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Division Series

In baseball, the Division Series is the official name for the first round of the Major League Baseball playoffs.

1981 season

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.

1994

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).

Home-field advantage

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.

1995-1997

Originally, the Eastern, Central and Western Division champions rotated home-site priority, with the two of them getting the extra home game and the third one and the wild card not. The 2-3 format was used in which the team with the disadvantage hosted the first two games and the team with the advantage hosting the remaining game(s). This meant the team with the disadvantage had absolutely no chance of winning the series at home. A similar format had also been used for the League Championship Series from 1969-1984. It also allowed wild card teams the unusual luxury of starting a series at home and possibly having home field advantage in a three game series.

1998-present

Since 1998, the two division champions with the best regular-season records have been accorded with the home field advantage. The change also prevents two teams from the same division facing each other in the Division Series. Also, the format changed to a 2-2-1 layout with the team having home-field advantage hosting the first, second and (if necessary) fifth games; with this newer format, the lower seeded team actually gets two chances out of three to win the series on its home field although the higher seeded team hosts three out of five games overall.

Wild card teams

A wild card team can only have home-field advantage in the World Series if their league won the all-star game. Other than that, they can never receive home-field advantage in a series, even if it has a better record than the division champion it plays (which would occur if the teams with the two best records come from the same division; see below).

Currently, the three division champions receive the top three seeds, with the wild card team receiving the fourth seed. The teams are bracketed by the following criteria:

The #1-seeded division champion plays the wild card (#4), and the other two division champions (#2 and #3) play one another, UNLESS:
The #1-seeded division champion and the wild card come from the same division. In that instance, the #1-seeded division champion instead plays the #3-seeded division champion with the #2-seeded division champion playing the wild card.

Criticism of scheduling

There has been some criticism on how Major League Baseball schedules Division Series games. Teams with large national fan followings like the New York Yankees are almost always scheduled to play in prime time at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT to generate the highest TV ratings. As a result, West Coast teams generally have to play on the road at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT when many of their fans are unable to watch the game because they are at work or school. Conversely, when games on the West Coast are played at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, many fans on the East Coast are unable to watch a game in its entirety, due to games ending around 1 a.m. ET/10 p.m. PT, while most West Coast fans are able to watch the entire game.

Billy Beane's proposal

Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane has been critical of the seeding of the Division Series. He has called for the Division Series to be seeded strictly by regular-season record without regard to whether a team has won its division.

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, which is impossible under present rules. If it had been in place in 2004, the wild-card Boston Red Sox, with the second-best record in the American League, would have had home-field advantage in the Division Series over a division champion, which is also impossible under present rules.