On the Houston Astros' Move to the American League

Last week, Matthew asked me what I thought about MLB's plan to move the Astros to the American League, play inter-league games throughout the year, and have five teams in each League make the playoffs. Here was my response:

Bud Selig is one of the most radical thinkers in the history of American sport. For over 100 years, every sport has felt that it was absolutely essential to preserve the notion that their champion -- however that champion was decided -- was truly the best team in the sport. Baseball is now going to throw that out. In fact, I would argue that baseball has already thrown that out -- we know that both Philadelphia and Milwaukee were better than St. Louis last season. In effect, baseball will play 162 games, then take 10 teams, throw them in a pot, and determine a champion by a process that is only slightly fairer than the NBA lottery. Going forward, we now know that most of the time the team that wins the World Series will not be the best team in baseball.

Selig appears to believe that most people just don't care about integrity when it comes to sports, and that the whole notion of a "true champion" is just 19th-century hogwash. He seems to think that what most people want is for their team to stay alive as long as possible. In other words, he thinks most baseball fans care more about their team and its chances for collecting a trophy, than they do about whether the whole sport has any meaning. That is an incredibly radical idea -- because why should people care about "their" team -- or any team -- in a sport with no integrity? I don't root for anybody in the WWE, because I don't think the WWE is a real sport. Why shouldn't I apply the same reasoning to baseball? Selig thinks this will not be a problem, and he has apparently convinced everyone in the sport to go along with him.

And what do the GMs and managers do? Is there anything the Phillies or Yankees could have done to improve their chances of surviving the playoffs? All of the SABR guys are working on strategies that take 162 games to play out -- does their analysis still have any significance in a world where the only meaningful distinctions among the 10 best teams in baseball are drawn during very brief -- and effectively random -- series in October?

And one final question: how long will this format last before Selig tries something else? I think he eventually wants an NHL/NBA system, where the months of September and October would be given over entirely to playoffs featuring the 8 best teams in each league. Will he get there? And if he does, will anyone still be watching?