Clubs and an elimination game in each League prior to the Division Series for the 2012 season, as opposed to waiting till next year. The format will see a second Wild Card would be awarded in both the American League and the National League; and that a single Postseason game would be played between each League’s two Wild Card Clubs, with each winner advancing to compete among the three division champions from each League in the Division Series. If the format had been in place last year, the Rays would have played the Red Sox in the American League while the Cardinals would have played the Braves. The change, which was endorsed by the Commissioner’s 14-member Special Committee for On-Field Matters, marks the first amendment to the Postseason since MLB adopted the six-division, eight-team Postseason structure in January of 1994. The first Postseason to be played under that format occurred in 1995. Implementing the format change did not come easy, and will have a wrinkle in it for 2012 that will change going forward, beginning in 2013. http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index....t-of-big-4-sports&catid=30:mlb-news&Itemid=42
