Buy World Series Tickets Now*

It's not my favorite idea ever, but it seems like a win-win for baseball fans.

Major League Baseball is offering a deal where fans can pay a small fee to reserve playoff tickets. The fee per ticket is $10, $15, or $20, depending on the round, and it guarantees you the right to purchase often hard-to-get playoff tickets at face value.

*The hitch is that if your team doesn't make that round of the playoffs, you forfeit the cash.

If you wanted to reserve two tickets to one ALDS game, one ALCS game, and one World Series game, you'd spend $90. A bargain in most cities if your team makes the World Series, but lost cash if it doesn't.

I can see fans in cities like Boston - where the team has sold out hundreds of games in a row - jumping at this "small investment" in the futures game. But in places like Tampa Bay or Detroit or Los Angeles, where the team may not make the playoffs at all, MLB could be the only winner.

Would you lay down the cash on this investment?