Flip out: Baseball likely to eliminate coin flips

DANA POINT, Calif. (AP)—No more flip decisions.

Rather than heads or tails, baseball general managers plan to recommend that sites for division and wild-card tiebreakers be decided by wins and losses, rather than coin flips.

“The team that performed better against the other team I think is the one that deserves to have home-field advantage, not an arbitrary coin flip,” San Diego Padres general manager Kevin Towers said Thursday as the annual GMs meeting ended.

MLB staff is drafting a proposal for the GMs to consider next month when they gather at the winter meetings in Las Vegas, according to Jimmie Lee Solomon, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office. Head-to-head record between the tied clubs appears likely to be the first tiebreaker.

“I think it’s better to decide it on the field,” Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels said.

The advantage of coin flips—or drawing of lots in the unlikely event of three- or four-way deadlocks—is that the clubs know the site of tiebreaker games in advance. Under a performance-based system, the sites might not be decided until the final day of the regular season.

GMs will discuss the matter with their staffs before the winter meetings from Dec. 8-11.

“They’re going to go back to talk to their ticket people, their stadium operations people, their special events people, to see how it would work,” Solomon said.

How are they going to decide who gets homefield for a Wild Card tie-breaker where the teams played a even amount of games and ended up tied for the season series then?

You can always add tie breakers. Go to division records then.

Coin flips are dumb, had we lost the flip, people would have been b****ing forever about it, period.

Coin flips are dumb, had we lost the flip, people would have been b****ing forever about it, period.

Absolutely if the shoe was on the other foot, White Sox fans would have brought b****ing to a new level.

Why in the world would we b****? What other way could they have done it with the White Sox getting the home field advantage? Our record against the Twins was worse than the Twins record against us. So that would mean they should have home field. We had the same actual records. I doubt they would do record vs. own division. Basically, the coin flip was the only chance the Sox had at getting that game at home. Win or lose, you'll take it cause you have a 50/50 shot. If you don't, you'll have no chance. What would you take? 50% chance or 0% chance?

Why in the world would we b****? What other way could they have done it with the White Sox getting the home field advantage? Our record against the Twins was worse than the Twins record against us. So that would mean they should have home field. We had the same actual records. I doubt they would do record vs. own division. Basically, the coin flip was the only chance the Sox had at getting that game at home. Win or lose, you'll take it cause you have a 50/50 shot. If you don't, you'll have no chance. What would you take? 50% chance or 0% chance?

So it begs the question... If the season series is tied as well, then what would they do?

Coin flips are dumb, had we lost the flip, people would have been b****ing forever about it, period.

That.

Your post is a little confusing to me. I'm just saying if the Sox would have beaten the Twins 10-8 head-to-head, and the Twins won the coin flip, Sox fans would have been pissed.

This proves the coin flip system is stupid.