While the American League playoff teams are known with only the AL East champ to be determined, no National League contender has secured a division title or even a playoff berth going into the final weekend series of the 2007 season.

The Phillies have moved into a first-place tie in the NL East with the Mets, who have lost four in a row. No one seems to want to win the NL Central, where the Cubs remain two games in front of the Brewers despite being swept by the NL East cellar-dwelling Marlins this week. In the NL West, both the Padres and Rockies are within striking distance of the first-place Diamondbacks.

The possibilities are many, sparking a friend of mine to comment on Wednesday: “Wouldn’t it be something if the Phillies, Brewers, Rockies, and Diamondbacks were the NL postseason card? The matchups would be Brewers-Diamondbacks and Rockies-Phillies.”

That’s how scrambled the NL pennant races are, going into the final series of the regular season. Only one other time since 1994, when the leagues expanded to three divisions with a wild-card entrant added to the postseason, has all four playoff berths been undecided going into the final weekend series.

In 2001, both Atlanta and Arizona claimed division titles on Friday while Houston and St. Louis finished with identical records in the NL Central. The Astros secured the division title on a tiebreaker, but the Diamondbacks won the World Series.

Since the leagues expanded and each split into two divisions in 1969, only five other times have both playoff spots in a league been up for grabs going into the final weekend series. That was the case in the NL in 1974, 1979 and 1980, as well as in 1982 and 1985 in the American League.

Arguably the most dramatic of these races was in 1980. Philadelphia and Montreal started the final series in a tie in the NL East, but the Phillies beat the Expos both Friday and Saturday to advance. In the NL West, the Astros held a three-game edge over the Dodgers, who swept their weekend series with Houston to force a one-game playoff on Monday. The Astros claimed the West title with a 7-1 victory behind Joe Niekro, but the Phillies went on to win their only World Series in franchise history.

This year’s playoff race in the NL is as tight as any. In fact, it’s possible that as many as five teams -- New York, Philadelphia, Arizona, San Diego and Colorado -- could finish the season with the same won-lost record. That would create ties in the NL East, NL West and wild-card races, necessitating four days of tiebreaker games to determine postseason berths. The NL playoffs would have to wait.