Major League Baseball postseason
Encyclopedia
The Major League Baseball postseason is an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of Major League Baseball
's regular season. It consists of one best-of-five series and two best-of-seven series. When a teams are tied at the end of the season, tie-breaker rules
are used to determine which teams continue into the postseason.
Major League Baseball itself does not use the terms "playoffs" or "tournament
" for postseason action. Instead they use the term "postseason". MLB has stuck with "(name) Series" for each level of its postseason tournament. In the Majors, the singular term "playoff" is reserved for the rare situation in which two teams find themselves tied at the end of the regular season and are forced to have a playoff game (or games) to determine which team will advance to the postseason. Thus, in the Majors, a "playoff" is actually part of the regular season and thus can be called a "Pennant playoff". However, the plural term "playoffs" is conventionally used by fans and media to refer to baseball's postseason tournament (and has always been used by Minor league baseball
for its own postseason play), so this article defers to that usage.
Major League Baseball is the oldest of America's major professional sports leagues, dating back to the 1870s. As such, it is steeped in tradition. The final series to determine its champion has been called the "World Series
" (originally "World's Championship Series" and then "World's Series") as far back as the National League's contests with the American Association
during the 1880s.
Only one team that won less than half its games has advanced to the postseason, though several teams have finished only a few wins above the .500 mark. In 1903, the two modern Major League Baseball leagues began annual postseason play with a one-round system in which the American League team with the best record faced the National League team with the best record in a best-of-seven series (in 1903, 1919, 1920, and 1921 it was best-of-nine) called the World Series
; however, there was no 1904 Series because the National League Champion, the New York Giants, refused to play. This single-tiered approach persisted through 1968, even with the expansions of 1961-1962 that grew each league to 10 teams.
(LCS), a best-of-five series. In 1985 the LCS was expanded to a best-of-seven series.
to each league, imitating the original post-merger NFL system. This system was in place for 1994, but the players' strike canceled the postseason. The system was realized on the field in 1995. The wild card team would be the team with the best record in each league of all the teams that did not win their division. Splitting the leagues into 3 divisions, plus the addition of a wild card team, doubled the postseason contenders in each league from two to four, and from four to eight teams overall. The additional teams meant another elimination round was necessary. This new round would become the new first round of the postseason, the best-of-five, Division Series
. This term had first been used for the extra round required in 1981 due to the "split-season" scheduling anomaly following the mid-season players' strike.
In the first round of the divisional series, if the wild card team is not from the same division as the best divisional champion, those two teams play each other and the 2nd best divisional champ plays the 3rd best divisional champ. If the wild card team is from the same division as the best divisional champion, the 2nd best divisional champ plays the wild card team and the top divisional champ plays the bottom divisional champ. The winners of those two pairings play each other in the second round to determine the league champion.
Wildcards have won a total of five World Series, and won three years in a row from 2002-2004. The 2002 World Series
was a competition between wildcard teams from both leagues.
Oakland Athletics
general manager Billy Beane
, for his part, has called for each league's postseason tournament to be seeded strictly by regular-season record. Although the division champions would continue to receive automatic postseason berths as in the current system, the seeding would not consider whether a team won its division. No major North American sports league currently uses this system in its purest form, though the NBA
comes very close to doing so by treating the highest non-division team as a division winner (allowing it a higher seeding than some division winners) and awarding homecourt advantage
based on record. Had Beane's proposal been in place in 2006
, both leagues would have seen Division Series
matchups between a division champion and a wild-card team from its division — impossible under present rules, which forbid intradivisional matchups in the first round. If it had been in place in 1998
, 2004
, or 2007
, a wild-card team, with the second-best record in their league, would have had home-field advantage in the Division Series
over a division champion, which is also impossible under present rules, though wild-cards hosted the first two games of their series from 1995 to 1997.
as they await the result of the play-in game
.
years when wartime travel restrictions compelled a 3-4 format (used in 1943 and 1945, but not in the 1944 series, which was all in the same stadium in St. Louis). From the start of the 2-3-2 format through the 2002 season, home-field advantage generally alternated between leagues each year. Prior to the 1994 strike, the National League champion received home-field advantage in even-numbered years and the American League champion in odd-numbered years; these were reversed for 1995-2002 (because 1994 would have been the NL's turn to have home-field). That changed starting in 2003.
The 2002 All-Star Game
had ended in a tie, much to the displeasure of both fans and sportswriters who complained about a lack of intensity and competitiveness on the part of the players. This hit especially close to home for Commissioner Bud Selig
, as the game had been played in his home city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
. In response, to give some real meaning to the game, in 2003 MLB began assigning home-field advantage in the World Series to the winner of that year's All-Star Game, which is typically held in mid-July.
Thanks to a 7-All Star Game winning streak for the AL from 2003-2009, coupled with the American League
's scheduled home-field advantage in the 2002 Series, the American League was given (a) the first two home games and (b) home field in any seventh game in each World Series. It did not help the Yankees in 2003, the Tigers in 2006, or the Rays in 2008, but arguably it gave a jump start (by hosting the first two games) to the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 and the White Sox in 2005, all three of which ended up sweeping their opponents in the World Series. In 2010, the NL won their first All Star Game since the change in the assignment of home-field advantage. The Giants used this advantage to help them win the World Series for the NL in 2010. But this small sample roughly correlates with the overall record, in which the team with home-field advantage has won the Series only about half the time.
35+24+(12*2)+(3*4)+(1*4)=99%.
Just to give a sense of the amount of money a particular player might receive, members of the St. Louis Cardinals received over $362,000 for winning the World Series in 2006.
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's regular season. It consists of one best-of-five series and two best-of-seven series. When a teams are tied at the end of the season, tie-breaker rules
Major League Baseball tie-breaking procedures
Because inclusion in the Major League Baseball postseason is based upon the teams' regular-season records, procedures exist to break ties between teams.-Two-way tie for the division or wildcard:...
are used to determine which teams continue into the postseason.
Major League Baseball itself does not use the terms "playoffs" or "tournament
Tournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
" for postseason action. Instead they use the term "postseason". MLB has stuck with "(name) Series" for each level of its postseason tournament. In the Majors, the singular term "playoff" is reserved for the rare situation in which two teams find themselves tied at the end of the regular season and are forced to have a playoff game (or games) to determine which team will advance to the postseason. Thus, in the Majors, a "playoff" is actually part of the regular season and thus can be called a "Pennant playoff". However, the plural term "playoffs" is conventionally used by fans and media to refer to baseball's postseason tournament (and has always been used by Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
for its own postseason play), so this article defers to that usage.
Major League Baseball is the oldest of America's major professional sports leagues, dating back to the 1870s. As such, it is steeped in tradition. The final series to determine its champion has been called the "World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
" (originally "World's Championship Series" and then "World's Series") as far back as the National League's contests with the American Association
American Association (19th century)
The American Association was a Major League Baseball league that existed for 10 seasons from to . During that time, it challenged the National League for dominance of professional baseball...
during the 1880s.
Only one team that won less than half its games has advanced to the postseason, though several teams have finished only a few wins above the .500 mark. In 1903, the two modern Major League Baseball leagues began annual postseason play with a one-round system in which the American League team with the best record faced the National League team with the best record in a best-of-seven series (in 1903, 1919, 1920, and 1921 it was best-of-nine) called the World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
; however, there was no 1904 Series because the National League Champion, the New York Giants, refused to play. This single-tiered approach persisted through 1968, even with the expansions of 1961-1962 that grew each league to 10 teams.
Adoption of two-round postseason system
In 1969, both leagues expanded to twelve teams and this made it more difficult to compete for a league championship because there were more teams competing for the AL and NL pennants. To remedy this, and imitating the other major sports' long-standing playoff traditions, Major League Baseball split each league into Eastern and Western divisions, creating four divisions overall and no worse than a sixth place finish for any team in any division until later expansions in 1977 and 1993. This created a new postseason round, which was dubbed the League Championship SeriesLeague Championship Series
The League Championship Series is the official name for a round of postseason play in Major League Baseball which has been conducted since 1969...
(LCS), a best-of-five series. In 1985 the LCS was expanded to a best-of-seven series.
Three Round Playoff System
By 1994, further expansion was making it very difficult for a team to make the postseason. Major League baseball went through a re-alignment, expanding to three divisions (East, Central, West) in each league. However, only allowing divisional winners in the postseason would make an odd number of teams in each league, three. To rectify the odd number of teams, the league added wild-cardsMajor League Baseball Wild Card
In Major League Baseball, the wild-card playoff spot is given to the team in each league with the best record among the non-division winners. It was established for Major League Baseball's playoffs in 1994 with the intention of helping the best teams that did not win their division to still have a...
to each league, imitating the original post-merger NFL system. This system was in place for 1994, but the players' strike canceled the postseason. The system was realized on the field in 1995. The wild card team would be the team with the best record in each league of all the teams that did not win their division. Splitting the leagues into 3 divisions, plus the addition of a wild card team, doubled the postseason contenders in each league from two to four, and from four to eight teams overall. The additional teams meant another elimination round was necessary. This new round would become the new first round of the postseason, the best-of-five, Division Series
Division Series
In baseball, the Division Series is the official name for the first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Currently, a total of four series are played in this opening round, two each for both the American League and the National League.-1981 season:...
. This term had first been used for the extra round required in 1981 due to the "split-season" scheduling anomaly following the mid-season players' strike.
In the first round of the divisional series, if the wild card team is not from the same division as the best divisional champion, those two teams play each other and the 2nd best divisional champ plays the 3rd best divisional champ. If the wild card team is from the same division as the best divisional champion, the 2nd best divisional champ plays the wild card team and the top divisional champ plays the bottom divisional champ. The winners of those two pairings play each other in the second round to determine the league champion.
Wildcards have won a total of five World Series, and won three years in a row from 2002-2004. The 2002 World Series
2002 World Series
The 2002 World Series was a best-of-seven playoff series to determine the champion of Major League Baseball for the 2002 season. It was the 98th such contest between the champions of the American League and National League , and featured the AL champion Anaheim Angels against the NL champion San...
was a competition between wildcard teams from both leagues.
Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
general manager Billy Beane
Billy Beane
William Lamar "Billy" Beane III is a former Major League Baseball player and the current general manager and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics...
, for his part, has called for each league's postseason tournament to be seeded strictly by regular-season record. Although the division champions would continue to receive automatic postseason berths as in the current system, the seeding would not consider whether a team won its division. No major North American sports league currently uses this system in its purest form, though the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
comes very close to doing so by treating the highest non-division team as a division winner (allowing it a higher seeding than some division winners) and awarding homecourt advantage
Home team
In team sports, the term home advantage describes the advantage–usually a psychological advantage–that the home team is said to have over the visiting team as a result of playing in familiar facilities and in front of supportive fans...
based on record. Had Beane's proposal been in place in 2006
2006 Major League Baseball season
In , the Major League Baseball season ended with the National League's St. Louis Cardinals winning the World Series with the lowest regular season victory total in history. The American League continued its domination at the All-Star Game by winning its fourth straight game; the A.L. has won nine...
, both leagues would have seen Division Series
Division Series
In baseball, the Division Series is the official name for the first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Currently, a total of four series are played in this opening round, two each for both the American League and the National League.-1981 season:...
matchups between a division champion and a wild-card team from its division — impossible under present rules, which forbid intradivisional matchups in the first round. If it had been in place in 1998
1998 Major League Baseball season
*American League Championship Series MVP: David Wells**American League Division Series:*National League Championship Series MVP: Sterling Hitchcock**National League Division Series*All-Star Game, July 7 at Coors Field: American League, 13-8; Roberto Alomar, MVP...
, 2004
2004 Major League Baseball season
* Playoff MVPs** Manny Ramírez ** David Ortiz ** Albert Pujols * All-Star Game, July 13 at Minute Maid Park: American League, 9-4; Alfonso Soriano, MVP-References:* *...
, or 2007
2007 Major League Baseball season
The 2007 Major League Baseball season, began on April 1 with a rematch of the 2006 National League Championship Series; the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets played the first game of the season at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, which was won by the Mets, 6–1...
, a wild-card team, with the second-best record in their league, would have had home-field advantage in the Division Series
Division Series
In baseball, the Division Series is the official name for the first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Currently, a total of four series are played in this opening round, two each for both the American League and the National League.-1981 season:...
over a division champion, which is also impossible under present rules, though wild-cards hosted the first two games of their series from 1995 to 1997.
Wildcard round and byes
With the adoption of the new CBA in November, 2011, baseball commissioner Bud Selig announced that a new playoff system will begin possibly as early the next season in 2012, or at the latest in 2013. This format will be similar to the three tiered format, but will have two wildcard teams, who will play each other in a one game play in before the division series, with the winner of this game, advancing to the division series, and the playoffs continuing as before after the wildcard play in game. The division winners, will therefore receive a byeBye (sports)
A bye, in sports and other competitive activities, most commonly refers to the practice of allowing a player or team to advance to the next round of a playoff tournament without playing...
as they await the result of the play-in game
Play-in game
This article is about play in games in general, for the most common use of the term, see NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Opening Round game A play in game is a game at the beginning of a tournament that forces the lowest qualifiers for tournament to play each other before the main portion...
.
Home-field advantage
The World Series used several different formats in its early years. Initially it generally followed an alternating home-and-home pattern, except that if a seventh game was possible, its site was determined by coin toss prior to the sixth game. In 1924 the Series began using a 2-3-2 format, presumably to save on travel costs, a pattern that has continued to this day with the exception of a couple of the World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
years when wartime travel restrictions compelled a 3-4 format (used in 1943 and 1945, but not in the 1944 series, which was all in the same stadium in St. Louis). From the start of the 2-3-2 format through the 2002 season, home-field advantage generally alternated between leagues each year. Prior to the 1994 strike, the National League champion received home-field advantage in even-numbered years and the American League champion in odd-numbered years; these were reversed for 1995-2002 (because 1994 would have been the NL's turn to have home-field). That changed starting in 2003.
The 2002 All-Star Game
2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 2002 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 73rd playing of the midsummer classic between the all-stars of the American League and National League , the two leagues that make up Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 9, 2002 at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the home of...
had ended in a tie, much to the displeasure of both fans and sportswriters who complained about a lack of intensity and competitiveness on the part of the players. This hit especially close to home for Commissioner Bud Selig
Bud Selig
Allan Huber "Bud" Selig is the ninth and current Commissioner of Major League Baseball, having served in that capacity since 1992 as the acting commissioner, and as the official commissioner since 1998...
, as the game had been played in his home city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
. In response, to give some real meaning to the game, in 2003 MLB began assigning home-field advantage in the World Series to the winner of that year's All-Star Game, which is typically held in mid-July.
Thanks to a 7-All Star Game winning streak for the AL from 2003-2009, coupled with the American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
's scheduled home-field advantage in the 2002 Series, the American League was given (a) the first two home games and (b) home field in any seventh game in each World Series. It did not help the Yankees in 2003, the Tigers in 2006, or the Rays in 2008, but arguably it gave a jump start (by hosting the first two games) to the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 and the White Sox in 2005, all three of which ended up sweeping their opponents in the World Series. In 2010, the NL won their first All Star Game since the change in the assignment of home-field advantage. The Giants used this advantage to help them win the World Series for the NL in 2010. But this small sample roughly correlates with the overall record, in which the team with home-field advantage has won the Series only about half the time.
League Championship Series
Until 1998, the LCS alternated home-field advantage with a 2-3 format in the best-of-5 era (1969-84) and a 2-3-2 format when it went to best-of-7 (1985-present). Now home-field advantage goes to the team with the best record, or in the case of a wild card team vs. divisional winner, the divisional winner would receive home-field advantage.Division Series
Until 1998, the Division Series rotated which of the three division champions would not have home field advantage, with the wild card never having it. Now the two division winners with the best records in each league have home field, with the least-winning divisional winner and the wild card not having home field. The DS used a 2-3 format until 1998 and now uses a 2-2-1 format. This is seen as a much fairer distribution of home field advantage because previously under the 2-3 format, the team hosting the first two games had absolutely no chance of winning the series at home. With the current 2-2-1 format however, both teams have the home field advantage in a way. While one team gets to host three games (including the critical first and last game), the other team does get two chances out of three (games 3 and 4) of winning the series on its home field. Also, the team earning homefield is assured of hosting two games instead of the lesser record team being guaranteed the two games.Postseason bonuses
There are three factors that determine the actual amount of bonus money paid to any individual player: 1) the size of the bonus pool; 2) their team's success in the season/post-season; and, 3) the share of the pool assigned to the individual player.How the Bonus Pool is determined
There is a separate pool for each series – the Division Series, the League Championship Series, and the World Series. The player’s bonus pool is funded with 60% of the gate receipts for the first three games of each Division Series, the first four games of each LCS and the first four games of the World Series; limiting the funding for the pool to these games, the mimimum number in each series, removes incentive to extend the series for merely fiscal sake. The value of the gate is determined by the size of the venues, the amount of high-priced premium seating in the venues, the number of games played in the series and whether or not the games sell out. Ticket prices for each series are set by MLB, not the home teams, so they are relatively uniform across baseball.How much the winner and loser receives from each pool
The World Series winner gets 35%, the World Series loser gets 24%, both League Championship Series losers get 12%, and the four Division Series losers get 3%. In addition, the four second-place teams that fail to qualify for the postseason receive 1% of the pool.35+24+(12*2)+(3*4)+(1*4)=99%.
How the team’s share of the pool is divided
The player shares are voted upon by the players that were on the team during the entire regular season in a meeting chaired by their union representative. This meeting follows the trade deadline on July 31st. Players who have not been with the team for a full season may be granted a full share, less than a full share or no share as a result of the vote. Non-players, such as trainers, may be granted full or partial shares. The pool of money is split according to the shares determined in the vote. There is no limit to the number of shares that may be granted, but a greater number of shares dilutes the value of each share, and consequently the amount each player is awarded.Just to give a sense of the amount of money a particular player might receive, members of the St. Louis Cardinals received over $362,000 for winning the World Series in 2006.
See also
- Major League Baseball postseason teams
- List of Major League Baseball franchise postseason droughts
- List of Major League Baseball franchise postseason streaks
- Division SeriesDivision SeriesIn baseball, the Division Series is the official name for the first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs. Currently, a total of four series are played in this opening round, two each for both the American League and the National League.-1981 season:...
- Criticism of scheduling
- American League Division SeriesAmerican League Division SeriesIn Major League Baseball, the American League Division Series determines which two teams from the American League will advance to the American League Championship Series...
(ALDS) - National League Division SeriesNational League Division SeriesIn Major League Baseball, the National League Division Series determine which two teams from the National League will advance to the National League Championship Series...
(NLDS) - MLB division winnersMajor League Baseball division winnersThis is a list of division champions and wild-card winners in Major League Baseball.-Four-division alignment :*Team names link to the season in which each team playedYearAL EastAL WestNL EastNL West...
- National League pennant winners 1876-1968
- American League pennant winners 1901-68American League pennant winners 1901-68Each season in Major League Baseball , one American League team wins the pennant, signifying that they are the league's champion and have the right to play in the World Series. The pennant was presented to the team with the best win–loss record each year through the 1968 season, after which the...
- League Championship SeriesLeague Championship SeriesThe League Championship Series is the official name for a round of postseason play in Major League Baseball which has been conducted since 1969...
- Climax SeriesClimax SeriesThe is the current annual playoff system employed by Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball . It determines which two teams from the Central League and the Pacific League will compete in the Japan Series for the national championship. Since the creation of the NPB's two-league system in 1950, the...
- National League Championship SeriesNational League Championship SeriesIn Major League Baseball, the National League Championship Series is a round in the postseason that determines who wins the National League pennant and advances to Major League Baseball's championship, the World Series, facing the winner of the American League Championship Series. The reigning...
(NLCS) - American League Championship SeriesAmerican League Championship SeriesIn Major League Baseball, the American League Championship Series , played in October, is a round in the postseason that determines the winner of the American League pennant...
(ALCS) - World SeriesWorld SeriesThe World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
- Professional baseballProfessional baseballBaseball is a team sport which is played by several professional leagues throughout the world. In these leagues, and associated farm teams, players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system....