Players to Bud Selig: We want a seven-game division series

Amid promises from Commissioner Bud Selig to condense Major League Baseball's lengthy postseason, the players offer this suggestion: Extend the first round from best-of-five to best-of-seven.

"There's a lot of sentiment for a seven-game division series," Michael Weiner, executive director of the players union, said during a conference call this morning.

Weiner said such a change would most likely be subject to collective bargaining, meaning it would probably not be implemented until 2012. He said the commissioner's office could propose other changes --reducing the number of off days, for instance -- that could be approved without major negotiations.

Selig has yet to announce how he would shorten the postseason, or to make a proposal to the union. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia has called the postseason schedule "ridiculous," and Weiner said the players readily agree.

"The pace of play in the postseason is more the way you'd expect hockey to go than the way you'd expect baseball to go."

-- Bill Shaikin

Photo: Bud Selig. Credit: Theo Wargo / Getty Images