October baseball just got a little more interesting. Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that both the American and National leagues will have an additional wild card team, creating a one-game playoff between each circuit's pair of wild card winners.
"It's an extra playoff game," Commissioner Bud Selig, per the New York Daily News. "The one criticism we’ve had is that we didn’t put enough on winning the division. Now we have. Now we have in a big way."
Selig noted that the new format could happen as early as 2012, but could be held off until 2013.
Talk of expanding the postseason has been going on for a few years now. In the Fall of 2010, Selig said that he was "intrigued" by the idea of making some changes. Later, he said that "if we went to 10 teams, we wouldn't be abusing anything."
Before the 2011 season was underway, Selig informed reporters that the league was moving toward expansion.
Expanding the postseason was not the only change made. MLB also approved the sale of the Houston Astros on the condition that the club will move from the NL to the AL, which would create two 15-team leagues. MLB approved the sale on Thursday, meaning baseball will have its first realignment since the Milwaukee Brewers switched from the AL to the NL after the 1997 season.