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League Approves Promotion Test Match Format Change

In a surprise move by the Baseball League board on Saturday last, a format change for the test match series to determine the promotion and relegation fates of the respective Second Division and First Division teams was announced.

Beginning with 1895, after the conclusion of the regular season, the bottom two First Division clubs and the top two Second Division clubs will meet in an abbreviated “second season” in which each club will play the two clubs in the other division twice at home and twice on the road, i.e., four matches against each other division opponent for a total of eight matches in all. At the conclusion of the eight matches, the first and second sides in the series table will play in the First Division for the next season, and the third and fourth sides will play in Second Division.

To start with, each Second Division clubs will host a First Division club for two matches, and then the other First Division club for another two matches. The following week, each First Division club will host each of the two Second Division clubs, also for two matches apiece. Should any clubs end in a draw for the second place side after the test matches have completed, the club with the better difference between runs scored and runs allowed will win the spot in the top level for the next year.

This new format replaces that which had taken place each of the last three years, in which the bottom three top level clubs played their appropriate top three lower level club counterparts directly in a first-to-two-wins series for the right to either keep their top level position, or else advance to the top level.

A spokesman for the League board said that the idea behind the change to require more matches is to better determine the more proficient two sides of the four, so as to be quite certain that the proper clubs will be placed in their respective divisions, based on their performance on the pitch, for the following season.