Quote:
Originally Posted by J.HenryWaugh
Fictional league, early 20th century, 154-game schedule. Midwest League: Chicago Black Sox finishes 1911 season with a 89-62 record, while the Kansas City Cowboys managed to split a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Grays to close out the season at 90-63. Chicago edged KC in win percentage .589 to .588 but they finished in a virtual tie for first place, with the Detroit Wolverines just one game back.
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Exciting finish, but Brad K is right: there's no playoff because there's no tie. Chicago won the pennant based on a better winning percentage. Same thing happened in the
1915 Federal League, where the Chicago Whales edged out the St. Louis Terriers by a percentage point. The major leagues didn't require teams to make up cancelled games that might affect the pennant races until, I think, the 1940s. Before then, it was up to the teams to determine whether they'd make up those games or not. The 1908 AL pennant race was won by the Tigers with a 90-63 record, even though the second-place Naps had a 90-64 final record. Detroit wasn't required to make up a rain-out with the Senators, even though, if the Tigers had lost that game, it would have resulted in a tie with Cleveland. That's just the way they rolled back in the good old days.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J.HenryWaugh
Even OOTP is confused though. While the Baltimore Bridegrooms have an X next to their name as Atlantic League champs, there is no X next to Chicago. In fact, they still have a magic number of 3, while KC's magic number is 2.
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Well, kinda'. The magic number is calculated based on the number of games in the schedule. But if teams don't play all of their scheduled games, then yes, OOTP gets confused and can't calculate the magic number accurately. But the magic number has no bearing on who actually wins the pennant.