Quiet Races A Sign MLB Should Consider Expanding Postseason?

It might be time for MLB to "think about expanding the playoffs," as the "only teams thinking about tomorrow in a September in which the NFL, college football and golf all blitz our consciousness are the eight teams that will be playing in October," according to Peter Gammons of ESPN.com. For the 22 other MLB franchises, baseball currently is "either tepid or in full autumnal frost, with little momentum heading into the playoffs," so "why not think about having two wild-card teams per league?" Gammons wrote MLB could "start the season half a week earlier," and then have the "two-out-of-three play-in series on the weekend" where the final games of the regular season are currently played. Gammons: "No one suggests that a wild card play-in is going to blunt the ratings of a USC-Ohio State season jumper or the NFL's ability to get prime games into the first two weeks. However, it's something to think about in a September when baseball seems to have drifted off beyond the horizon." However, Gammons wrote MLB generally has done a "remarkable job holding the means." There are "no legitimate races per se, no media storyline despite Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter, and still attendance is down only 6[%] in an economic climate distraught with fear, loathing and unemployment" (ESPN.com, 9/22).

EASTERN PROMISE: The AP's Elaine Kurtenbach reports MLB has launched its "first professional development center" in China as part of a program "aimed at finding and nurturing future talent -- and promoting the game in China." For the development center, MLB chose Dongbeitang High School, "a newly built facility complete with a baseball diamond," and there participants selected for the program "attend regular classes, baseball training and English lessons." Kurtenbach notes MLB in China "has been running summer training camps for kids and supporting university baseball programs, among other charitable and cooperative efforts" (AP, 9/23).