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A Potential Scheduling First

G-Fafif Sep 12 2007 04:56 PM

Should the Mets finish with one of the two-best first place records in the N.L., they will for the first time close their regular season (RS) and open their postseason (PS) at home. 1969: RS in Chicago, PS in Atlanta 1973: RS in Chicago, PS in Cincinnati 1986: RS @ Shea, PS in Houston 1988: RS @ Shea, PS in Los Angeles 1999: RS in Cincinnati, PS in Arizona 2000: RS @ Shea, PS in San Francisco 2006: RS in Washington, PS @ Shea 1986 and 2000 were the only years in which the regular season and postseason ended at Shea, albeit only one of them well.

metirish Sep 12 2007 06:18 PM

Found this interesting,next year the N.L. picks... ] AL's top team to pick first-round format By Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY The Los Angeles Angels, Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians may all have comfortable division leads, but for the first time there's an added incentive to finish with the league's best record. The American League team with the best record will have its choice of playoff formats in the first-round best-of-five Division Series. The AL's top team will be given one hour after its final regular-season game to decide whether it wants to open the playoffs Oct. 3 — playing potential back-to-back games only once in eight days — or Oct. 4, with five games in seven days. The National League is unaffected; its two Division Series will start Oct. 3. "It's an attempt to give the team with the best record at least some perk," said Bob DuPuy, MLB president and COO. All playoff series "had been always been assigned, but after thinking about it, we decided why not give them a choice? Why not give the team with the best record the advantage over the wild-card team? "It'll be interesting, I think some of it will depend on the pitching matchups." If the AL team with the best record believes it'll be an advantage to use four starters on regular rest, it may choose the series that begins Oct. 3. If the team wants to use three starters and have its ace available in Games 1 and 4 on regular rest, it likely would choose the Oct. 4 series. "We're just trying to get into the playoffs," said Cleveland general manager Mark Shapiro, who could use Cy Young candidates C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona in four of the five games. "There are different ways to look at it. You could decide that you're better off going with three starters, or decide that it would be too awkward with all of the off-days to consistently play well." This also is the first time there will be a travel day before a potential Game 5 in each first-round series. There also is an extra off-day in the best-of-seven Championship Series in both leagues, with off-days scheduled between Games 2 and 3 and Games 4 and 5. The World Series, which will open on Wednesday, Oct. 24, will keep the traditional format of two off days. The playoff matchups remain the same. The team with the best record in each league will play the wild-card winner, unless the wild-card team is from the same division. If the season ended today, Boston would play Cleveland, and the Angels would play the Yankees. The Mets would face San Diego in the NL with Arizona playing the Cubs or Milwaukee.