How Baseball Playoffs Work
The baseball playoffs are extremely excited. The thirty major league teams battle through 162 games in an effort to claim one of eight playoff spots, the fewest of the major American sports. Qualifying for the playoffs is difficult enough, but winning in the playoffs is even harder.
The baseball playoffs have three rounds. In the early days there was only the World Series before baseball added a 2nd round. But starting in 1994, baseball went to a six division format and added a wild card team to the playoffs. This meant that in each league, the three division winners and one wild card team would make up the playoff teams for that league. The strike cancelled the 1994 playoffs, but the new format finally took shape in 1995.
The first round of the playoffs matches up the wild card team against the top division winner in a best-of-five series, provided they are not in the same division. The other two division winners play each other. Home field format has changed over the years. Currently, the two division winners with the best records will host the first, second, and fifth games of the series while they play on the road in the third and fourth games. This round is referred to as the Division Series.
After that, the League Championship Series begins. The LCS is a best-of-seven format, with the higher seed hosting the first two games, and then playing on the road the next three. If needed, the series returns to the top seed's stadium for a sixth and seventh game. The World Series matches the two LCS winners. This is also a best-of-seven series and divides home games the same way. However, the team with home field is determined at the All-Star Game held in July. The league that wins that game receives home field advantage for the World Series. This started in 2003. Prior to that, the National League and American League alternated home field advantage regardless of who had the better record.
In the baseball playoffs, being the top seed hasn't always meant victory. In fact, since the first playoffs in the new format in 1995, wild card teams have won four World Series titles. That's more than the top seeds have won. Wild card teams won three in a row from 2002 through 2004, and the 2002 World Series matched the wild card team from each league. Clearly, the momentum of a team is a lot more important than regular season records in the baseball playoffs.
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