One-Game Wild Card Playoffs: Baseball's New Sudden Death Format

In the holy trinity of American sports -- baseball, football, basketball -- baseball is still the oldest and the best, and in just about two hours, MLB will roll out its latest wrinkle, the one-game, win-or-go-home wild card playoffs.  I'll be watching.

This is the first year for this concept, and although it may not be a "fair" test (post-season baseball usually involves best-of-five or best-of-seven series), it will be mercifully quick.  Which is OK.  There have a number of one-game playoffs before when two teams ended the regular season in a tie.

Today's National League game pits the St. Louis Cardinals against the Atlanta Braves.  For old times sake, for the days of Skip Caray and Ernie Johnson calling all the games on TBS, I'm pulling for the Braves.  And hell, the Cards won the World Series just last year.

In the American League it'll be the Texas Rangers versus the Baltimore Orioles.  The Rangers must be stunned to even be in this position.  They made it to the World Series the last two years, and led the AL West virtually the entire season, until folding at the end and handing the division to the Oakland A's on the very last day.  The Orioles are this year's Cinderella, going from 90-some losses last year to 90-some wins this season.  Baltimore hasn't been in the post-season since 1997, and I have relatives in the area, so . . . Go Birds!