One-game playoff
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A one-game playoff or pennant playoff is a tiebreaker in certain American professional sports, to determine which of two teams, tied in the final standings, will qualify for a post-season tournament. Such a playoff is either a single game or a short series of games (such as best-2-of-3).
This is distinguished from the more general usage of the term "Playoff", which refers to the post-season tournament itself.
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[edit] Major League Baseball
In Major League Baseball, teams that have the same record at the end of the season must play a playoff game(s) to determine the champion, unless both teams already qualify for the post-season Series that culminate in the World Series.
One game playoffs are currently used in Major League Baseball (MLB). They are officially considered part of the regular season and are included in the standings, although not for the purpose of resolving any further ties[1]. The player stats are included in the regular-season stats.
[edit] Background
Through the 2007 season, there have been 11 league, division, or wild-card playoffs: seven one-game and four three-game. Up until the advent of divisional play in 1969, tied teams played a best-two-out-of-three game playoff in the National League and a one game playoff in the American League to determine the pennant winner and thus the league's entrant into the World Series. Starting with divisional play in 1969, this was changed to a simple one game playoff. Home field advantage was determined by a coin flip. In the case of the NL's best-of-three playoffs (pre-1969), the winner of the toss could choose to host either the first game or both of the last two games. The additional playoff spots created by the wild card system, which began in 1995, has increased the potential of ties, shown by the 4 one-game playoffs since 1995.
Because of the stark finality of it, such a playoff game or series often has much the same dramatic component as a Game 7 of a World Series, or a final game of any post-season series.
In Major League Baseball, with the regular season being 162 games long (since 1961 in the American League; since 1962 in the National League), the probability of two teams finishing in an exact tie is fairly small, and has been a relatively rare occurrence, although less rare since the wild card system has started with more playoff spots available. Yet, the closeness of many a pennant race has frequently presented at least the possibility of a tie.
[edit] Notable exceptions or oddities
Such a playoff is only used if two teams are tied for a single postseason slot. If two teams in the same division finish tied and both would qualify for the wild card, the one-game playoff is unnecessary, and tiebreaking rules are used to award the division title, with the other team advancing as the wild card. This has happened three times. In 2001, the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals tied for first in the National League Central with record of 93-69, and the Astros winning the division. In 2005, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox each finished 95-67 in the American League East with the Yankees posting the better head-to-head record. In 2006, the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers finished tied with records of 88-74 in the National League West and the Padres winning the division.
Occasionally, some races will see one team being forced to cancel a game late in the season due to a rainout. If the rainout causes a team to finish one-half game up or down in the division (i.e. one fewer win or loss than the other team, but an equal amount in the other category) that rainout must be made up before any playoff game can happen. Assuming no other convenient date is possible, the makeup would occur the day after the regular season ends. A potential playoff game would be played the day after, typically the day the postseason is scheduled to begin. This scenario has never occurred in baseball history. A notable example of the scenario being possible was the 2006 National League Central race between the Cardinals and Astros. Because of a rainout in September between the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, it was possible that this game would be made up the Monday after the season ended, with a potential Cardinals-Astros playoff being scheduled for that Tuesday. Instead, an Astros loss on the final day of the season clinched the division for the Cardinals, causing neither game to be necessary.
The season-ending matchup of the Chicago Cubs and the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds on October 8, 1908, in which the Cubs prevailed 4-2, is sometimes thought of as a "playoff". Although it had that effect, it was actually a makeup game necessitated by a tied game on September 23, in which a baserunning mistake by young Giants' player Fred Merkle cost the Giants a victory.
The potential playoff scenarios become complicated if three or more teams are tied[2]. This would require a series of one-game playoffs, taking more than one day. Several times the final scheduled day has arrived with such a situation possible, but it has never yet happened. On the last day of the 2007 regular season, it was possible that four teams could have been vying for the remaining two post-season spots. The Mets' final-game loss prevented that scenario, the playoff being again confined to just two teams, in this case the Padres and the Rockies.
[edit] Game history
Teams with home-field advantage are denoted in bold.
[edit] American League
| Year | Title | Winning Team | Losing Team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | AL pennant | Cleveland Indians | Boston Red Sox | 8-3 |
| 1978 | AL East | New York Yankees | Boston Red Sox | 5-4 |
| 1995 | AL West | Seattle Mariners | California Angels | 9-1 |
[edit] National League
| Year | Title | Winning Team | Losing Team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | NL West | Houston Astros | Los Angeles Dodgers | 7-1 |
| 1998 | NL wild card | Chicago Cubs | San Francisco Giants | 5-3 |
| 1999 | NL wild card | New York Mets | Cincinnati Reds | 5-0 |
| 2007 | NL wild card | Colorado Rockies | San Diego Padres | 9-8 (13) |
[edit] Three-game playoffs
| Year | Title | Winning Team | Losing Team | Scores |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | NL pennant | St. Louis Cardinals | Brooklyn Dodgers | 4-2, 8-4 |
| 1951 | NL pennant | New York Giants | Brooklyn Dodgers | 3-1, 0-10, 5-4 |
| 1959 | NL pennant | Los Angeles Dodgers | Milwaukee Braves | 3-2, 6-5 (12) |
| 1962 | NL pennant | San Francisco Giants | Los Angeles Dodgers | 8-0, 7-8, 6-4 |
[edit] National Football League
The National Football League now has an elaborate formula for breaking ties in the qualification for its playoffs. However, before the merger of the National Football League and the American Football League in 1970, it was possible to have a playoff game if 2 teams tied for a division title. The NFL had 9 of these playoffs occurred between 1941 and 1965. The AFL had 2 playoffs in 1963 and 1968.
The Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans of the National Football League tied at the end of the 1932 season. They held an extra game to determine the champion. Unlike subsequent post-season playoffs, this NFL Playoff Game, 1932 was considered part of the regular season, as are the baseball tie-breaking playoff games described above.
The NFL split into two divisions in 1933, and began playing a single post-season NFL Championship game. If two teams in a single division tied for first place, the rules also provided for a one-game tie-breaking playoff to determine which team would advance to the league championship game. This was the practice from 1933 to 1966. Unlike the 1932 contest, these tiebreakers were not part of the regular season's standings. The league's last one game playoff occurred in 1965. Since 1967, when they split into 4 divisions, the NFL has used a set of tiebreaking rules to break ties. The AFL did not adopt tiebreakers before the merger.
[edit] NFL one game playoffs
| Year | Winning Team | Losing Team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | Chicago Bears | Green Bay Packers | 33-14 |
| 1943 | Washington Redskins | New York Giants | 28-0 |
| 1947 | Philadelphia Eagles | Pittsburgh Steelers | 21-0 |
| 1950 | Cleveland Browns | New York Giants | 8-3 |
| 1950 | Los Angeles Rams | Chicago Bears | 24-14 |
| 1952 | Detroit Lions | Los Angeles Rams | 31-21 |
| 1957 | Detroit Lions | San Francisco 49ers | 31-27 |
| 1958 | New York Giants | Cleveland Browns | 10-0 |
| 1965 | Green Bay Packers | Baltimore Colts | 13-10 (OT) |
[edit] AFL one game playoffs
| Year | Winning Team | Losing Team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Boston Patriots | Buffalo Bills | 26-8 |
| 1968 | Oakland Raiders | Kansas City Chiefs | 41-6 |
[edit] Use in the Philippines
In the Philippines, the one-game playoff is called a "knockout game". In all instances, all games are held in neutral venues, since the home-and-away system is not used.
[edit] Philippine Basketball Association
As opposed to North American usage, in which one-game playoffs are held to determine a champion, in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), one-game playoffs are held when teams are tied in a last qualifying seed in the team standings. An extra game will be played in order to determine which team would be eliminated and which team will advance.
With the restructuring of the playoffs starting at the 2005-06 season, one game playoffs are also held which do not merit automatic elimination. When two teams are tied on the last qualifying seed for a stage (such as the #2 seed for the last semifinal berth), a classification game will be played in order to determine which team will clinch the higher seed. If the two teams are not tied on the last qualifying seed (such as the #1 seed where both teams are in the semifinals already), the points difference between the tied teams will be used to determine which team clinches the higher seed. Consequently, one-game playoffs that don't eliminate the loser are called "knockdown games."
Playoffs such as those after the 2004 restructuring are now very common due to the low amount of games played in the elimination round (18). In fact, each conference was able to feature at least one playoff game.
| Season | Conference | Winning team | Losing team | Score | For the position of... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-06 | Fiesta | Barangay Ginebra Kings | Red Bull Barako | 109-102 | Semifinal berth |
| Talk 'N Text Phone Pals | Air21 Express | 101-91 | Quarterfinal berth | ||
| Philippine | Coca-Cola Tigers | Air21 Express | 87-73 | Quarterfinal berth | |
| 2006-07 | Philippine | Purefoods Chunkee Giants | Sta. Lucia Realtors | 92-78 | Quarterfinal berth |
| Fiesta | Alaska Aces | Barangay Ginebra Kings | 103-95 | Semifinal berth | |
| Air21 Express | San Miguel Beermen | 103-99 | Quarterfinal berth |
[edit] College sports
Starting at the reformation of the playoff structure of the UAAP basketball tournament on 1993 (actually first used on 1994 since UST swept the playoffs and were named automatic champions on 1993), where the top 4 teams qualify for the semifinals, with the top 2 teams clinching the twice to beat advantage, a playoff will be held if two teams were tied for the fourth and last semifinal berth.
Men's playoff results include:
| Season | League | Winning team | Losing team | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | UAAP | UST | FEU | 80-69 |
| 2004 | NCAA | San Beda | Mapua | 59-52 |
| 2001 | UAAP | NU | UE | 108-102 |
| 2000 | UAAP | UST | UE | 65-61 |
| 1998 | UAAP | UST | UP | 80-72 |
Ties may also broken when two teams are tied for third, second and first seeds, although the competing teams still qualify for the playoffs when they lose; a playoff game for the #2 seed serves as a de facto game 1 of a best-of-three series.
The UAAP has also used this format for the volleyball tournaments.
