The MLB wild card is good, and Michael Jordan has fresh beef

I can already hear the shouting. Another year where great regular-season teams get bounced in the wild-card round. Is it fair? Is this the best reward?? 

I don’t really care. The wild card has consistently produced fantastic, tense baseball just after it made MLB’s regular season more fun. (Again, before the expanded playoff format, even some of these really good teams would already be home.) Yesterday was no different in terms of tension. Let’s start with the only series extension:

• Milwaukee used a late comeback to avoid the fate of its wild-card compatriots, beating the Mets 5-3 after slugging two home runs in the eighth inning. The teams will play a deciding Game 3 tonight. It was gutsy. Gritty, even.
• Speaking of: Detroit, which has adopted the “Gritty Tigs” moniker this postseason, advanced to the ALDS with a late rally in a 5-2 win to eliminate Houston. The Tigers once had a 0.2 percent chance to make the playoffs … in August!
• The Royals would probably enjoy a similar storyline if not for their division mates. A 2-1 win in Baltimore last night sent the Orioles packing after a two-game sweep. Kansas City lost 106 games last year and will now play the Yankees with an ALCS trip on the line. Yowza.

The only favorite who delivered? San Diego, whose nervy 5-4 win over Atlanta late last night sets up a third Padres-Dodgers NLDS in the last five years.

Levi Weaver will have more on this incredible postseason in The Windup later this morning. The divisional round starts Saturday.

P.S. I thought it was incredibly stark that Justin Verlander, a legend in both Tigers and Astros lore, sat in the Houston dugout watching his former team complete an incredible run. Verlander, 41, told The Athletic after the game he’s not ready to retire, by the way.

Beefs: NASCAR pokes the GOAT

Michael Jordan is a competitive man, maybe the most competitive person we’ve seen in professional sports … ever. His drive has extended far beyond his playing days as arguably the best basketball player to ever live.

For now, that fire resides in NASCAR, where he owns 23XI Racing. His new opponent: NASCAR itself. There is a mess brewing:

• Yesterday, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed suit against NASCAR and CEO Jim France, alleging the company has “used anti-competitive practices to prevent fair competition in the sport.”
• This all stems from a simmering dispute over NASCAR’s charter agreement, which has played out contentiously over the last two years. The charter is a CBA of sorts, where teams agree to financial terms and maintain their charters for however long the next agreement lasts.
• Thirteen of 15 NASCAR teams signed the newest charter after receiving the final proposal and a one-hour deadline to agree. The deadline was pushed a few hours, but it didn’t change the rushed tenor of the whole thing.
• The two teams who declined to sign are the ones suing NASCAR. They say they’ve been threatened and strong-armed into an agreement unfair to all teams, who have to buy these charters from NASCAR. Each charter is worth $30 million to $50 million.

So here we are, and this lawsuit — which could force NASCAR to open its books if not settled — could change how the sport operates. Of note: 23XI and Front Row hired antitrust lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, who helped create NFL free agency and is on the forefront of multiple NIL lawsuits against the NCAA.

Jeff Gluck’s column on Jordan’s specific role here was helpful. I wouldn’t want to make an enemy of that guy.

Pulse Picks

Dane Brugler returns with a look at the early NFL All-Rookie team. Hello, LSU players. Also others.

Speaking of my alma mater: Antonio Morales and Bruce Feldman polled 50 power players in college football to come up with the top five jobs in the sport. See the list here.

Earlier this week, John Hollinger picked NBA teams who could overachieve this year … including the Pistons. Today, he has five teams who’ll fall short of expectations.

Zach LaVine’s media day news conference could’ve been awkward after the perennial trade candidate went nowhere. His response knifed through all that, a soliloquy worth reading.

Did you know the PWHL’s No. 1 pick is still unsigned? Hailey Salvian explains the hold-up.

The Presidents Cup was a lot of fun. What it tells us about the upcoming Ryder Cup might be even more interesting.

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our report on the nascent college football super league.

Most-read on the website yesterday: The anonymous NFL player poll. Lots of fun stuff in this one.

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