| 1996 National League Division Series | |||||||||||||
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| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 1 – 5 | ||||||||||||
| Television | ESPN (in St. Louis) NBC (in San Diego) | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Chris Berman and Buck Martinez (in St. Louis) Bob Costas, Joe Morgan, and Bob Uecker (in San Diego) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | CBS | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Gene Elston and Gary Cohen | ||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 2 – 5 | ||||||||||||
| Television | ESPN (Game 1) Fox (Games 2–3) | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Chris Berman and Buck Martinez (Game 1) Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (Games 2–3), and Bob Brenly (Game 3) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | CBS | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jerry Coleman and Jim Hunter | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Jim Quick, Gerry Davis, Dana DeMuth, Frank Pulli, Harry Wendelstedt, Greg Bonin (Padres–Cardinals, Games 1–2; Braves–Dodgers, Game 3) Steve Rippley, Eric Gregg, Tom Hallion, Terry Tata, Bruce Froemming, Bill Hohn (Braves–Dodgers, Games 1–2; Padres–Cardinals, Game 3) | ||||||||||||
The 1996 National League Division Series (NLDS), the opening round of the 1996 National League playoffs, began on Tuesday, October 1, and ended on Saturday, October 5, with the champions of the three NL divisions—along with a "wild card" team—participating in two best-of-five series. The teams were:
- (1) Atlanta Braves (Eastern Division champion, 96–66) vs. (4) Los Angeles Dodgers (Wild Card, 90–72): Braves won series, 3–0.
- (2) San Diego Padres (Western Division champion, 91–71) vs. (3) St. Louis Cardinals (Central Division champion, 88–74): Cardinals won series, 3–0.[1]
The St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves both swept their Division Series, and went on to meet in the NL Championship Series (NLCS). The Braves would rally to win that series four games to three and become the National League champion, but would lose to the American League champion New York Yankees in the 1996 World Series.
- ^ The higher seed (in parentheses) had the home field advantage, which was not tied to playing record but was predetermined—a highly unpopular arrangement which was discontinued after the 1997 playoffs. Also, the team with home field "advantage" was required to play the first two games on the road, with potentially the last three at home, in order to reduce travel. The Padres played the Cardinals, rather than the wild card Dodgers, because the Padres and Dodgers are in the same division. Had the 1996 NLDS been played under the 1998-2011 arrangement, then Atlanta (1) would have still faced off against Los Angeles (St. Louis had a worse record, but would have faced Atlanta because of the mandate of no teams from the same division playing against each other in the Division Series) and San Diego likewise would have still faced off against St. Louis, but the Cardinals would have had home field advantage. Under the 2012-present format, which removed the prohibition against teams from the same division meeting in the Division Series, the matchups still would have been Atlanta-Los Angeles and St. Louis-San Diego, with the Braves and Cardinals having home field advantage.