MLB added a second wild card to add some end of year excitement in a few more baseball cities. It was also a solution to a growing concern by some team owners about the unbalanced major league schedule.
In 2013, with the Astros move to the AL West, every division will have the same number of teams, every team will play
the same number of intradivision and interleague games, and MLB promised that there will
be “at least one Interleague game every day.”
Why that promise is not necessarily a great thing is that historically, divisional games draw the most home field attendance. Interleague is a fad marketing concept to help spark some fan interest, but it may jolt some teams home games every five years or so if the Yankees or Red Sox come to town, but not so much if it is the Mariners or Astros.
This season every team will play exactly 19 games against each of the
other four teams in its division (76 total), 6-7 intraleague games
against each of the 10 teams in the other two divisions (66 total), and
20 interleague games.
The problem with this schedule for owners in the AL East is that with 49 percent of their games against really good divisional foes, the other divisions such as the AL Central and AL West can coast to better overall records (which the wild card is based upon).
For example, the Rangers are +13 in wins against the Astros. The Rays have no such punching bag in the AL East.
There is a cry for a competitive solution to the unbalanced schedule.
First option is get rid of the 20 interleague games. Let the two leagues play by their different DH rules for an entire season. Let interleague play be post-season only.
Second option is to create a balance schedule within each league. 162 games divided by 14 opponents equals 11.57 games/opponent. But that can be tinkered slightly. 11 games per league opponent equals 154 games (the old season). The remaining 8 additional games can be divided among your divisional opponents, 2 games piece.
Third option is add 6 more games to the schedule (168) and have each team play equal number of games against league opponents (12 games per year). That would be the most balanced solution.
But the season is too long anyway. Owners have balked at shortening the season to 154 games. Marketing managers want to keep the interleague contests as a means of selling season ticket packages in the off-season. Expanding the leagues to add another team to get to 32 is also out of the question because the economy would not support another two franchises (especially when there are current teams that need revenue sharing and luxury tax money in order to survive.)
Baseball is a game of black and white rules clouded at times in the gray of interpretation. The unbalanced schedule is one of those gray areas of unfairness for some teams who happen to be parked in a very competitive division.
