[thehef]

1903 PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

This was the inaugural season of the PCL - essentially a rebranding and expansion of the California League - with the Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland, and San Francisco franchise being joined by Portland from the Pacific National League, and Seattle as a new franchise.

Teams:
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Oaks
Portland Browns
Sacramento Senators
San Francisco Seals
Seattle Siwashes

Schedule Characteristics:
SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G241_T6_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="241" start_month="3" start_day="26" start_on_weekday="5"

Teams play between 223 and 241 games. The 1903 PCL schedule was wildly unbalanced, as teams played each other between 25 and 58 times. Why LA & Sacramento were scheduled to play just 25 times, while nearly all other matchups were between 40 and 58 games, I have no idea.

The season starts on March 26th and ends on November 29th.

While this file was partially sourced from the file that SandMan posted in post #50 of this thread, it was primarily sourced from the schedule printed in the 2/15/1903 LA Times and from research found in the Los Angeles Herald and San Francisco Call. (See Note A below for summary of differences between this file and SandMan's.)

The 1903 PCL schedule can be summarized as follows:

• Series' typically began on Tuesday and ran through Sunday.
• Monday was typically a travel day.
• Some series' started on Wednesday instead of Tuesday due to travel. (Train travel from the north - Portland and especially Seattle - to California cities was often not possible in just one travel day).
• Only Oakland and San Francisco routinely hosted Sunday doubleheaders. Those would typically be played as a morning game in Oakland and a road game in San Francisco. (See Note B below for more info.)
• For all series' in the Bay Area, regardless if the home team was Oakland or San Francisco, the Tuesday game would be played in Oakland and the Wednesday-thru-Saturday games would be played in San Francisco. (See Note B below for more info.)
• Given the above, most non-Bay Area series' were six games, unless both Monday and Tuesday were needed for travel, in which case the series would be five games; Bay Area series' were typically seven games.
• Probably due to both weather and travel considerations, Portland and Seattle played the first and last months of the season on the road.

Holiday doubleheaders were as follows:

• Decoration Day, Saturday, 5/30/1903
• Independence Day, Saturday, 7/4/1903
• Labor Day, Monday, 9/7/1903
• Thanksgiving, 11/26/1903
• Doubleheaders on (California) Admissions Day (Sept 9th) would become a regular event on future PCL schedules, but were not on the 1903 schedule.

Start times follow these general rules:

• Weekday games begin at 3 pm, except:
  • For games in LA from mid-June through end of September, games begin at 4 pm*
  • For games in SF & Oak from July through mid-Sept, games begin at at 3:30 pm*
  • *These start times are simply to add some real-life-like variance to the scheduled start times
• Weekend single games begin at 1 pm
• Bay Area doubleheaders are split between Oakland (10 am) and then a quick trip to San Francisco (3 pm)
• Non Bay Area doubleheaders generally begin at noon and 3 pm

No postseason games were played.

Finally, this schedule is neither the "original" schedule nor should it be considered "as played" (it does not account for rainouts). Since minor league schedules of this era were always works in progress, so-called "original" schedules were more of "initial drafts" and not just "subject to change" but expected to change. Therefore, while others may see it differently, I consider the type of schedule in this post to be the more-accurate & more-realistic type of schedule for use in OOTP. IOW, it evolved as the intended schedule.

************************************************** *************************
Add'l notes for those who feel the above wasn't long enough

NOTE A - SandMan's file vs the attached file
It's important to note that SandMan's work was solid, and no criticism is intended. It's just that it was based on a published schedule that turned out to not be as accurate as the published one I used for the attached file. What's interesting is that SandMan's schedule was based on LGO's schedule file that was sourced from The Sporting News, 3/7/1903; whereas the actual schedule that played out was much closer to the schedule that was printed in the 2/15/1903 LA Times. Why TSN would have a less-accurate schedule at a later date (compared to LAT), I have no idea.

Differences/changes, etc.:

• SandMan's file had all non-doubleheader day games starting at 1 pm. While actual start times varied and aren't completely known, the attached file corrects this to where games started later in the day, when fans could attend after work (see Start Times above).
  
• Numerous Bay Area doubleheaders were not included in SandMan's schedule but were on the original schedule printed in the 2/15/1903 LA Times, which closely matched games actually played. Nearly all of these doubleheaders were morning games (10 am) in Oakland, followed by an afternoon game (3 pm) in San Francisco
  
• Added doubleheader games on Thanksgiving (11/26/1903) for Oakland vs San Francisco, and Portland at Sacramento; (Seattle at LA was on the original schedule). Also added a few other late-season doubleheaders that were played in real life. While these were not on the original schedule, it's presumed they were scheduled well in advance and were not the type of "as played" changes that typically result from rainouts, etc.
  
• Cleaned up other issues, such as many Tuesday games that were not on the original schedule and were not played in real life, but were included in SandMan's schedule for some reason. (Many of these were games that could not have been played due to the travel required; for example, it would not have been possible to play in Seattle on Sunday, and then make it to Los Angeles for a game on Tuesday).

NOTE B - Bay Area Doubleheaders / Home Team Designation

• Since OOTP schedule file formatting doesn't allow for games being played at locations other than at the home team's park, Oakland or San Francisco - whichever team is hosting the series - is designated as the home team for both the morning and afternoon game of doubleheaders. However, when the two combatants are Oakland and San Francisco, Oakland is the home team for the morning game and San Francisco is the home team for the afternoon game.
  
• As with the Sunday Bay Area doubleheaders, since OOTP schedule formatting doesn't allow for games being played at locations other than at the home team's park, Oakland is the home team for all of its "home" games, not just the Tuesday games, and San Francisco is the home team for all of its home games. However, when Oakland and San Francisco are the two combatants, Oakland is the home team for Tuesday games. For Wednesday-thru-Saturday games, the home team is whichever team is designated - per the schedule - as the home team in the source schedule file (otherwise Oakland would end up with too few home games and San Franscisco would end up with too many home games).