What are the best ways to improve the playoffs and the All-Star Game? Jayson Stark asked ESPN.com users for their opinions on the subject and they responded with a flurry of recommendations:

Instead of having the potential of penalizing the team with the best over all record because their league lost the game, why not give the league that wins the game an extra Wild Card team?

This would not only bring meaning to the All-Star game but would increase the competition in the league during the second half of the season.

The All-Star Wild Card would be either a second place team with the second best record or could be the third place team from the division that has the Wild Card team.

There would be a one game playoff at the end of the season to determine that leagues Wild Card team.

This system would be rewarding the league that wins the All-Star game without penalizing the team that loses.

Imagine how much more the All-Star game would become if the All-Star Wild Card team makes it to the World Series or even won it all. It would also give the league an additional playoff gate.

Considering that every other major sport gives the team with the best overall record home field advantage, I feel that this alternative keeps that tradition for Major League Baseball.

It also will most certainly create excitement by giving teams an additional shot at making the playoffs.

I can't think of any baseball fan who would be opposed to this proposal.

Mark Feigenbaum
Marlboro, N.J.

The All-Star Game should remain American League vs. National League. The winner should determine the host of the following year's All-Star Game (an AL park or an NL park). The World Series host should be the team with the best record (if they can do it for the LCS, they can do it for the World Series). There should be no more than four teams in each league (eight total) in the playoffs. If anything, that number should be reduced.

Anyone complaining about 92-win teams not making the playoffs should think about the 1954 Yankees and their kind. In baseball, you're the best or you're watching the best on TV. Stop whining.

Ideally, the absolutism of the pennant race should be restored. This should be accomplished by either taking three division winners in each league and giving the one with the best record a bye while the other two play a series, or by reducing each league back to two divisions ... I won't hold my breath for this one.

In the meantime, expanding the LDS to seven games and reducing the season by eight games sound fine, but those eight games should come out of interleague play (better yet, interleague play should come out of baseball, or at least be greatly reduced).

Lastly, the idea of a series between the MLB champ and the Japanese champ is very enticing, but how would they work home/away, home-field advantage in that one? And wouldn't it have to be in November?

Cliff
Madison, N.J.

	“	If the All-Star Game will decide home-field advantage in the World Series, then I'd like to see it be a series. Make the All-Star break five days and play a three-game series. It wouldn't increase the chance of injuries because teams always play three-game series anyway and would make them run like real baseball games, something I view very important if something as important as home-field in the World Series will be decided because of it.”
		—  Brian, Dale City, Va.

I would like to see both leagues have an even number of teams, 15 apiece. I think it would be a little more interesting to play interleague games all throughout the season rather than bunch them all together in June or July. This would also make it easier to plan schedules.

Finally, this last idea is quite radical but I would be all for it. Abolish the divisions and do not play an unbalanced schedule. Instead, get rid of the divisions, remove the unbalanced schedule, and take the four best teams from each league for the playoffs. Each team could possibly play each other two or three times per season in each league and maybe one time against the opposite league.

Adam
La Crosse, Wis.

How about going to the split schedule like the minor leagues? Crown champs for each half of the season. Sure, it's throwing away tradition, but so was interleague play.

Think a team like the Royals can hold on for 162 games? Probably not. But 81? Definitely. Or maybe I'm just a Cubs fan looking for a chance to get them in the playoffs since they start their meltdown sometime around game 120 or so.

Al
Mundelein, Ill.

To improve the postseason and the All-Star Game, first get rid of the DH (this improves the entire enterprise of baseball). Bring back the NL and AL umpire crews (and hats!). In short, make the leagues leagues again.

Baseball doesn't need long playoffs or All-Star Game gimmicks (that's why we have the NBA and NHL). Nonetheles, the wild card is here to stay, so let's make it better. Teams with the best record in each league get a first-round bye. The next two best teams (did I mention we no longer have divisions?) duke it out in a best-of-seven series. The winner plays the rested team, with that team getting home-field advantage for a best-of-seven series. An All-Star team of non-playoff players goes to Japan for an exhibition series. Players get guaranteed bonuses and performance bonuses to play (well) in those games.

Chris
Philadelphia

	“	Here's an idea for the postseason ... let the Red Sox automatically make the playoffs so they can win the World Series for once!”
		—  Tim, West Palm Beach, Fla.

Baseball is like a fine wine: don't go changing it just because you can. Besides, the game is changing enough as it is already. If we are to keep our national pastime, then we need to keep as many traditions as possible.

Jason
Oak Lawn, Ill.

Just find a way to speed up the playoff games. They are ridiculously long. With the regular-season games being sped up this year, the playoffs should follow suit.

Dan Halvorsen
Lake in the Hills, Ill.

I think restoring importance to the All-Star Game won't come about with gimmicks, like awarding home-field advantage, or expanding the rosters. It has to come from within the players themselves. Players treat this like an exhibition as they're showered and ready to leave the building by the seventh inning sometimes. I understand that nobody wants to get hurt, and that managers want everyone to play when they get the honor of being voted onto the team. But until the players are motivated to care about winning the All-Star Game, then there's no magic trick to make it seem like they do.

Mike
Albany, N.Y.

There needs to be a permanent DH in the World Series. There is a reason the pitcher usually bats ninth in the batting order (because they can't hit). And notice when interleague games are played in AL parks, the manager of the National League team never says "No thanks. I don't want a DH. I want my pitcher to hit". Nope. He uses the DH every time.

Dave
New Hampshire

	“	Cheerleaders!!!!”
		—  Dennis, Misawa Japan

Leave baseball the way it is. The All-Star Game ratings aren't going to be any higher because the winning league has home-field advantage.

Does anyone watch the World Series because one team has home-field advantage?

Trey Herber
Virginia Beach, Va.

Give the wild-card team some disadvanage in the Division Series. Say they have to win one more game than a division winner has to. So instead of a best-of-five series it would be the division winner team has to win three games and the wild-card team needs to win four games. That would only add one more possible game. And would give it an interesting twist as far as marketing the game goes.

Wally
Santa Barbara, Calif.

The whole point of the baseball season and playoffs is to determine the best baseball team. In a sport where one-inch can decide a game (like a fair/foul ball or called strike in key situations) you need a lot of games to determine which teams are better than others. Now we have a 162-game season to whittle down the field for the playoffs, then a five-game series (benefits teams with dominant starters), then two seven-game series (a true test of team strength). I like the idea of adding a wild-card team and a round where both teams play for the next round. Why not combine this with a reduced season of 154 (a traditional length, right?), then a three-game wild-card round, five-game Division Series, seven-game LCS and World Series. In this scenario, a team would have to be good enough over the long haul to get through 154 games, then win a short series, a medium series and two long series. Do that and who could argue that a better team existed that year?

In order to resolve the DH debate, allow a one-time-only pinch hitter for the pitcher, but the pitcher can remain in the game. Basically, this would be a one-time DH. With a pitcher batting a few times each game, the AL games would be faster, pitchers might not throw at batters heads, and you still get some extra (slight) offense while actually adding to the strategic nature of baseball. With this setup you get games with NL-pitcher at-bat strategy, but you don't have to watch a rally ended in say innings four, five and six if your pitcher is going strong and you have a runner in scoring position and the pitcher due up. A few days ago, Jason Schmidt of the Giants was pitching a great game through six innings and was taken out for a pinch hitter. This doesn't happen in the AL!

John

One of the suggestions mentioned in an article was to shorten the season to 154 games so the World Series doesn't run so late in the year. How about bringing back the Doubleheader? Schedule doubleheaders on Saturdays and if there is a rainout, play two on Sunday and another on Monday when a lot of teams are off anyway.

Chuck
Tampa, Fla.