Wild Card

Eric Dickerson of Indianapolis and Alonzo Highsmith of Houston - two players who did not join their teams until October - carried their clubs into the playoffs yesterday. The Colts made the playoffs for the first time since 1977, the Oilers for the first time since 1980. Those years marked the last winning seasons for both teams. This is the playoff picture: AFC: Denver, Cleveland, Indianapolis. Seattle and Houston play in the wild- card game. NFC: San Francisco, Washington, Chicago.

As another spring training draws near, we offer a bit of warm news in the midst of this mild winter: The Phillies should never stink again. To anyone not yet old enough to legally consume an alcoholic beverage, that might not seem like such a big deal. All you have are memories of a beautiful ballpark overflowing with fans eager to watch a team perpetually in contention. It has been a decade since the Phillies last had a losing season and a dozen years since they finished lower than third in the division.

TAMPA, Fla. - There is nothing theoretical about playoff expansion for the Phillies. No one understands that, or how precious the opportunities are, better than Roy Halladay. He spent most of a brilliant career playing for a Toronto team that went to spring training every year with little or no chance of reaching the postseason. He came to the Phillies for a chance to change that, to compete on the biggest stage. Two years in a row, he got there. Two years in a row, a supposedly lesser team upset the Phillies and went on to win the World Series.

For Buddy Ryan, it is as clear as the Georgia sky. Probably clearer. And it took less than a half-hour in this Atlanta suburb for him to tell the world. For Buddy Ryan, the Eagles have one challenge against the Los Angeles Rams in their wild-card game Sunday at Veterans Stadium. And for Ryan's team to advance as far as he expects through this year's playoff maze, one group of large men is carrying the burden of meeting that challenge. "I think it will be up to our defensive line to decide how far we go in the playoffs," Ryan said last night, just minutes after his team checked into The Falcon Inn for three days of non-arctic practicing.

The debate over how baseball will expand the playoffs got a little more complicated yesterday, if such a thing were possible. Even while the owners were still battling among themselves over this issue, the players' union threw in its own two billion cents - by announcing that it was opposed to the playoff format the owners hadn't even settled on yet. The owners had been working toward a system in which four first-place teams and four second-place...

Eagles fans turned out in droves to buy tickets for next weekend's wild card playoff game against the Washington Redskins. The Birds clinched the home field advantage with a 23-21 victory over the Phoenix Cardinals Saturday.

As teachers and the school district struggle to resolve their contract dispute, there's a legal wild card in play that resulted from state legislators' anger at former Superintendent David Hornbeck two years ago. When Hornbeck threatened that schools might close without more funding in 1998, lawmakers responded by passing Act 46, a measure granting the state sweeping powers to take over a financially distressed school district such as Philadelphia's....

The Baltimore Ravens had a chance to seize the AFC Central title, a first-round bye and home-field advantage until the Super Bowl. Instead, after Tennessee beat Dallas last night, Baltimore ended up clutching a wild card. The Ravens will make their initial foray into the postseason Sunday afternoon at home against the Denver Broncos. It will be the first NFL playoff game in Baltimore since 1977, when the Colts lost to the Oakland Raiders in overtime. The Ravens (12-4)

With rainy weather, apathetic fans, unsettled ownership and losing records, the Florida Marlins provided comic relief in recent seasons. Look who's laughing now. The surprising Marlins beat the visiting New York Mets, 4-3, last night to clinch the National League wild card, their first playoff berth since winning the 1997 World Series. They will face the NL West champion Giants in a best-of-five series beginning Tuesday in San Francisco. "We're happy to get in, but this is just the beginning," said Derrek Lee, who drove in two runs.

Baseball CAPE-ATLANTIC LEAGUE AMERICAN Mainland at Holy Spirit, 1 CAPE-ATLANTIC LEAGUE NATIONAL St. Joseph at Sacred Heart, 10 a.m. COLONIAL CONFERENCE Collingswood at Haddon Heights, 11 a.m. OLYMPIC CONFERENCE NATIONAL Paul VI at Bishop Eustace, noon NONLEAGUE Absegami at Gloucester Catholic Delran at Overbrook Pitman at Williamstown Glassboro at...

TAMPA, Fla. - There is nothing theoretical about playoff expansion for the Phillies. No one understands that, or how precious the opportunities are, better than Roy Halladay. He spent most of a brilliant career playing for a Toronto team that went to spring training every year with little or no chance of reaching the postseason. He came to the Phillies for a chance to change that, to compete on the biggest stage. Two years in a row, he got there. Two years in a row, a supposedly lesser team upset the Phillies and went on to win the World Series.

NEW YORK - With less than a month to go before opening day, baseball at last decided who's in and who's out come October. Now, even a third-place team can win the World Series. Major League Baseball made it official Friday, expanding the playoff format to 10 teams by adding a second wild-card club to each league. "I hope we get that extra spot," said new Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, whose team is coming off a 56-106 finish that was the worst in the majors.

NEW YORK - Negotiators for baseball players and owners are working toward an agreement to increase the postseason field to 10 teams this season. They had hoped to reach a deal by yesterday, but both sides said talks could continue if they needed additional time to deal with the details of adding a second wild-card team in each league. The sides spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press because the talks have not been public. The sides have said for weeks a deal is likely.

I'M THE first to acknowledge that I am not a baseball purist, so I find it a bit comical when people argue against the latest proposal for expansion of the Major League Baseball playoffs on the basis that it somehow taints the sanctity of the game. It looks as if MLB will soon expand its playoffs from eight to 10 teams - possibly as early as this season. The new format would add one more wild card to the mix in each league. Those teams that don't win a division would be the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds and meet in a playoff while the three division winners would be awarded a first-round bye. All indications are that the wild-card round would be only one game for the right to advance to a five-game series against a division winner.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In Charlie Manuel's perfect baseball universe, the best teams in each league at the end of the regular season would meet in the World Series every year. That's the way it was when the Phillies manager was growing up in rural Virginia, and Manuel thought it was a plan that worked well. "You shouldn't get nothing for second or third," he said Wednesday after news spread that Major League Baseball will announce another expansion of the playoffs on Thursday.