Playoff Format

Southern Section baseball coaches breathed a sigh of relief when the regional playoff format used last season was scrapped in favor of a more typical seeding process. That should help eliminate early round matchups between strong teams concentrated in one area and produce finals that feature the two best teams in each of six divisions. In the City Section, the top 16 teams at the end of the regular season will be selected for the City championship playoffs.

Teams with better records will have more of an advantage in the baseball playoffs this season. The home-field advantage in the division series and league championship series will go to teams with the best win-loss records unless they are wild cards, owners said Thursday. In addition, the teams with the home-field advantage in the best-of-five first round will be host for games 1, 2 and 5, rather than 3, 4 and 5. As before, wild-card teams cannot have home-field advantage in the first two rounds.

The first prime-time game of baseball's new postseason TV format, Texas' 6-2 victory over the New York Yankees at New York on Tuesday night, got an 8.6 rating and 15 share. Last year, regionalized coverage of the opening night of the playoffs got a 10.1 rating and 12 share on NBC. Baseball was criticized for not televising all games nationally, so it switched back to staggered starts this year and sold afternoon games to ESPN, the first postseason baseball games on cable. In all, 12.

Having the No. 1- and 2-ranked teams play for the national collegiate football championship every year should work out just fine. . . . Especially if the games are more competitive than that between No. 1 Nebraska and No. 2 Florida in the Fiesta Bowl last season. . . . The bowl alliance is a step in the right direction toward crowning a true NCAA champion. . . . But a playoff format still would be the best way. . . .

A proposal that would have scrapped the City Section basketball playoff format in favor of one similar to the City's postseason football structure has been set aside, Commissioner Barbara Fiege said this week. "It never went through," Fiege said. "And it's much too late to even consider at this stage of the year." The section instead will maintain the format in which teams qualify for postseason play in 4-A and 3-A divisions based strictly seedings within their own division.

Tony Zuniga pitched a two-hitter as Saddleback defeated Woodbridge, 5-0, Thursday at Windrow Park to create a five-way tie for second place in the Sea View League. Saddleback (14-11, 8-6), Woodbridge (11-15, 8-6), Irvine, Corona del Mar and Santa Margarita will determine the league's No. 2 and No. 3 playoff entrants in playoff games, beginning today. Athletic directors from each school will meet this morning to work out a playoff format.

Don Fehr, executive director of the baseball players' union, said Monday that the players are willing to begin negotiations on an expanded playoff format, separating it from the collective bargaining issues, but oppose the concept that has been tentatively approved by owners for 1994.

Citing "overwhelming support" from owners, the NHL announced a history-making realignment plan on Wednesday that will affect, among other things, the setup of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Under the plan, which will go into effect next season, the divisional playoff format will be junked in favor of a conference format matching the strongest teams against the weakest.

Hockey could have gone the way of baseball. Instead, it followed the lead of the NBA. It took the NHL about eight weeks to fall in line behind Commissioner Gary Bettman for its first major realignment since the 1981-82 season. Wednesday, the league announced a new regular-season schedule, a revised playoff format, and conference and divisional realignment. "The impact of this move will be minimal and least disruptive," Bettman said.