Baseball's coin toss might soon be thing of the past

Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

Michael Cuddyer crashed into A.J. Pierzynski on Sept. 30 at U.S. Cellular Field, a collision that would have happened at the Metrodome had the Twins and White Sox played their one-game playoff based on which team won the season series.

By JOE CHRISTENSEN, Star Tribune

Last update: November 7, 2008 - 1:17 AM

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The Twins' 1-0 tiebreaker loss at Chicago on Sept. 30 spurred talk at this week's general managers meetings about changing the way home-field advantage is determined for such games.

The Twins and White Sox finished the 162-game schedule with identical 88-74 records. The Twins had won the season series with the White Sox 10-8 but lost the coin flip that determined home-field advantage for the one-game playoff.

Twins GM Bill Smith said he didn't raise the issue at the meetings "because we didn't want it to look like sour grapes from a team that lost."

But others placed it on the agenda, and now MLB will draft a proposal for teams to consider next month at the winter meetings. That proposal likely will call for head-to-head records to determine home-field advantage for tiebreakers.

"I think it's better to decide it on the field," Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels told the Associated Press on Thursday in Dana Point, Calif.

The Twins' coin flip with the White Sox was held Sept. 12, along with a series of others between teams that were headed for potential ties. By determining the tiebreaker sites in advance, MLB can prepare the TV networks, and the home teams can prepare their stadiums.

Jimmie Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations, said the general managers will "go back to talk to their ticket people, their stadium operations people ... to see how it would work."