By: Steve Norris

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

I’m still not over it.

It was October 12^th, 1997. The Atlanta Braves were in Miami, Florida for Game 5 of the National League Championship Series and looking to take a 3-2 series lead back to Atlanta with Greg Maddux on the mound.

Maddux had already lost Game 1 at home to Kevin Brown, so Atlanta needed their ace to get revenge on Brown.

However, just before the game, Brown was scratched due to illness and replaced with Livan Hernandez.

What followed is arguably the most controversial game in Braves history. The late Eric Gregg umpired that game and decided for some reason to widen his already wide strike zone, especially to left-handed batters.

This hurt the Braves far more as they had six left-handed batters to the Marlins three. Hernandez was the benefactor and outdueled Maddux 2-1, ending the game on a strikeout of Fred McGriff, where the third strike was at least a foot outside.

If you don’t believe me, do a search for it on YouTube. You’ll be shocked how awful that strike zone was that day.

The Braves would surrender the series to Brown at home two days later 7-4, in yet another first inning implosion by Glavine, while the Marlins would go on to upset the favored Cleveland Indians for the World Series title.

It was a devastating loss for Braves fans, especially after their World Series collapse to the Yankees the previous year.

The fact is, that loss to the Marlins should have never happened in the first place. The Marlins had no business being in the playoffs. They finished 9 games behind the Braves who had won 101 games during the regular season. But thanks to the silliness of the Wild Card, they not only got a chance to beat the Braves, but they were also able to earn the home field advantage by winning just one of the first two games in Atlanta in the NLCS.

Fast forward to last year’s playoffs and the same thing happened to the Braves against the Phillies, except this time it was worse. The hated Phillies finished 14 games…yes…FOURTEEN GAMES behind the Braves.

Yet, when they faced off in the National League Division Series, they were given the opportunity to win one game in Atlanta and immediately get home field advantage in a five-game series.

The Phillies would tee off on Braves ace Max Fried, who was pitching while suffering from the flu, and would win the game 7-6. The Braves would not recover and would go on to lose three games to one.

All of this after playing 162 games.

How does that make sense? Why would a team, who not only failed to win the division, but finished way out of first place, be given such an easy chance to get home field advantage?

Logic says they shouldn’t. In fact, it’s my opinion that it’s time to make the wild card teams work harder to win a playoff series.

Here’s my proposal for the baseball playoffs: Any time a wild card team is facing a division winner in a playoff series, the division winner should get three more home games than the wild card team.

For example, if a division winner is playing a wild card team in the National or American League Division Series, the division winner should get four home games to the wild card teams’ one.

If it’s the National or American League Championship Series, the division winner should get five home games to the wild card winners’ two. This would force the wild card team to have to win two away games no matter what. If they can do that, then they’ve earned the home field advantage.

As for the World Series, that can stay at four games to three no matter who ends up there as a wild card team would have earned their way there by then.

It’s time for Major League Baseball to make the regular season important again if they’re going to keep letting all these wild card teams in.

Unfortunately, it’s run by Rob Manfred, arguably the most incompetent commissioner in sports history, so I don’t see him getting a clue any time soon.