In our prior post, Too Much of a Good Thing, we noted the ever-expanding baseball season. The biggest driver of that expansion is the inclusion of more and more teams into the post season. The following table makes this point abundantly clear.
| Year* | # of Teams | League Configuration | Playoff Format |
| 1901 | 16 | 8 AL, 8 NL (no divisions) | World Series only – 2 teams |
| 1961 | 18 | 10 AL, 8 NL (no divisions) | World Series only – 2 teams |
| 1962 | 20 | 10 AL, 10 NL (no divisions) | World Series only – 2 teams |
| 1969 | 24 | 12 AL, 12 NL (East, West) | World Series and LCS – 4 teams |
| 1977 | 26 | 14 AL, 12 NL (East, West) | World Series and LCS – 4 teams |
| 1993 | 28 | 14 AL, 14 NL (East, West) | World Series and LCS – 4 teams |
| 1994 | 28 | 14 AL, 14 NL (East, Central, West) | World Series, LCS, Wild Card – 8 teams |
| 1998 | 30 | 14 AL, 14 NL (East, Central, West) | World Series, LCS, Wild Card – 8 teams |
| 2012 | 30 | 14 AL, 14 NL (East, Central, West) | World Series, LCS, Expanded Wild Card – 10 teams |
| 2022 | 30 | 14 AL, 14 NL (East, Central, West) | World Series, LCS, Expanded Wild Card – 12 teams |
What started out as two playoff teams at the turn of the century has grown to include 12-post season teams today. A quick analysis shows the following in terms of how the baseball playoff structure changed over time and the increased percentage of all MLB teams eligible for the post-season.
| Year | # of Teams | # of Playoff Teams | % of all Teams in Playoffs |
| 1901 – 1960 | 16 | 2 | 12.5% |
| 1961 | 18 | 2 | 11.1% |
| 1962 – 1968 | 20 | 2 | 10.0% |
| 1969 – 1976 | 24 | 4 | 16.7% |
| 1977 – 1992 | 26 | 4 | 15.4% |
| 1993 | 28 | 4 | 14.3% |
| 1994 – 1995 | 28 | 8 | 28.6% |
| 1998 | 30 | 8 | 26.7% |
| 2012 – 2021 | 30 | 10 | 33.3% |
| 2022 | 30 | 12 | 40.0% |
The table above speaks for itself. Baseball’s height of popularity in the 1960’s, and prior coincided with the fewest teams earning their way into the post season. Of course there were other factors at play here, since prior to 1969 there was only an American and National League and no divisions. The creation of two divisions in 1969 (East and West) and three divisions in 1994 (East, Central, West) for both leagues required expanding the playoffs. There are a couple of factors to consider here in terms of these expanded playoffs.
In 1994, MLB could have just retained the East-West split as they had done since 1969. MLB only added another four teams (two per league) since 1969, which would have formed two seven-team divisions in each league. Seven team divisions are not many when considering each club has 162 games to make their case for the top spot. The expansion to 30 teams (15 per league) in 1998 would have made that split more challenging and thus the three divisions made more sense. Keep in mind though that MLB had uneven divisions from 1994 through 1997, so even then the league could have kept just an East-West format until the league expanded to 32 teams (which is supposedly going to happen in the near future).
That argument loses even more credibility, since with there was not any need to expand the playoffs due to additional teams or changes in divisions, MLB has twice more expanded the number of playoff teams to first 10 and then 12 teams. This expansion has resulted in 40% of the teams entering the post-season, which on a percentage basis is triple the rate from 1960 and quadrupled from 1968.
We do not suggest that the playoff expansion is the only reason for the slide in baseball’s popularity. It is just one of the factors, but one that MLB nor the media will ever raise. Why? The answer here is always comes down to that singular word: MONEY. More playoff teams equals more games, more television revenue, more everything but ultimately more money.
In our next post we will look at the demise specifically at the World Series in terms of ratings.
Baseball Purist 
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