A bandwagon fan’s guide to baseball
The Toronto Blue Jays have advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in nearly a decade, and the bandwagon is officially rolling.
But those new to the sport might need a primer on how exactly it works, from the sequence of the playoffs to the rules of the game.
Below, we parse through the basics.
WHAT’S THE STRUCTURE OF THE POST-SEASON?
Major League Baseball’s post-season has four rounds. MLB actually used to be two organizations, the National League and the American League, but they have been jointly holding the World Series since 1903 and were formally merged in 1999. Both leagues follow the same playoff format. The Blue Jays are in the American League.
The post-season starts with wild-card rounds, which are a best-of-three series of games played between the four lowest-ranked teams that qualified for each league’s playoffs.
The Blue Jays won the American League East division title during the regular season, so they got to skip the wild-card round.
After the wild cards, the teams play in the Division Series, where the first team to win three games advances to the Championship Series, which is best-of-seven.
The championships are played between teams of the same league.
Then, the winner of each league’s championship advances to the World Series, which is also a best-of-seven matchup. The Blue Jays have only won the World Series twice: in 1992 and 1993.
WHY ARE THE BLUE JAYS IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE WHEN THEY’RE A CANADIAN TEAM?
In the 1970s, the American League wanted to create a geographical rival team to the Montreal Expos, which were part of the National League, so the Blue Jays were born.
The Montreal Expos were relocated to Washington, D.C., in 2004, leaving the Blue Jays as Canada’s only team.
WHAT ARE THE RULES OF THE GAME?
If you want to know all the details, you can read Major League Baseball’s 192-page rule book. But here are the basics.
Each game consists of nine innings. Each team has a turn at bat during an inning, starting with the visiting team. The defensive team includes the pitcher, catcher, infielders and outfielders.
The offensive team consists of a lineup of nine batters.
The pitcher throws the ball to the catcher, and if the ball passes through the “strike zone,” the hitter can try to swing for it.
The strike zone is the area from the batter’s knees to their shoulders, over home base.
If the ball passes through the strike zone three times and the batter fails to hit it, either because they didn’t swing or because they miss the ball, they’re out. If the pitcher throws the ball and misses the strike zone four times, and the batter doesn’t swing, the batter gets to “walk” to first base.
That’s one of nine ways a batter can become a “runner” and advance to first base. The main way, however, is for the batter to hit the ball into the field.
Once the batter hits a fair ball, he becomes a runner and makes his way to first base. If a fielder catches the ball before it hits the ground, the runner is out. If the ball touches the ground before it’s caught, the person who catches it can try to get a runner out by touching the runner with the ball before they advance to the next base. In some cases they only need to touch the base the runner is headed to.
Each time a runner reaches home base after touching all three other bases, they receive a point, called a “run.”
Once three players on the offensive team are out, that team’s turn at bat is over.
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE ON EACH TEAM?
During the post-season, each team has a roster of 26 players.
There are nine players from each team in the batting lineup, and nine on the field. That’s eight players who are both fielders and hitters, one player who is a dedicated pitcher, and one player who is the pitcher’s substitute when their team is at bat.
Other players on the roster can be substituted into the batting order. Likewise, pitchers who are in the bullpen can be substituted in for the starting pitcher.
Deciding when to substitute players is part of the strategy of the game.
THE PLAYERS SEEM TO SPIT A LOT. WHY?
Historically, players used to chew tobacco during the game and they’d spit out the excess saliva from chewing. That’s changed over the decades, and now they chew sunflower seeds.
Some players will also chew gum while they’re in the dugout, not playing, or pull pranks on each other. It’s all part of the fun of the game.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2025.
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