Since Major League Baseball is adding two extra Wild Card teams and a one-game playoff between the Wild Cards in each league, this is my suggestion:

End the regular season on a Wednesday and leave two days for possible tie-breaking games and travel. Three days after the season ends is Wild Card Saturday (“One Saturday, Two Celebrations”). You choose a neutral, warm-weather or domed location and hold both the AL and NL Wild Cards on the same day on the same field. (If you want a home playoff game, you have to win.) There would be one early game and one late game with “halftime” entertainment. Have cities bid on Wild Card Saturday a couple years in advance. Because you are guaranteeing two victory celebrations on the same day, it should be an easy sale for TV.

It would be impossible to implement this schedule during 2012, but it should be doable the following season.