Quote:
Originally Posted by RonCo
In the days of 154 games there were very few off-days and many more double headers.
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I think you mean there were more off days, not fewer.
For much of the 154-game schedule period it was played over 168 days (24 weeks)—that's only 14 days off assuming no twin bills. But there were plenty of scheduled doubleheaders which added days off. In 1955, for example, there were an average of 16 scheduled doubleheaders per club (it ranged for a low of 9 for the Cardinals to a high of 23 for the White Sox). That means the actual number of off days scheduled was an average of 30: the 14 initial days plus the additional 16 days freed up by the doubleheaders.
In 1955 the postponement rate was 6.3%, so that added even more doubleheaders to the mix—a total of 188 were actually played compared to the 128 which were originally scheduled. That works out to an average of over 23 per club, which translates into 37 off days on average during the season. (Baltimore played the most doubleheaders: 34. It had been scheduled for 20. Milwaukee played the fewest: 15. It had been scheduled to play 12.)
The upshot of all this is that as the years progressed the schedules became more consistent and predictable. Doubleheaders (both scheduled and as played) dropped in number meaning off days were known with more certainty in advance and unplanned days off occurred less often. That increasing predictability and consistency must surely have had an impact on pitching usage and rotations.
To show the large differences between doubleheaders as scheduled and as played, the following graph should be helpful. The dark blue bars are the scheduled number of doubleheaders for that season while the light blue bars show the number that were actually played.