What you need to know as baseball (finally) springs into action

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Last Thursday's agreement between Major League Baseball and its players to end the soul-crushing, 99-day lockout triggered a Rickey Henderson-like dash. With Opening Day set for April 7, teams now have just over three weeks to run through a quick spring training while scrambling to sign free agents and make trades to round out their rosters in time for the first pitch. As they play catch-up, let's get you caught up on some baseball stuff you should know as the regular season fast approaches:New rules The new labour deal includes two big changes that will go into effect right away. The first one you'll notice is that the designated hitter is now universal. Pitchers in the National League will no longer bat, ending baseball's anachronistic practice of playing by different rules in National and American League parks. The other is that the playoffs are expanding from 10 teams to 12. That's three division winners and three wild cards per league. The division winners with the two best records get first-round byes, while the other division winner and the three wild cards square off in best-of-three series where the higher seed hosts all three games. Next are the usual best-of-five Division Series and the best-of-seven AL and NL Championship Series and World Series. Another rule that technically expired after last season looks like it'll be restored. The so-called "ghost runner" — the man placed on second base to begin extra innings — will return if MLB and the players' union agree to it. That's expected to happen over the next few days, as both sides like the rule's potential to