In a brief conversation on the field before Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Philadelphia’s Citizen Bank Park, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he thinks, basically, that things are going well.
The playoffs, for one: He dismissed the idea raised by some fans and writers that the current 12-team format, in which the top two teams in each league receive a bye while the lower seeds battle it out in the wild card series, produces too long a layoff for the top teams.
“It's only year two,” he said. “I'm sort of of the view [that] you need to give something a chance to work out. And I know some of the higher-seeded teams didn't win. I think if you think about where some of those teams were, there are other explanations than a five-day layoff.”
