[Le Grande Orange]

1985 MLB Original Schedules

26 teams, 14 teams in the first league and 12 in the second league;
2 divisions of 7 teams in the first league and 2 divisions of 6 teams in the second league

Games: 162
Length: 182 days
Interleague: No
Format: Balanced (AL); Divisional (NL)
AL: A team plays 13 games against each of its 6 divisional opponents (13 x 6 = 78 games)
AL: A team plays 12 games against each of the 7 clubs in the other division (12 x 7 = 84 games)
NL: A team plays 18 games against each of its 5 divisional opponents (18 x 5 = 90 games)
NL: A team plays 12 games against each of the 6 clubs in the other division (12 x 6 = 72 games)

Year starts on: Tuesday
Season opens: Mon. Apr. 8
Season closes: Sun. Oct. 6
All-Star Game: Tue. July 16

Total scheduled doubleheaders: 14

Average home stand length: 6.9 games
Average of longest home stands: 11.8 games
Longest home stand: 14 games (BOS, CLE, ML4, NYN, ATL, LAN)

Average road trip length: 6.9 games
Average of longest road trips: 12.3 games
Longest road trip: 15 games (NYA, SDN)

Average stretch of consecutive play: 8.3 days
Average of longest stretches of consecutive play: 19.4 days
Longest stretch of consecutive play: 20 days (eighteen clubs)

Series scheduled
2-game: 110
3-game: 428
4-game: 148
5-game: 002
TOTAL:w688


Also included for this year is a strike-altered version of the schedules. A players' strike which occurred on Aug. 6-7 caused a two-day stoppage in play. A total of 25 games were affected by the strike and 23 of them were rescheduled for play before the end of the season, either as parts of doubleheaders or on common off days.

There were four games which had to be played in the other team's park in order to be made up: two SEA at CAL games postponed by the strike were made up as CAL at SEA, thus giving CAL 79 home games for the year and SEA 83 home games; and two MIN at OAK games postponed by the strike were made up as OAK at MIN, resulting in OAK having 79 homes games for the season and MIN 83 home games.

Two games were not rescheduled for play before the close of the season due to a lack of suitable common off days and the fact that the contesting clubs did not play each other during the rest of the season. These two games are BAL at TOR and ML4 at TEX; these four teams will only have 161 games played for the season unless either of these games are needed to resolve a tight pennant race. Should that prove to be the case, then one or both of these games would be played on Mon. Oct. 7.

For example, at the close of the regular season on Sun. Oct. 6, let's say Detroit has a record of 92-70 and Toronto a record of 91-70. Because Toronto is only a half-game behind Detroit, this means the unplayed game against Baltimore might now determine whether or not there is a tie for the pennant. As a result, on Mon. Oct. 7 the BAL at TOR game that had been postponed by the strike would now be played. If Toronto wins, there is now a tie for the pennant between Toronto and Detroit and the tiebreaking playoff game would be played on Tues. Oct. 8; if Toronto loses, then Detroit clinches the pennant. It is only in situations similar to this that the BAL at TOR and ML4 at TEX postponed games would be made up. If there is no such potential pennant-tying or pennant-clinching aspect, then these games would not be played.