For some reason, there has been a lot of confusion regarding how the playoffs will proceed after the divisional rounds are finished.



People keep messaging me and calling me to say that in the organizational meeting, we determined that the winner of the Solids Division would play the winner of the Stripes Division, and that the winner of the High Ball Division would play the winner of the Low Ball Division. They have even been so kind as to send me a screen shot of the meeting minutes.



Here is what the meeting minutes say:
Playoffs

The first 2 rounds of the Championship playoffs are played within the division, e.g. Solids 1-Solids 4, Solids 2-Solids 3, then the winner of both determine the division playoff winner.

The last 2 rounds are played for the league Championship, e.g. winner of Solids vs Stripes, winner of High Ball vs. Low Ball division.

Did anyone else notice “e.g.” in the second paragraph? You see, “e.g.” means “for example”. It is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase exempli gratia.

Here is what this means. At the time of the Organizational Meeting, I chose not to exercise my prognostic super powers, so I did not know what the final standings would be by the time the playoffs rolled around. If I had, I would have clearly stated that the winner of the Solids Division would play the winner of the High Ball Division, and the winner of the Stripes Division would play the winner of the Low Ball Division. And I most certainly would not have used “e.g.”, since that would have been the actual match-up, not a hypothetical one for illustration purposes only.

The playoffs are set up so that the first two rounds are played within the division, and then the third round is between the winner of the first-seeded division and the winner of the fourth-seeded division (based on which divisions had the 1^st and 4th ranked division-leading teams at the start of the playoffs), and the winner of the second-seeded division and the third-seeded division (based on which divisions had the 2^nd and 3^rd highest ranked division-leading teams at the start of the playoffs).

Therefore, let me make this as clear as I can.
The Solids Division is seeded Number One, because the Rising Stars were the top ranked division-leading team at the start of the playoffs
The Stripes Division is seeded Number Two, because the Boomtown Rats were the 2^nd ranked division-leading team at the start of the playoffs
The Low Ball Division is seeded Number Three, because Estyle were the 3^rd ranked division-leading team at the start of the playoffs
The High Ball Division is seeded Number Four, because Rackem' and Crackem' were the 4^th ranked division-leading team at the start of the playoffs

So, once the divisional playoff rounds are over, the winner of the first-seeded division (Solids) plays the winner of the fourth-seeded division (High Ball), and the winner of the second-seeded division (Stripes) plays the winner of the third-seeded division (Low Ball).

Please check the Season - Playoffs – Championship Winter/Spring 2014 Season – Chart link to see an illustration of how the bracket looks.

Anyway, every one of you still have to make it through another round before any of this is relevant. Don't get ahead of yourselves.

Lenny Erickson