This year’s divisional playoffs will be a pair of seven-team double-elimination tournaments, one for our American Division and one for our National Division. These tournaments will take place over two weeks, from Saturday, June 14, through Saturday, June 28. The pennant winners of the National and American Divisions will then advance to the NSYBA World Series. The NSYBA World Series this year will be a best-of-three competition, to be played on Monday, June 30, through Wednesday, July 2.

DOUBLE-ELIMINATION TOURNAMENTS are a lot more fun than single-elimination tournaments, insofar as a team keeps playing until it has lost two games rather than one. In this version of a seven-team double-elimination tournament, the minimum number of consecutive wins it takes is three (for the team seeded #1) or four (for teams seeded #2 through #7). The maximum number of games, if you lose your first game but then win all the rest, is six (for the team seeded #1) or seven (for teams seeded #2 through #7).

SEEDING FOR THE DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS: During the regular season, teams receive two points for a win, zero points for a loss and each team receives one point for a tied game. At the end of the regular season, the seven teams in each division are ranked (or seeded) from #1 through #7 based on the total number of points they have accumulated. If two teams are tied, the one with the better record head-to-head receives the higher seeding. If the two tied teams have split their two regular-season games, the NSYBA Commissioner flips a coin to determine which team receives the higher seeding. Your regular-season seeding stays with you throughout the divisional tournament. The team with the higher seeding gets home-field advantage. So, if in the first round, the team seeded #6 wins the B game and the team seeded #4 wins the C game, the team seeded #4 gets home-field advantage for game E.

HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE consists solely of batting last. While the Scorekeeper will make an effort to place the home team at its home diamond, restrictions on game-slot availability and the sheer administrative headache to park districts and umpiring services dictate that the NSYBA specify the game slots be declared before the tournament ever begins. Finally, rainouts will play merry hob with the schedule. And even if the home team actually plays on its home diamond, there is no guarantee the umpires will be from your league’s regular umpiring service. (The divisional playoffs umpiring jobs will be divvied out to the various umpiring services in proportion to the number of NSYBA teams each league provided. )

CONFLICTS WITH NSBL: Since the NSYBA championship season overlaps the NSBL (North Shore Baseball League -- the traveling all-star league) regular season, it is inevitable that there are conflicts. The Scorekeeper has made every effort to keep such conflicts to a minimum; however, they do exist. The NSYBA takes the stance that the NSYBA championship season is more important than the start of the NSBL regular season and that players in both the NSYBA and NSBL should play in the NSYBA championship season games.

EXPLANATION OF THE DRAW-SHEETS: Please print out the draw-sheet. Without one in front of you, this explanation is meaningless. For each pair of game lines, the top line is “visitors” (and bats first) and the bottom line is “home” (and bats last).

Teams which win every game stay on the top track, while teams which lose one game drop to the bottom track to face other teams which have lost one game. Should a team on the bottom track lose a second game, it is eliminated from the tournament.

The teams seeded #2 through #7 pair up in round 1 (Saturday, June 14) in games A through C. The team seeded #1 gets a bye and doesn’t start playing until game D in round 2 (Monday, June 16, through Wednesday, June 18), when it faces one of the first-round winners. And so it goes.

BACK-TO-BACK GAMES: In addition to all of the other constraints placed upon him, the Scorekeeper has undertaken to keep back-to-back games to a minimum. Assuming no rainouts, the only back-to-back games are 1) the two J-games (Sunday, June 22) and 2) one of the L games (Wednesday, June 25). Of course, rainouts will provoke many more back-to-back games: blame the Weather Gods, over whom the Scorekeeper has no control.

GAME-SLOT POOL and RAINOUT ALTERNATIVES: The sites for the various games will be drawn from the game-slot pool immediately below each round on the draw-sheet. Rainout alternatives are listed immediately below these. We’ll use the rainout alternatives only in case of original game-slots being rained out. They are not alternative game-slots, insofar as using them may provoke bunches of back-to-back games later in the tournament.

NSYBA WORLD SERIES

As mentioned above, the 2003 NSYBA World Series will be a best-of-three tournament played on consecutive days, starting Monday, June 30. The contestants will be the two pennant winners, one from the American Division and one from the National Division. 

The first NSYBA World Series gamee will be played at Laramie West at 8:00 PM, under the lights. The home team for the first game will be the team with more regular-season points. If the two pennant winners have the same number of regular-season points, then the NSYBA Commissioner will flip a coin to determine the home team for the first game. 

The second NSYBA World Series game will be played at Central Park West on Tuesday, July 1, at 5:30 PM. The home team for this game will be the team which was visitors in the first game.

The third NSYBA World Series game (if needed) will be played at Prairie View, with its grass infield, on Wednesday, July 2, at 5:30 PM. The home team for this game will be the home team for the first game.