Baseball Moves Closer to Best-of-7 Playoffs

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Major league baseball moved closer Friday to expanding its playoffs from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven series, the chief negotiator for the owners said.

“We think that we made a little progress on it,” said Lee MacPhail, president of the owners’ Player Relations Committee, following 3 1/2 hours of meetings with the players’ union. “We’ll go into our meeting on Tuesday in Palm Springs with the idea of coming out with a yes or a no.”

The major obstacle to the expansion of the series remains the method of splitting up the $9 million in television revenue the extra games could generate. The players have demanded that they get one-third of the total.