Column: Why the Rush to Expand Baseball Playoffs? Baseball has decided that expanding the postseason is such a good idea it's going to happen a year ahead of schedule. Why the rush? "Clubs really want it," commissioner Bud Selig said several weeks ago. I don't think I've ever seen an issue that the clubs want more than to have the extra wild card this year. ... Substitute the word "accountants" for "clubs" in the quote above and you're much closer to the truth. But let's take Selig at his word about working out dates to shoe-horn the extra games into the calendar and fast-forward to Oct. 3, the final day of the 2012 season. In the American League, Boston is at New York and the Los Angeles Angels are at Seattle, and at least three of the four - Mariners excepted - are almost locks to be in the playoff mix. Under the new scheme, it's possible that the winner or loser of the Red Sox-Yankees game Wednesday night would have to travel to the West Coast for a tiebreaker game Thursday in Anaheim, then be back on the East Coast in time to play Friday. Does that sound like a formula for exciting baseball? Cincinnati Reds' Scott Rolen, center, runs during a spring training baseball workout in Goodyear, Ariz., Thursday, March 1, 2012. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong It didn't to Chipper Jones, either, and remember: His Atlanta Braves would have made the playoffs last season under the new scheme, instead of being remembered for one of several epic collapses that made the last day of the regular season so memorable barely six months ago. "I know the almighty buck triggers everything, but when is enough enough?" he told the Journal-Constitution. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. None whatsoever. Jones might feel differently when his pay envelope arrives with a few extra dollars stuffed inside, but he's clearly in the minority. Besides, that battle has already been fought, and lost. Never mind that the baseball season is already too long. Or that an extra postseason spot won't be incentive enough for perennial misers like Kansas City and Pittsburgh to upgrade their rosters and really compete. The addition of a second wild-card team in each league for the 2013 season was written into the new collective bargaining agreement and would have given baseball plenty of time to set up the schedule. But once the owners and players realized they could cash in a year ahead of schedule, that plan went out the window. "It'll be exciting," Selig said. One-game playoff. It will start the playoffs in a very exciting manner. We'll see about that. If the one-game playoff in the National League comes down to Marlins at Padres, it's going to feel more like the play-in game for the NCAA tournament than anything really important. If it's the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium maybe, especially with new Boston manager Bobby Valentine breathing new fire into what used to be one of the best rivalries in any sport. He couldn't even get through February without talking a little trash - and later backed off - so Selig & Co. might be onto something.