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 Selig, in an online Town Hall meeting on Tuesday with fans ahead
of the All-Star Game in Minneapolis, shot down speculation that wild
card showdowns might be turned into best-of-three series, saying MLB
did not want postseason to reach November.
"The playoffs take a long time. I am bound and determined to make
sure that baseball is done by October 31," he said.
"I'm glad where we are and will stay where we are."
Under the current playoff format, the three divisional winners in
the American and National Leagues automatically earn spots in the
postseason.
The two teams with the next best records in each league play a
one-game “tiebreaker”, with the winners advancing to the postseason
proper.
 Before the current system was introduced in 2012, only one team from
each league gained a wild card spot and that team went straight into
a best-of-five divisional series.
That system was introduced in 1995, when the divisions were expanded
from two to three in each league and the wild card was introduced.
However, it had an unintended consequence in that teams sometimes
did not stress about winning their respective divisions if they had
a safe hold on a wild card since they were already assured of going
straight into an extended series.
With the current system, winning a division title has added value as
no team wants to face a one-off wild card encounter to keep their
season alive.
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Selig also said MLB was examining ways to reduce the time of games,
even as the introduction of instant replay challenges has worked in
the other direction.
“We really are working on time of the game,” the commissioner said.
“We’re right at three hours now and we will reduce it...It does
drive me crazy (batters) stepping out of the batter’s box (for no
discernible reason).”
Selig said he was also concerned at the increased number of serious
injuries suffered by pitchers, and was awaiting a report by a
committee studying the causes.
“We’ve had a lot of Tommy John problems,” he said, referring to the
elbow surgery named after former major league pitcher Tommy John,
who was the first athlete to have the then-groundbreaking surgery in
1974.
(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Larry
Fine)
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