Major League Baseball is considering expanding the baseball playoffs. Under the proposal, each league would add another wild-card team and the two wild-card teams in each league would play in a one-game playoff to advance to the round of eight.

I don’t like that proposal. Teams that earn spots in the post season deserve more than one game to determine their fates.

Instead, I would expand the playoffs to three rounds of best-of-seven competition instead of two. And we can do it without having to postpone the start of the league champion series games.

Under my proposal, the playoffs would begin today. Here’s how it would look:

Monday, Oct. 4 (All times Eastern)
1:00—Texas at Tampa Bay
4:30 –Atlanta at San Francisco

Tues, Oct. 5 (game numbers in parentheses)
Noon—Texas-Tampa Bay (2)
3:30—New York-Minnesota (1)
7:00—Cincinnati-Philadelphia (1)
10:30—Atlanta-San Francisco (2)

Wed, Oct. 6
1:00—Cin-Phil (2)
4:30—NY-Minn (2)
8:00—TB-Tex (3)

Thur, Oct.7
1:00—SF-Atl (3)
4:30—Phil-Cin (3)
8:00—Minn-NY (3)

Fr, Oct 8
1:00—SF-Atl (4)
4:30—TB-Tex (4)
8:00—Minn-NY (4)

Sat, Oct. 9
1:00—Phil-Cin (4)
4:30—TB-Tex (5)
8:00—SF-Atl (5)

Sun, Oct 10
1:00—Minn-NY(5)
8:00—Phil-Cin (5)

Oct 11
1:00—Tex-TB (6)
4:30—Atl-SF (6)

Oct 12
1:00—Cin-Phil (6)
4:30—Atl-SF (7)
8:00—NY-Minn (6)

Oct 13
1:00—Tex-TB (7)
4:30—Cin-Phil (7)
8:00—NY-Minn (7)

The best-of-seven series would employ the old-fashioned 2-3-2 format.
The teams playing seven games would travel between cities only twice instead of four times. In several instances, teams would not get days off for travel. But such teams would be able to play day games before traveling and night games after arriving. As much as possible, game times would be arranged to suit local fans, not national TV audiences.