Best of 7 or Best of 9?

[venflaalachi]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

I've got an Excel file in which i put final standings and playoff results. I've got results for most seasons going back to the early 1990s. For the last two seasons I've got complete results, which includes line scores for each regular season and post-season game. (The current winter league season is ongoing.)

I've also got some results from seasons in the 1950s-60s from coverage in TSN, though this is inconsistent and frequently incomplete.

I can post up the best-of-9 winter league results I do have. (Note that the home rotation used in these was frequently alternation; that is, one game in one team's park, the next game in the other team's park, the next in the first city again, and so on.)

If it is not too much of a hassle please do, I would be interested in seeing the results.

[professor ape]

Whether a seven or nine game series is "better" depends on your priority.

If you just want more games for more revenue then obviously the nine game series is better...about 30% better. Based on random luck, two evenly matched teams would play an average of 5.81 games in a seven game format and 7.54 games in a nine game format.

If you want the best team to win then the nine game format is going to be better, but not much better. If the teams are imbalanced such that one team would be expected to have a .550 winning percentage against the other then the better team would be expected to win a seven game series 60.8% of the time and 62.1% of the time in a nine game series.

If your goal is to have more competitive series then the seven game format is better. With two evenly matched teams you would be expected to get to at least a sixth game 62.6% of the time and will have a Game 7 just under a third of the time (31.3%). In a nine game series you would expect to have at least eight games 54.6% of the time and would have a decisive Game 9 27.3% of the time.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by venflaalachi

If it is not too much of a hassle please do, I would be interested in seeing the results.

Seasons in which a best-of-9 series was used and for which I have results:

Dominican Winter League

1998-99: Licey defeated Aguilas 5 games to 4
2005-06: Licey defeated Aguilas 5 games to 2
2006-07: Aguilas defeated Licey 5 games to 2
2007-08: Aguilas defeated Licey 5 games to 3
2008-09: Licey defeated Gigantes 5 games to 0
2009-10: Escogido defeated Gigantes 5 games to 4
2010-11: Toros defeated Estrellas 5 games to 0
2011-12: Escogido defeated Aguilas 5 games to 4
2012-13: Escogido defeated Aguilas 5 games to 0
2013-14: Licey defeated Escogido 5 games to 3
2014-15: Gigantes defeated Estrellas 5 games to 3
2015-16: Escogido defeated Licey 5 games to 1
2016-17: Licey defeated Aguilas 5 games to 4

Mexican Pacific League

1990-91: Tijuana defeated Guaymas 5 games to 4; Obregon defeated Hermosillo 5 games to 2; Culiacan defeated Los Mochis 5 games to 4; Mazatlan defeated Navojoa 5 games to 4; Tijuana defeated Obregon 5 games to 4; Culiacan defeated 5 games to 3. (Strangely, the league championship series was best-of-7.)
1992:93: Mazatlan defeated Obregon 5 games to 0; Mexicali defeated Los Mochis 5 games to 2

Puerto Rican Winter League

1990-91: Santurce defeated Mayaguez 5 games to 3
1992-93: Santurce defeated San Juan 5 games to 1
1993-94: San Juan defeated Santurce 5 games to 2
1994-95: San Juan defeated Mayaguez 5 games to 3
1995-96: Arecibo defeated Mayaguez 5 games to 3
1996-97: Mayaguez defeated San Juan 5 games to 3
1997-98: Mayaguez defeated San Juan 5 games to 4
1998-99: Mayaguez defeated Ponce 5 games to 1
1999-00: Santurce defeated Mayaguez 5 games to 2
2000-01: Caguas defeated Mayaguez 5 games to 1
2001-02: Bayamon defeated Santurce 5 games to 3
2002-03: Mayaguez defeated Caguas 5 games to 1
2003-04: Ponce defeated Caguas 5 games to 2
2011-12: Mayaguez defeated Caguas 5 games to 3
2016-17: Caguas defeated Santurce 5 games to 3

Summary of the above 36 series:
5-0: 4 times
5-1: 5 times
5-2: 7 times
5-3: 11 times
5-4: 9 times