Re: Baseball question for Andrew

So I reached out across oceans to Winner and he had nothing to offer. I then decided to cater to my inner Encyclopedia Brown.

The scenario is this: In the event of a three way tie at the end of the season, MLB scheduled a one game playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox with the loser playing the Indians for the Wild Card spot.

From my September 29th post:

Why in this scenario should Cleveland have to play their way into the playoffs against a team with a worse regular season record (on account of the one game playoff)?

Some incriminating material from mlb.com:

"If a Monday playoff game is needed...MLB counts that as a 163rd regular season game for all teams involved."

http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/pa/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050926&content_id=1224631&vkey=mlbpa_news&fext=.jsp

How about Jayson Stark talking about this issue concerning the 2000 AL Wild Card Race?

So suppose Seattle, Oakland and Cleveland all finish the season with records of, say, 92-70. Then suppose the Mariners beat the A's in their AL West playoff game. That game would count in the standings, so Oakland's record would drop to 92-71, a half-game worse than Cleveland's record. Hence, the Indians would be in, the A's out.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stark/grumblings/767892.html

That's what I thought. How come these rules don't apply to the Yankees and Red Sox?

And in conclusion: Baseball sucks.