Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez knows a thing or two about baseball, playing 16 years with six different teams, earning 14 All-Star selections, 13 Gold Glove Awards and entering Cooperstown as one of the game's best catchers of all time.
It's no surprise, then, that he has a suggestion or two regarding MLB's one-game playoff, instituted in 2012 as a "play-in" for each league's two wild-card teams.
With both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees on pace for 100-win seasons in the American League East, Pudge was posed a question by Bill Reiter on Tuesday's edition of "Reiter's Block" on CBS Sports HQ: Which of the two teams is superior?
But rather than pinpoint a favorite, saying it's "all a matter of staying healthy" for both contenders, Rodriguez went on to outline the unusual dilemma of potentially having either the Sox or Yankees stuck in MLB's one-game playoff thanks to the AL East standings.
While he acknowledged that "it is what it is," the former catcher, who spent 2008 with the Yankees, also suggested an additional multi-game series might better determine MLB's postseason.
"In my opinion, they probably should play a couple games or a best-of-three series," he said.
Rodriguez said that whichever team wins the division, though, will be hard to beat, saying Boston and New York are "pretty even and pretty equal" in terms of overall talent.
Pudge also addressed the continued success of his former Detroit Tigers teammate Justin Verlander, the rise of his son as a San Francisco Giants pitcher and the potential impact of an in-season Manny Machado trade on Tuesday's "Reiter's Block."
