MLB SCHEDULE PLAYOFFS PROFESSIONAL
MLB SCHEDULE PLAYOFFS SERIES

Major League Baseball went through a realignment in 1994, when both the American and National Leagues expanded to three divisions: East, Central, and West.

MLB SCHEDULE PLAYOFFS SERIES

The winners of the division series then progressed to the league championship series, with the remainder of the postseason following a similar format to other years in this era. Because the strike split the season into two roughly equal halves, the division winners of each half of the 1981 season first met in a best-of-five Division Series. The baseball players' strike of 1981 uniquely-for this era-added another round to the postseason. However, since both teams played in the National League West division, the Giants missed the postseason by a single game. Most notably, in 1993, the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants finished with the two best records in the majors, with 104 and 103 wins, respectively. Under this system, it was possible for one of the best teams in a league to be left out of the postseason if it failed to win its division. In 1985 the LCS was expanded to a best-of-seven series. This created a new postseason round called the League Championship Series (LCS), in which the East and West division champions of each league would play a best-of-five series to determine the league champion.

To remedy this, and imitating the other major sports' long-standing playoff traditions, Major League Baseball split each league into East and West divisions, creating four divisions overall and no worse than a sixth-place finish for any team in any division until later expansions in 19. Each team would play other clubs in its own region of the country more than clubs in the rest of the country, creating an unbalanced schedule that in some years could give a team from one region an advantage in fighting for the league pennant. In 1969, both leagues expanded to twelve teams, complicating the competition for league championship.

This single-tiered approach persisted through 1968, even with the expansions of 1961–1962 that expanded both leagues to ten teams. In 1903, modern annual postseason play began with a one-round system, in which the American League champion would play the National League champion 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 New York Giants refused to play. 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 starting at the beginning of the 1880s.įrom 1901 to 1968, the American and National League teams with the best win–loss records in their respective leagues would win their league's championship, or pennant.

MLB SCHEDULE PLAYOFFS PROFESSIONAL

Major League Baseball is the oldest of America's major professional sports organizations, steeped in tradition with roots dating back to the 1870s. 1.6 2022–present: 12-team Wild Card Roundįormat history Before 1969: World Series only.

Mlb schedule playoffs