But the absence of races is not the only problem with the wild-card format.

They don't like the wild-card format because of its implications for the regular season.

Does that mean baseball should expand the wild-card format, the way the National Football League did?

They were the National League wild-card team in the third year of the wild-card format.

If there are downsides to the wild-card format, one has to grudgingly acknowledge the occasional upside.

A wild-card format for baseball doesn't appear to be in the cards for now.

The NFL was the first league ever to use the wild-card format.

Excuse me, but wasn't it Costas who accused baseball of demythologizing summer with the original wild-card format?

The wild-card format came two years later.

That's an extra ramification of the creation of the wild-card format.