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Playoffs to Determine League Winners

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Playoffs to Determine League Winners
Other than the playoffs the Pacific League had in the seasons they used a split season format, has Japanese baseball ever had a playoff to determine a league champion? If so, was it a one-game affair, a best of 3, etc and if it was a multi-game thing, what was the series total in games?

Jim Albright
Comments
Re: Playoffs to Determine League Winners
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Oct 7, 2002 1:21 PM | YBS Fan ]

Sorry to be so late getting back to you on this one.

I thought I remembered writing something during a close pennate race a number of years ago, but couldn't find anything in my archives. (My searching skills seem to be degrading. All I could find were references to last year's CL rules where the team with most wins is ranked first - which all changed back to winning percentage this year.) Nonetheless, since the Central League went to a new format whereby the second place team's winning percentage wise may playoff against the first place team should they finish the season with more wins, there are a number of possible playoff scenarios.

Please have a look at the NPB Central League Communications' Q&A page on the subject (in Japanese). I think that the case you are most likely referring to is the third sample, where two teams have the same winning percentage and wins. (This actually points out that the third place team in winning percentage does not go to the playoffs despite having won more games than the first two teams.) This and case 4 (2nd place team has more wins than 1st place) state that they have a three game playoff.

Case 5, where both second place teams have more wins than the first place team (in winning percentage), but same winning percentage as each other, the two second place teams play a one game playoff to decide who goes against the first place team in a best of three. (All of the above "three game" playoffs are "best of three.")

As for the question of if there has been a playoff, I see that the first place team finished 0 games over the second place team four times, twice in each league:

1974 (Team, Wins, Losses, Ties, W%)
1. Chunichi Dragons 70, 49, 11, .588
2. Yomiuri Giants 71, 50, 9, .305
No playoff.

1986
1. Hiroshima Carp 73, 46, 11, .613
2. Yomirui Giants 75, 48, 7, .610
No playoff.

1988
1. Seibu Lions 73, 51, 6, .589
2. Kintetsu Buffaloes 74, 52, 4, .587
No playoff.

1989
1. Kintetsu Buffaloes 71, 54, 5, .568
2. Orix Braves 72, 55, 3, .567
No playoff.

As you can see, tie games have prevented the "problem" of having playoffs throughout the years. The new CL rules are meant to fix the other problems tie games cause, i.e. the second place team finishing with more wins.
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