Bob Costas on new wild card, Ryan Braun
MLB Network and NBC Sports broadcaster joined the show to talk about the new baseball playoff system and Ryan Braun.
Costas had interesting comments on the wild card. “The wild card giveth and the wild card taketh away,” Costas said.
Costas said some times the wild card added to the drama. Sometimes it ended up killing the drama. Costas said this new system would have messed up last year’s drama with the Cardinals and Braves, and the Rays and Red Sox.
But Costas said he likes the new system better than the old one. In part because it would help division winners. And he thinks the single game wild card playoff could have bigger ratings than any other postseason contest.
Costas also weighed in on Ryan Braun. “The mistake he made is when he threw [tester] Dino Laurenzi Jr. under the bus,” Costas said.
He thinks Braun talked about the value of his name, and then he didn’t do anything to avoid besmirching Laurenzi’s name. And Costas thinks it’s unlikely Laurenzi could have tampered with Braun’s sample for several reasons. For one, it would have been a crime. Costas also said the A and B samples were identical and Laurenzi would have had to figure out a way to match the samples.