Home and Away Game Double Header

[fcabanski]

June 10, 2016: The Chicago Cubs have a double header. The first game is vs. Atlanta at Wrigley Field. The second game is @ Atlanta at Turner Field.

[masoo]

I just experienced this as well. SF at Atlanta in the daytime, Atlanta at SF in the evening.

[bwburke94]

With how many times this gets posted, I should probably note that it is the scheduling algorithm that is glitched. It should look for common off days before looking at games in the opposite park.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by bwburke94

With how many times this gets posted, I should probably note that it is the scheduling algorithm that is glitched. It should look for common off days before looking at games in the opposite park.

Actually that's not entirely true. MLB rules generally avoid placing games on a common off-day if I read this right: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info...tart_end_4.jsp

If you have a travel day, they're not going to make you fly to another city to play the game, except after the season. I believe the PA generally demands a certain number of travel days and such.

The flaw is that the game is played in the wrong park.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

The flaw is that the game is played in the wrong park.

That, and the home team isn't batting first.

I could go into some detail into the shortcomings of the current postponement/rescheduling system, but I'll set that aside for now. In terms of how postponed MLB games were made up, here is the data for the last seven seasons (2009-15).

• "Ppd" is the number of times a game was postponed
• "1gm" is the number of times a postponed game was made up as a single game on a common off day
• "D-N" is the number of times a postponed game was made up as part of a separate admission, day-night doubleheader
• "DH" is the number of times a postponed game was made up as part of a single admission, two-for-one doubleheader
• "Ccd" is the number of times a postponed game was not made up and was cancelled

Year   Ppd  1gm  D-N   DH  Ccd
------------------------------
2009    37   13   12   11   1
2010    21    3   12    6   0
2011    51   15   24   11   1
2012    21    3   11    7   0
2013    37   11   20    6   0
2014    35    7   18   10   0
2015    38    7   18   12   1
------------------------------
TOTAL  240   59  115   63   3

The percentages for the above work out as follows:

Made up as a single game on a common off day: 24.6%
Made up as part of a separate admission, day-night doubleheader: 47.9%
Made up as part of a single admission, two-for-one doubleheader: 26.3%
Not made up: 1.2%

[bwburke94]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Actually that's not entirely true. MLB rules generally avoid placing games on a common off-day if I read this right: Official Rules | MLB.com

If you have a travel day, they're not going to make you fly to another city to play the game, except after the season. I believe the PA generally demands a certain number of travel days and such.

The flaw is that the game is played in the wrong park.

I'll counter by pointing out that the real life BOS@CLE game postponed from 4/7 was rescheduled for common off day 8/15, despite the fact that this date breaks the 20 day rule for both teams and there was a remaining CLE@BOS series (5/20 to 5/22) a doubleheader could have been scheduled during.

LGO, I'll need your help here to fix one of the major problems in OOTP.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by bwburke94

LGO, I'll need your help here to fix one of the major problems in OOTP.

I'll be happy to help in whatever way I can. Just state what it is you need.



There are a number of considerations that factor into how postponed games should be rescheduled.

(1) There are notable differences between how MLB, the minor leagues, and the Asian leagues handle the rescheduling of postponed games.

I've given the data for the last seven MLB seasons—roughly half of postponed games are made up as day-night doubleheaders; about a quarter are made up as single games on common off days; and about a quarter are made up as part of a single admission, two-for-one doubleheader. All postponed games are supposed to be made up before the scheduled end of the regular season, or else they are cancelled. (With the exception of games having a bearing on a pennant race/wild card berth.)

In the minor leagues, rescheduling is much simpler. Games are never made up on common off days, and are almost never made up as day-night doubleheaders. The vast majority are made up as single admission, two-for-one doubleheaders, typically either during the current series on the next time the two clubs meet. All postponed games must be made up before the scheduled end of the regular season, or else they are cancelled, regardless of how important the game might be to playoff qualification. (In the case of a split-season, postponed games in the first half must be made up before the scheduled end of the first half.) If the two clubs involved in a postponement have no more scheduled meetings, the game is immediately cancelled.

In the Asian leagues, I'm currently researching the topic. Preliminary examination suggests the following: In the KBO, postponed games are made up after the originally scheduled end of the regular season, as single games. In ***, some games are made up as single contests on prearranged make up days; the rest are made up as single games after the originally scheduled end of the regular season. (This necessarily means leaving a large gap between the originally scheduled end of the regular season and when the post-season is scheduled to start in order to make up those postponed games.) In the CPBL, sometimes postponed games are made up as part of a split (separate admission) doubleheader; other times they are made up after the originally scheduled end of the first half or second half, as appropriate.


(2) Postponed games should occasionally be cancelled (i.e. not made up).

The above is one of the main reasons to have postponed games. Clubs in North American leagues do not always play out their full slate of originally scheduled games due to postponements. While this is not common at the major league level currently, it is fairly common in the minor leagues, and was more frequent in the majors in the past. (I have the ML data on this.)


(3) The home team bats first in some make up games.

MLB adopted this rule in 2007; a few of the minor leagues also adopted it.

Basically, it works like this: if Team A at Team B is postponed, and the game can't be made up at B, then it is made up as a B at A game. In the past, A would be considered the home team in that make up game, and would bat second. (Thus some clubs end up with extra home games and others lose home games.) Starting in 2007, now when that make up game is a B at A game, it'll still be held in A's park and be counted as an A home game, but A would bat first as if it was the visiting team, and B would bat second. This was felt to be a little more fair, as a club losing out on a home game would at least get the advantage of batting second as if it was the home team, even though the game is not being played in its park.

Note that this has only ever occurred thus far in normal, single admission, two-for-one doubleheaders. Games made up as part of a day-night doubleheader have always taken place in the original park where the game was postponed.

(OOTP sort of does this "home team bats first" with the split doubleheader mentioned in the opening post. All that would be needed to make it happen fully is change the park where the game is taking place. Perhaps OOTP can be "tricked" into accepting another park as a club's alternate home field. [Actually, adding a home field entry to the schedule files should be done anyway, for a couple of reasons.])


(4) Games being postponed for reasons other than weather.

This is rare, but it does happen. If I recall correctly, about 2% of postponed games were postponed for reasons other than weather. (Even a club playing in a domed stadium has a chance of having a game postponed, albeit a small one.)


(5) Consistency in use of the terms "postponed" and "cancelled".

"Postponed" should only refer to games which were not played due to weather or other reasons but which will be played at a later date. "Cancelled" should only refer to games which were not played due to weather or other reasons but which will not be played at a later date—in other words, they won't be made up.