Division Series
Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIV : Division Series
The Division Series is the official name for the first round of playoffs conducted in the sport of baseball.
The first use of the term "Division Series" dates from 1981, when due to a mid-season players' strike, that season was divided into two halves, with the winners of each half from each division playing one another in a best-of-five series to decide which team would represent that division in the League Championship Series (this format being common in minor-league baseball). But because the two halves of the season were independent of one another, the winner of the first half had no real incentive to try and win the second half as well (since, unlike in the minor leagues, if the same team did win both halves it was not given a bye into the next round), and a team that won neither half could have actually had the best overall record in the division; indeed, the latter actually occurred, as the Cincinnati Reds not only had the best won-lost record (in both halves of the season combined) among the six teams in the National League's Western Division (to which they belonged at the time), but the Reds had the best overall winning percentage in all of Major League Baseball, yet did not advance to the playoffs because they did not finish first in either of the two halves.
In 1994, both the National League and the American League realigned, with the number of divisions in both increasing from two to three (with fewer teams in each). At the same time, the number of teams qualifying for baseball's postseason was doubled, from four to eight; henceforth the three first-place teams from each league's divisions would reach the postseason, along with one wild card team from each league (the latter being the second-place finisher with the best regular-season record). However, this expanded playoff format would not make its debut until the following year, because a players' strike, which began on August 12, 1994, led to the cancellation of that season's playoffs and World Series (and caused the 1995 regular season to have 18 fewer games for each team than normal).
Throughout its existence, the Division Series has been best-of-five; however, both the method of awarding home-field advantage in the series and which games the team getting the advantage would host were changed in 1998. Before that year, the Eastern, Central and Western Division champions rotated home-site priority, with two of them getting the extra home game and the third one and the wild card not; since 1998 the two division champions with the best regular-season records have been accorded this privilege. Beginning in the same year, the team having home-field advantage has hosted the first, second and (if necessary) fifth games; before that the team with the disadvantage played the first two games at home and the team with the advantage the last three.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.