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Le Grande Orange · 05-08-2004, 01:10 AM

I see I'm being paged. Well, the doctor is now in.

JD, my first question to you would be this:

What in the heck are you doing using a balanced schedule when your leagues are split into two divisions!?!?! Using a balanced schedule when you have divisions renders those divisions completely meaningless and arbitrary - why not just make a single 10 team arrangement? After all, that's really what the schedule is for when it's balanced.

You must understand I have a huge issue about using a balanced schedule when divisions are involved.

It is entirely possible to have a proper, divisionally weighted schedule even with an odd number of teams in each division. The PCL in 1963 had two 5 team divisions and played a divisional schedule: each team played its 4 divisional rivals 22 times each, and played the 5 teams in the other division 14 times each. This results in 88 divisional games and 70 interdivisional games, for a total of 158 games.

Creating such a divisionally weigthed schedule with divisions containing an odd number of teams is more difficult than with even numbers, but it can be done.

Now, as to the balanced schedule you're seeking, actually no, it cannot all be done with 3 game series. This would mean you'd only have 6 games scheduled per week for each week of the season, and the season would run 27 weeks long. This is 1-2 weeks too long (currently the 162 games are played in 26 weeks; back when the majors actually had 10 team leagues, the 162 games were played in 25 weeks). Or, you could get more games per week with only 3 game series, but then you'd have the series start days sliding through the week. Instead of the back half of the week series being played on Fri-Sat-Sun, eventually it'd be something like Sat-Sun-Mon or Sun-Mon-Tue.

Then there's the total number of series being played by each team. A team is playing 6 series against each of the 9 other teams, or 54 series in total. If you have a modern day season length of 26 weeks with an All-Star Game, those 54 series aren't going to fit in the time allotted, since there is space for only 51 series (two series per each of the 25 full weeks, plus one series after the All-Star break in the All-Star Game week). This means that at least 3 of the weeks in the season are going to have to have three series played in the week instead of just two.

The result of all of this is that there MUST be some 2 and 4 game series put into the mix. Some of the 9 games a team would host against its opponents will need to be split 4-3-2 instead of 3-3-3.

If you look back at the real schedules used in the 10 team league MLB days, you'll see some 5 game series and 1 game series used as well. In the original 1963 NL schedule, for example, the Milwaukee at St. Louis season series was split 4-4-1, as were the New York at Philadelphia and the Philadelphia at Cincinnati season series. In the 1963 AL original schedule, the New York at Chicago, Cleveland at Boston, New York at Cleveland, and Boston at New York season series were all split 4-4-1. The Los Angeles at Chicago and Washington at Cleveland season series were split 5-2-2. The Baltimore at Washington season series was split 3-3-2-1 while the Washington at Baltimore season series was split 3-3-1-1-1.

Off days nowadays are limited to Mondays and Thursdays, but this has not always been the case. In the real 10 team league MLB days, you'll find a couple of cases where other days were used, and where teams got 2 or 3 days off in a row outside of the All-Star break. Consider this example from the New York Mets original 1962 schedule: the team was scheduled to play a twin bill on Sun. May 27, then have Monday and Tuesday off, and then play a doubleheader on Wed. May 30. It was slated to finish a series on Tues. Sept. 4, then have Wednesday and Thursday off, and then open a series in Houston on Fri. Sept. 7. On Mon. Sept. 10, the Mets were to play a one game series against Milwaukee, and then were to have the next three days off in a row, and then finally resume play on Fri. Sept. 14.

Given these real-world schedule examples, you can see OOTP's schedule is not that much worse than what MLB actually played back then. It may not be accurate to today's scheduling practices, but then, today's league sizes and alignments are different as well.

By the way, about your statement, "If I can't create a simple, balanced schedule every time I sim I think 'This isn't a level playing field,'" I agree, however baseball did really have some exceptions to this. In particular, the Pacific Coast League for a great many years NEVER played a balanced schedule, in spite of having an 8 team league. I started a thread about this very subject in the Talk Sports forum on the boards here, you may want to check it out.

05-08-2004, 01:10 AM	#3
Le Grande Orange Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Up There Posts: 15,644	I see I'm being paged. Well, the doctor is now in. JD, my first question to you would be this: What in the heck are you doing using a balanced schedule when your leagues are split into two divisions!?!?! Using a balanced schedule when you have divisions renders those divisions completely meaningless and arbitrary - why not just make a single 10 team arrangement? After all, that's really what the schedule is for when it's balanced. You must understand I have a huge issue about using a balanced schedule when divisions are involved. It is entirely possible to have a proper, divisionally weighted schedule even with an odd number of teams in each division. The PCL in 1963 had two 5 team divisions and played a divisional schedule: each team played its 4 divisional rivals 22 times each, and played the 5 teams in the other division 14 times each. This results in 88 divisional games and 70 interdivisional games, for a total of 158 games. Creating such a divisionally weigthed schedule with divisions containing an odd number of teams is more difficult than with even numbers, but it can be done. Now, as to the balanced schedule you're seeking, actually no, it cannot all be done with 3 game series. This would mean you'd only have 6 games scheduled per week for each week of the season, and the season would run 27 weeks long. This is 1-2 weeks too long (currently the 162 games are played in 26 weeks; back when the majors actually had 10 team leagues, the 162 games were played in 25 weeks). Or, you could get more games per week with only 3 game series, but then you'd have the series start days sliding through the week. Instead of the back half of the week series being played on Fri-Sat-Sun, eventually it'd be something like Sat-Sun-Mon or Sun-Mon-Tue. Then there's the total number of series being played by each team. A team is playing 6 series against each of the 9 other teams, or 54 series in total. If you have a modern day season length of 26 weeks with an All-Star Game, those 54 series aren't going to fit in the time allotted, since there is space for only 51 series (two series per each of the 25 full weeks, plus one series after the All-Star break in the All-Star Game week). This means that at least 3 of the weeks in the season are going to have to have three series played in the week instead of just two. The result of all of this is that there MUST be some 2 and 4 game series put into the mix. Some of the 9 games a team would host against its opponents will need to be split 4-3-2 instead of 3-3-3. If you look back at the real schedules used in the 10 team league MLB days, you'll see some 5 game series and 1 game series used as well. In the original 1963 NL schedule, for example, the Milwaukee at St. Louis season series was split 4-4-1, as were the New York at Philadelphia and the Philadelphia at Cincinnati season series. In the 1963 AL original schedule, the New York at Chicago, Cleveland at Boston, New York at Cleveland, and Boston at New York season series were all split 4-4-1. The Los Angeles at Chicago and Washington at Cleveland season series were split 5-2-2. The Baltimore at Washington season series was split 3-3-2-1 while the Washington at Baltimore season series was split 3-3-1-1-1. Off days nowadays are limited to Mondays and Thursdays, but this has not always been the case. In the real 10 team league MLB days, you'll find a couple of cases where other days were used, and where teams got 2 or 3 days off in a row outside of the All-Star break. Consider this example from the New York Mets original 1962 schedule: the team was scheduled to play a twin bill on Sun. May 27, then have Monday and Tuesday off, and then play a doubleheader on Wed. May 30. It was slated to finish a series on Tues. Sept. 4, then have Wednesday and Thursday off, and then open a series in Houston on Fri. Sept. 7. On Mon. Sept. 10, the Mets were to play a one game series against Milwaukee, and then were to have the next three days off in a row, and then finally resume play on Fri. Sept. 14. Given these real-world schedule examples, you can see OOTP's schedule is not that much worse than what MLB actually played back then. It may not be accurate to today's scheduling practices, but then, today's league sizes and alignments are different as well. By the way, about your statement, "If I can't create a simple, balanced schedule every time I sim I think 'This isn't a level playing field,'" I agree, however baseball did really have some exceptions to this. In particular, the Pacific Coast League for a great many years NEVER played a balanced schedule, in spite of having an 8 team league. I started a thread about this very subject in the Talk Sports forum on the boards here, you may want to check it out.