Selig success: AL Astros, extra wild card

Bud Selig knows that steroids will always be part of his legacy as baseball commissioner, but you could argue that illegal performance-enhancing drugs didn't mark the greatest integrity breach of the Selig era.

Maybe not even the second- greatest. After all, players always will search for a competitive advantage no matter how tough the testing or how daunting the consequences.

The good news for fans of both baseball and integrity is that in one news conference Thursday, Selig took steps to mitigate baseball's two most glaring, institutionalized inadequacies.

By announcing the addition of a second wild-card team, Selig helped bridge the huge payroll disparity that still exists.

And by switching the Astros from the NL Central to the AL West, creating a balance of 15 teams in each league starting in 2013, the commissioner set in motion hope for schedule equity.

The second wild card actually serves as a multiple remedy. No longer will we see playoff-bound clubs yawning through September, knowing that the benefits of winning the division (rather than the wild card) don't justify the costs. Now, with the two wild cards facing off in a do-or-die affair while the division winner rests and plans its Division Series starting rotation, teams will step on the gas.

Just as important, the second wild card means that AL clubs need not upend either the Yankees or the Red Sox to qualify for the tournament. Even if the two titans qualify, there's room for one more participant besides the AL Central and AL West champions.

The 15-15 league split is fundamentally fairer than the current setup. Maybe we didn't notice it much here in New York, but think about how silly it has been that the NL Central, with six members, and the AL West, with four, were competing for the same grand prize.

What we have noticed in New York was how ludicrous the interleague schedule had become: "The Yankees play the NL Central this year, except they play the Mets six times and, just for the heck of it, Colorado." Absolutely brutal. A joke. Most Little League schedules feature more structure and balance and logic.

With six divisions of five teams, such nonsense is finished. If we're really fortunate, we'll see the interleague "rivalry" matchups fade away and get played only when they match the formula. We probably won't be that fortunate, though.

Nevertheless, if progress comes often in small doses, then consider Thursday's news a welcome big gulp. And two more patched holes in Selig's legacy.