Ok, baseball folks, initiate me!....please!

[Angela Harlem]

I watched the last 5 or so games of the last world series and was very impressed. I have watched more this season, but am a bit stumped. Is anyone interested in explaining how the series works? Is it just my imagination, or does the series change names as it goes on?

Actually, any explanations on any of it would be great. I think I have a good general understanding of the game itself, but I am informationless and need ya help!

Thanks kindly

~the ignorant skip~

 

[Hewson]

Basically The World Series is the final round of the baseball playoffs, set to start this Saturday, San Francisco at Anaheim.

Under the current playoff format, there are now 3 rounds of playoffs, taking 8 teams down to an eventual champion.
First is the "League Division Series", a best 3 out of 5 games series. There are 4 of these at once (This yr was Anaheim vs Yankees, Minnesota vs Oakland, SF vs Atlanta, and St Louis vs Arizona)
The 4 winners then go on to the 2 "League Championship Series" (best 4 out of 7 games), these are the 2 series which just wrapped up, Anaheim beating Minnesota 4 games to 1, and SanFran beating St Louis 4 games to 1.
Now Anaheim is American League Champion, and San Francisco is National League Champion, and they will play best 4 out of 7 games in "The World Series".

Hope that helps Angie.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Thankyou heaps Hewson for the explanations! It has helped heaps. It seems as though I missed the 'League Division Series', but no matter. So now it is down to 2 teams, SF and Anaheim, for the World Series....I think this is what was stumping me before. Only two teams will play off against each other in the last 7 games to make series champions? I am not good with terminology yet, so feel free to laugh!

Got a couple more questions, again I hope someone would not mind answering.

Is the League Division Series a qualifier? Ie, do teams need to win set games preceding those to gain a spot in this series? I just imagine there are lots more teams in the whole thing, but it just seems very limited by the time the even League Division rolls around.

How long also, is the general season? Fox sports here isn't very comprehensive with their coverage, showing more games at the end of each season it seems. Anyhow....

Thanks!

 

[Hewson]

OK Angie...here's the brief version of the baseball season (which is quite long).
There are 30 teams total in Major League Baseball, split into 2 leagues, American and National, each of which has 3 divisions, East, West and Central. (A total of 6 divisions). The teams play 162 games in the regular season(from April thru late Sept/Early Oct). At the end of the season the 6 teams who win their division, plus the best team in each league who did not win its division (known as the "wild card") make the playoffs.
So that gives you 8 teams (4 in each league) who compete for the World Series Championship in the 3 round playoff format I described above.