For those who didn't catch the latest indignant "intellectually honest" response to baseball's wild-card playoff system from Bob Costas on his two-hour syndicated radio show (which airs locally on 570-AM, Sunday nights), here's the text of it, courtesy of the Premiere Radio Network:

“I love, like all baseball fans, this time of the year. And I also concede that the wild card -- in this era of baseball, with economic disparities, with a shorter attention span on the part of fans, with expansion, so they had to pretty much go to three divisions -- the wild card does create some interest, and it does allow fans of more teams to believe that their club has a shot late in the season.

"What irks me, however, is that wild card proponents refuse to concede something that is not an opinion, but is a fact, which is this: The wild card is just as apt to undermine or eliminate the drama of division races as it is to add the excitement of wild card races.

"For example, the race in the National League Central this year, which developed late because the Cardinals nearly collapsed - that meant something and had some tension and drama because neither the Cardinals nor the Astros had a shot at the wild card. However, by the end of the year, the American League Central, with the Twins and Tigers, and the National League West, with the Dodgers and Padres, were just as close. But those carried no drama and virtually no meaning because the loser was going to be the wild card. Of all the teams that wound up in the wild card race, at the end of this year, in both leagues, the only team that would not have been in a close divisional race even if the wild card didn't exist was the Phillies.

"Now I'm not saying that the wild card doesn't have merit. I am saying that someone who is intellectually honest would concede that it is a huge trade-off. The Yankees and Red Sox were separated by a game last year and playing each other at Fenway Park, but since the loser was going to be the wild card, those games meant nothing. The last day meant nothing. In 1996, the Padres and Dodgers played on the season's last day, and they were tied for first place, and neither team started its best players. They were each content to rest players, rest their best pitchers and take their chances in the post-season.

"So, does the wild card create additional excitement: Yes. But it also undermines the high-end drama of the divisional races for first. It is impossible; not unlikely, impossible to have a meaningful race for first place among any of the three best teams in the league as long as you have a wild card. The wild card has its pluses. This is not a traditionalist’s argument. This is an argument based in logic. You know that you can't look forward to a truly exciting and climactic divisional race unless it involves teams not good enough to have a crack at the wild card.

"Now having said that, here's another drawback of the wild card once you get into post-season: The only round that is guaranteed to include the wild card and likely a weak divisional winner out of the three, the first round is the one that is best-of-five, so that's most likely to produce an aberrant result. And yet you play it best-of-five, you play it with weird scheduling; there's often an off-day between the first game and the second game, so if you have a good pitcher or two, you can use them a disproportionate number of times - the better team gets only the extra home game, which means something, but means much less in baseball than in football or basketball - and even that game is oddly scheduled, with both teams traveling back to the better teams' home field with no off-day for game five - scheduling you wouldn't even allow, for the most part, during the regular season - so this is why wild card teams are much more likely to make it through in baseball to the World Series than a wild card team in football is to make it to the Super Bowl, last year's Steelers not withstanding, because if you have the best record in football, you get significant advantages; a bye, home field throughout. A wild card team has to play extra games and go on the road: This respects its regular season. Baseball does not do that.�

Sorry, but you lost me at the line the started "What irks me ....."