The regular season ends on Sunday, September 17^th. Four teams from each league will qualify for the playoffs - the three division winners and the second place team with the best won-lost percentage (wild card). CALENDAR DAYS ARE IMPORTANT FOR BOTH STARTING PITCHER UTILIZATION AND PLAYING THESE GAMES!!!

Ties which effect only the playoff match-ups and home field advantage, but do not effect which four teams qualify for the playoffs will be decided by: (1) head-to-head records; (2) won-lost records excluding inter-league games; (3) coin flip. Ties effecting which four teams qualify for the playoffs will be decided by one-game playoffs. The home team for this game will be decided by: (1) head-to-head records; (2) won-lost records excluding inter-league games; (3) coin flip. One-game playoffs will be held on Monday, October 1^st and will be played by the Commissioner (or other neutral manager selected by the Commissioner) using computer managers supplied by managers of the participating teams. All player usage rules applicable to post-season games will apply to this play-off game (see below).

Post-season games will be played according to the schedule at the right. In each league, the first round series match-ups will be:

• Division winner with the best won-lost record (#1 Seed) vs. Wild Card (#4 Seed)
• Division winner with the second best won-lost record (#2 Seed) vs. Division winner with worst won-lost record (#3 Seed)

Winners of the first round series will play each other in the League Championship Series. Winners of the League Championship will meet in the World Series. In each series, the team with the better won-lost record will have the home field advantage and will be the home team for games 1, 2, 6 and 7, except a Wild Card team cannot have home field advantage against any team other than the other Wild Card team in the World Series. The team with the poorer won-lost percentage will be the home team for games 3, 4 and 5. Each game will be played by the manager of the home team using a computer manager supplied by the manager of the visiting team. Alternatively, you may play games face-to-face (if possible) or by using NetPlay (which I highly recommend for playoff games!!)

Calendar days ARE important - and remember we changed the rules for starting pitchers effective this 2005 off-season! Starting pitchers must have at least four calendar days off between starts, even if these starts are in different series - but the exception is that each starting pitcher may start one time (and one time only) in the entire post season with just three days rest. For example, if your team is forced to go to a 7^th game in the League Championship series and you start Cy Young in Game 6 on Saturday, October 14^th, you can't start Cy in the World Series until Game 3 on Friday, October 20^th - unless you decide to use Cy's one post-season start on three days rest in which case he could start Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday, October 18^th. So the team that wins its series in four or five games has an advantage in the next series if its opponent had to go seven games to win. NO WHINING - its called real life! All post season usage rules are repeated below.

As soon as playoff participants and first round match-ups are determined, the Commissioner will send the Post Season League Files to participating managers. Don't use the regular season league files for post-season games.

Computer managers, fully programmed including starting lineups and starting pitchers, are to be e-mailed by each manager to the opposing manager at the start of each series. Note a new computer manager, which can be changed if you so desire, is required for each series.

Games are to be played on or before the date scheduled. Game result files and box scores are to be e-mailed to the Commissioner, the opposing manager, and all other playoff participants on the day that game is scheduled. It is permissible to send these earlier if your schedule requires you to do so. Our goal is to play and report these games on a real-time basis. I will also be updating the web site on a daily basis as these results come in. This real-time reporting will make it far more interesting for both participating managers and non-participating managers to follow the post-season action.