Prior to 1998, it never really mattered which team had the best overall record in Major League Baseball — because it didn't determine what teams would have the home field advantage in the postseason.
Through 1968, the American League pennant winner got the home field advantage in the World Series (Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 at home) in odd-numbered years, while the National League pennant winner got the home field advantage in the World Series in even-numbered years.
When divisional play began in 1969, in the American League, the Western Division winner received the home field advantage in the new League Championship Series, while in the National League, the Eastern Division winner got the home field advantage in the LDS (this was done to prevent the possibility of two West Coast teams hosting playoff games concomitantly).
The home field advantage in the League Championship Series, as well as in the World Series, continued to alternate in successive years — until the 1994 players' strike and the leagues' coincident realignment into three divisions in each league.
Starting in 1995, a bizarre — to say nothing of grossly unfair — format for determining home field advantage in the newly-created Division Series in each league (the number of teams in each league qualifying for the playoffs in both leagues was doubled from two to four — which would have happened had the 1994 season not been aborted by the strike).
What made this format both bizarre and unfair is that in each league, one division winner was predestined not to have home field advantage in the Division Series, even if they finished with the best record in their league (again, designed to prevent West Coast teams from playing at home at the same time; for this same reason, the NFL delayed awarding home field advantage based on team records until 1975); this could potentially create a scenario under which the two teams with the best records in a league had to play each other in the Division Series which is what actually happened in the American League in 1995.
By 1998, the Lords of Baseball realized how foolish this was, and changed the format to one under which the top seed, based on record, hosted the one wild card team in each league that then existed, unless the wild card was in the same division as the top seed, in which case the top seed would instead play the division winner the poorest record (which in most years would have finished with a worse record than the wild card anyway), and the wild card playing the division winner with the second-best record.
In 2012, a fifth team was added to each league's playoff draw, with the now two wild-card teams in each league's playoff draw squaring off in a "play-in game," and the winners therein advancing to the "Elite Eight." At the same time, the restriction on same-division matchups in the Division Series was abolished.
A decade later, the owners took still another bite out of the apple by expanding the playoff field to six teams in each league. Maybe it would have made sense to add two expansion teams before doing this?
But back to the wild — and ridiculous — scramble for the best record in baseball this year, which carries with it home field advantage throughout the diluted playoffs: At the present, no MLB team has a .600 winning percentage — and the last time that has ended up happening in both leagues was in 2013. As of Tuesday morning, the Orioles, Guardians and Dodgers were in a three-way tie for the best record in baseball at 70-49 (.588), followed by the Phillies (69-49, .585) and the Yankees (70-50, .583) both a half-game back. And none of them are playing particularly well right now.
Tomorrow night, the Phillies will open a 6-game home stand against the Marlins and Nationals, both of whom are wracked on the lee shore of .500. The Dodgers will be well advised to resist the temptation to drink too much beer this coming week, as they will have four in Milwaukee followed by three in St. Louis, while Cleveland can pretty much count on three guaranteed wins at home over the White Sox, who are actually on pace to break the all-time futility record established by the 1962 Mets, after which they hop on the team bus to play three in Milwaukee.
As for the AL East contenders, the Orioles will have two at home against their Beltway rivals, the Nationals, and then four at home against the Red Sox — and while the Yankees, like the Dodgers, will be on the road this week, they will have three at the toothless Tigers after three at the even more toothless White Sox.
Suffice it to say that there is going to be scoreboard-watching among the teams involved over the next seven weeks — lots of scoreboard-watching.
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