ANSWER GUY: WHY ARE THEY CALLED "PLAYOFFS?"

Weeding the garden of perplexity with the hoe of certitude.

Tom Shieber, senior curator, National Baseball Hall of Fame: Originally, the playoffs didn't refer to a championship series but to an extra game or games to decide the pennant if teams were tied at the end of the regular season. The winner advanced to the World Series. Small world. For example, you might remember the Dodgers and Giants played a three-game series to decide the pennant in 1951. That shot was heard around these parts too, pal. Those games were considered part of the regular season, so Bobby Thomson's home run actually counted toward his stats. Ralph Branca's, too. When they added the League Championship Series, in 1969, people started referring to those games as the playoffs even though they really weren't. They should be called play-ons! I suppose. Joanne Despres, senior editor, Merriam-Webster: In 1870, the word is first attested in golf, used as a verb in the Periodical of Golfers Annual. On the tie being played off, Sir Robert and Mr. Anderson again tied. Pucker up, sis. The word seems to have taken a natural progression from deciding ties to deciding champions over the past 140 years. That's a lot of golf. Dan Diamond, publisher, National Hockey League Official Guide and Record Book: The Stanley Cup was originally a challenge trophy, where teams or leagues would challenge each other to play for it. Old-time hockey! The first use of playoff in hockey came when Ottawa faced the Montreal Victorians in 1903 to see which club would defend the Cup against the Rat Portage Thistles. There's a throwback for ya. From then on, any game or games that were necessary to determine who would compete for the Cup came to be known as playoffs. Beauty, eh. Now about those beards&

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