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Nick Soulis · 10-25-2018, 06:03 PM

Format of Finding the Greatest

The initial thinking of all competitions is to create a tournament or playoff to determine the winners. It is faster and more clean and in many ways more dramatic for some; although I would tend to disagree. Still baseball is a different type of game; it is a game of longevity and patience. Baseball is a game of seasons that lead up to a moment rather then immediate matchups and results. A season is so important in an undertaking like this because it keeps things the way the participants know it and excel in, a pennant race. A pennant race for all of 162 games will determine the best team every time, there is no room for flukes or hot streaks, this is about the cream rising to the top, this is the way baseball has always been.

The format for the season will also help provide a very intriguing side of things. We will be able to track and compare all the teams in a 162 game schedule and will be able to create our won leader boards and record book. The hallowed numbers of .400 or 56 straight games can be chased by the greatest. Batting titles will be played out and records in direct competition by the likes of Ty Cobb vs. Pete Rose and Barry Bonds vs. Babe Ruth will create themselves. So in an inadvertent way, we are able to measure individual greatness under a familiar measuring stick while keeping the overall focus on the ultimate finding of the greatest team.

So each and every team will be inserted into a pennant race. The schedule for all will be 162 games and the participants in each group will be random but only after a seeding. With 512 teams there will be 64 seasons, each season consisting of 8 teams.

The 512 teams will be will be separated into two groups of 256 teams. Each season will consist of four teams from the two groups of 256. In this manner a maximum of 4 “high” seeds can be in one group at one given season. The 64 seasons will be played out and the top four teams of each season will advance to the next round. So after the first 60 seasons there will be 256 teams left.

The 256 teams will be seeded again to produce 32 seasons of 8 teams. Again the top four teams will advance leaving 128 teams. The 128 teams will then be placed into 16 seasons groups of eight. The top four teams of each group will advance to leave 64 teams. The 64 remaining teams will play a best of seven seriies against eachother leaving 32 teams.

One final season will then be played to crown the all-time champion including a full playoff and wildcard.

One issue that came forth was rather to use injuries of not. There are two sides to this debate; one is that injuries shouldn’t play a role in a perfect world where you are trying to find the best team based on skill and merit alone. I would argue however that we are not trying to find the best team on skill alone, but rather on everything else that incorporates a champion including endurance, stamina, and conditioning in a long season. So for this reason injuries will be included, I will however curtail them a bit in hopes that they won’t be too frequent. But make it known from now; at some point the engine will create an injury that greatly impacts a team and a season or pennant race.

On a final note of course the process isn’t perfect, but I can not think of a better way then to play out seasons to determine greatness. Will luck have a part of things? Surely to some extent, but with the marathon of the process the hope is that the standard deviation for any outliners will be greatly reduced and we will have a conclusive champion of all time. For what would baseball be without a little intervention from the baseball Gods?

10-25-2018, 06:03 PM	#2
Nick Soulis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Chicago IL Posts: 3,846 Blog Entries: 2	Format of Finding the Greatest The initial thinking of all competitions is to create a tournament or playoff to determine the winners. It is faster and more clean and in many ways more dramatic for some; although I would tend to disagree. Still baseball is a different type of game; it is a game of longevity and patience. Baseball is a game of seasons that lead up to a moment rather then immediate matchups and results. A season is so important in an undertaking like this because it keeps things the way the participants know it and excel in, a pennant race. A pennant race for all of 162 games will determine the best team every time, there is no room for flukes or hot streaks, this is about the cream rising to the top, this is the way baseball has always been. The format for the season will also help provide a very intriguing side of things. We will be able to track and compare all the teams in a 162 game schedule and will be able to create our won leader boards and record book. The hallowed numbers of .400 or 56 straight games can be chased by the greatest. Batting titles will be played out and records in direct competition by the likes of Ty Cobb vs. Pete Rose and Barry Bonds vs. Babe Ruth will create themselves. So in an inadvertent way, we are able to measure individual greatness under a familiar measuring stick while keeping the overall focus on the ultimate finding of the greatest team. So each and every team will be inserted into a pennant race. The schedule for all will be 162 games and the participants in each group will be random but only after a seeding. With 512 teams there will be 64 seasons, each season consisting of 8 teams. The 512 teams will be will be separated into two groups of 256 teams. Each season will consist of four teams from the two groups of 256. In this manner a maximum of 4 “high” seeds can be in one group at one given season. The 64 seasons will be played out and the top four teams of each season will advance to the next round. So after the first 60 seasons there will be 256 teams left. The 256 teams will be seeded again to produce 32 seasons of 8 teams. Again the top four teams will advance leaving 128 teams. The 128 teams will then be placed into 16 seasons groups of eight. The top four teams of each group will advance to leave 64 teams. The 64 remaining teams will play a best of seven seriies against eachother leaving 32 teams. One final season will then be played to crown the all-time champion including a full playoff and wildcard. One issue that came forth was rather to use injuries of not. There are two sides to this debate; one is that injuries shouldn’t play a role in a perfect world where you are trying to find the best team based on skill and merit alone. I would argue however that we are not trying to find the best team on skill alone, but rather on everything else that incorporates a champion including endurance, stamina, and conditioning in a long season. So for this reason injuries will be included, I will however curtail them a bit in hopes that they won’t be too frequent. But make it known from now; at some point the engine will create an injury that greatly impacts a team and a season or pennant race. On a final note of course the process isn’t perfect, but I can not think of a better way then to play out seasons to determine greatness. Will luck have a part of things? Surely to some extent, but with the marathon of the process the hope is that the standard deviation for any outliners will be greatly reduced and we will have a conclusive champion of all time. For what would baseball be without a little intervention from the baseball Gods?