“The Yankees Win! The Yankees Win!”

Look how happy they get when they win the World Series!

How many times have you heard your man, sometimes with his friends, reenact that scene around the house?

As the commercial says, “there is only one October.” Meaning there is only one month for the baseball playoffs! Even my boyfriend and my father admitted that baseball can be a little, well, tedious to watch on t.v. during the regular season. But not during the post-season. Good luck prying them away from a game 7 League Championship battle. Especially if their team, or their team’s arch rival is in the battle. So chances are, come October 1st, you are stuck with at least a little baseball action, and not the good kind. So here’s what you need to know to make it through the one and only October.

How to follow The Post-Season, aka The Playoffs.

First off: you will hear the term “pennant race.” Do not be confused like I was. This simply refers to two teams vying for the top spot in their league, also known as the League Championship. This game decides who is going on to the World Series.

The Boston Red Sox winning their pennant in 2007, taking them back to the World Series.

-The post-season begins in October (see above reference that there is “only one October.”) They begin the Wednesday after the regular season ends. The regular season usually ends on a Sunday, so if you want to have a nice romantic date in October, plan it for the first Monday of the month. However, some times there are tie-breaker games between teams to determine who the top teams are that get to go to the playoffs!

-Four teams from each League (so a total of 8 teams) make it to the playoffs. They are:

-The 3 teams with the best record in each division (East, West, Central) get to go.

-Wildcard team: the next best team in the league. For example, this year the three best records in the American League were: The Angels (West), The Devil Rays (East), and the White Sox (Central). In the National the top three were: the Dodgers (West), the Phillies (East) and the Cubs (Central). Those 6 teams automatically got to go to the playoffs. The Red Sox (American) and Brewers (National) got to go because they had the next top records in their Leagues, aka the wild cards. Make sense?

-There are three rounds to the playoffs and each round consists of a “best of” series, meaning, the teams play each other multiple times, not just once. The team that wins the most times in the series wins.

Round 1: Division Series. The four teams from each league play each other. It is a best-of-5, so first team to 3 wins, well, wins!

Examples: 2008

Angels played the Red Sox. Winner: Red Sox. They won 3 games, the Angels, 1.

Devil Rays played the White Sox. Winner: Rays, 3 games to 1

Dodgers played the Cubs. Winner: Dodgers, 3 games to 0.

Phillies played the Brewers. Winner: Phillies, 3 games to 1.

Round 2: League Championship Series, (American League: ALCS National League: NLCS): The two winners from each division series battle out here to be the champions of their league. It is a best of 7 series. Winner takes home the pennant (don’t worry about what it is, just say that line and shock everyone that you know it!)

The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Champioship Series

Rays played the Red Sox. Winner: Rays, 4 games to 3.

Phillies played the Dodgers. Winner: Phillies, 4 games to 1.

Round 3: The World Series. The ALCS and NLCS champions meet here for a best of 7 showdown.

Devil Rays will play the Phillies. Winner: To be determined

About the author: Jennifer Taglione is the owner of this fabulous website Stiletto Sports. Despite writing well over 500 posts, she still maintains that she is not a sports writer! She is however a huge fan of Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Mark Sanchez, the Celtics, and totally kicks butt on March Madness brackets! Connect with her by following her on Twitter @StilettoSportsJ and subscribing to her weekly newsletter. For more info check out the About the Editor page!

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