Historical Minor League Schedules

[thehef]

1901 EASTERN LEAGUE

Teams:
Buffalo Bisons
Hartford Wooden Nutmegs
Montreal Royals
Providence Clamdiggers/Grays
Rochester Bronchos
Syracuse Stars/Brockton B's
Toronto Maple Leafs
Worcester Quakers

Schedule Characteristics:
<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G126_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="126" start_month="4" start_day="25" start_on_weekday="5">

This schedule is primarily based upon the schedule printed in the 4/6/1901 edition of The Sporting Life, and also based upon research in a few newspapers.

Each team plays 126 games; 9 home games and 9 road games against each team.

Season starts on April 25th and ends on Sept 21st. Series' are typically three games, with exceptions. The original schedule - and as reflected here - does not include any Sunday games (however, teams were likely free to move or add games on Sundays, and some - specifically Montreal - appeared to do so at times).

No regular off days (other than Sundays). However, a few Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays did not have scheduled games (although as the season evolved, these dates ended up having games). IOW, most weeks saw teams playing two three-games series Monday thru Saturday.

Doubleheaders on 5/24 in Montreal & Toronto for Victoria Day, 5/30 for Decoration Day (for all teams; both Montreal & Toronto played road games in the USA), 7/1 in Montreal & Toronto for Dominion Day, 7/4 for Independence Day (for all teams; both Montreal & Toronto played road games in the USA), 8/31 (a Saturday) for reasons that are not clear, and 9/2 for Labor Day (for all teams; both Montreal & Toronto played road games in the USA).

Note that for Independence Day doubleheaders, Buffalo vs. Rochester and Providence vs. Worcester were played as home & home sets, with the morning games in Buffalo & Worcester and afternoon games in Rochester and Providence. On Labor Day, Providence & Worcester played a home & home, with morning game in Providence & the afternoon game in Worcester.

START TIMES
Actual start times not known, although a few start times for games in Montreal were found. Based upon that, joefromchicago's general guidelines, and my own desire to mix it up a little, the following start times apply:

Eastern (@ Hartford, Worcester, Providence) weekday games start at 3 pm
Western (@ Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse/Brockton, Toronto) weekday games start at 3 pm thru 6/15 and then at 4 pm after 6/15
Montreal weekday games in April and thru May 14th, and in Sept start at 3:30 pm. From May 15th thru end of August, games start start at 4 pm.
All Saturday single games start at 2 pm.
Doubleheaders on 5/24, 5/30, 8/31 and the non-home-&-home DH's on 7/4 & 9/2 start at noon and 3 pm.
Doubleheaders on 7/1 start at 1 pm and 4 pm.
7/4 Buff & Roch home-&-home DH's start at 11 am & 4 pm.
7/4 & 9/2 Prov & Wor home-&-home DH's start at 11 am & 3 pm.

The attached schedule is - as noted above - primarly based upon the original schedule. It does not factor in many games that were moved around due to rainouts & makeups, Sunday additions, etc. In addition, it does not account for the Hartford franchise disbanding on 9/10/01, or the Brockton franchise calling it quits after a doubleheader on 9/15. What actually happened after Hartford folded up shop: Providence was scheduled to host a three-games series against Hartford. Instead, Providence held a practice day followed by exhibitions against Woonsocket and the JF Russells. Providence was then scheduled to play a series at Brockton, while Worcester was supposed to host Hartford. Instead, Providence & Worcester finished out the season with an exhibition series, plus some days off & rainouts. No other Eastern League teams' schedule appeared to be affected by the two franchises folding... Providence then closed its season on Sunday 9/22 with an exhibition against the Boston Americans (who had closed thier AL season on 9/28).

No postseason games were played.

[thehef]

1901 ILLINOIS-INDIANA-IOWA LEAGUE

Teams:
Bloomington Blues
Cedar Rapids Rabbits
Davenport River Rats
Decatur Commodores
Evansville River Rats
Rock Island Islanders
Rockford Red Sox
Terre Haute Hottentots

Schedule Characteristics:
<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G115_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="115" start_month="5" start_day="2" start_on_weekday="5">

This schedule is primarily based upon the schedule printed in the 3/26/1901 edition of The Davenport Weekly Leader.

Teams play 115 games; each team plays either 57 games at home and 58 away, or 58 at home and 57 away. Teams play each other 8 or 9 times each, home & away.

Season starts on May 2nd and ends on September 8th. Typically 3-game series' thru August 4th, then two-games series' the end of season (exceptions involving holiday doubleheaders noted below). Other schedule info:

- Season started on a Thursday, with an off day on Friday, then the resumption of the series on the weekend.
- Off/travel days were typically on Mondays (8), occasionally on Thursdays (3) or Fridays (3). In addition, teams were off on the Tuesday after Labor Day doublehheaders, Wednesday before Independence day doubleheaders, and on a mid-August Wednesday.
- Doubleheaders on Decoration Day (Thur, 5/30; resulted in a 4-game series), Independence Day (Thurs, 7/4; 4-game series), and Labor Day (Mon, 9/2; 3-game series)

Start Times
Actual start times not known. For this schedule file:
- Weekday games' start times vary bewteen 2 pm, 2:30 pm, 3 pm, and 3:30 pm, with most teams starting games later after mid-June
- Saturday games start at 1 pm
- Sunday games start at 2 pm
- Doubleheader games start at 11 am and 2:30 pm

No postseason games were played.

[thehef]

1901 WESTERN ASSOCIATION

Teams:
Columbus Senators
Dayton Old Soldiers
Fort Wayne Railroaders
Grand Rapids Furniture Makers
Indianapolis (Matthews) Hoosiers
Marion Glass Blowers
Toledo Swamp Angels
Wheeling Stogies

Note: Above are the team names OOTP uses (well, will use once this league is included in OOTP). There were multiple franchise shifts during the season. The Western Association started with the following teams, with transfers as indicated:

Columbus, Dayton, Fort Wayne, Marion, Toledo, and...

Louisville - transferred to Grand Rapids on 7/2/1901; in OOTP, their schedule will apply to the Grand Rapids franchise above
Indianapolis - transferred to Matthews on 7/11/1901; in OOTP... will apply to Indianapolis (Matthews)...
Grand Rapids - transferred to Wheeling on 6/3/1901; in OOTP... will apply to Wheeling...

Schedule Characteristics:
<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G140_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="140" start_month="4" start_day="25" start_on_weekday="5">

This schedule is primarily based upon the schedule printed in the 4/8/1901 edition of The (Louisville) Courier-Journal.

Each team plays 140 games; 10 home games and 10 road games against each team (3 series each, road & home, with two consisting of three games and one consisting of four games).

Season starts on April 25th and ends on Sept 22nd.

There are no regular off days. However, for reasons unknown (to me) there were seven league-wide off days: Mon 4/29, Wed 5/29, Fri 7/12, Thu 8/8, Wed & Thu 8/21 & 8/22, and Tue 9/3.

Doubleheaders on 5/30 for Decoration Day, 7/4 for Independence Day, and 9/2 for Labor Day. In addition, Columbus and Louisville were scheduled for a DH on Sun 5/26, and Ft Wayne & Columbus had a DH scheduled for Sun 9/22 (the last day of the season; this was actually scheduled as a Mon 9/23 game - which was after the end of the regular season - but I adjusted it to match the Sunday DH that was actually played). The DH's on Decoration Day and Independence Day matched up geographic rivals - Dayton/Columbus, Louisville/Indy, Marion/Ft Wayne, and Toledo/Grand Rapids. For Labor Day, the 1st two matchups held, but the other two matchups were Marion/Grand Rapids and Toledo/Fort Wayne.

Start Times
Actual start times not known. I used the following start times:

Weekday games start at 3 pm from the beginning of the season through June 7th, and from 9/15 thru the end of the season
Weekday games start at 4 pm from June 11th through Sept 13th
All Saturday games and all Sunday single games start at 1 pm
Doubleheaders start at 12:30 pm and 3:30 pm

The attached schedule is primarly based, as noted above, on the original published schedule. The only changes were to move two games that were originally scheduled on Mon 9/23/01 (the day after the close of the regular season) to Sunday 9/22/01 (which matched when the games were actually played). Whether the original schedule was intended to run through 9/23 and the schedule was subsequently change, or if those games listed as 9/23 were merely typos, I have no idea. The schedule most definitely does not make any adjustments for the multiple franchise moves, and any changes that occured because of them. It also does not factor in any games that were moved around due to rainouts & makeups, Sunday additions, etc.

No postseason games were played.

[thehef]

1901 NEW ENGLAND LEAGUE

Teams:
Augusta
Bangor
Haverhill Hustlers
Lewiston
Lowell Tigers
Manchester
Nashua
Portland

Note: Above are the team names OOTP uses (well, will use once this league is included in OOTP). The league began the season with the teams listed above. Two clubs moved to new cities during the season, and then disbanded a week later:

On June 30th, due to the cost of travel to Maine, the league transferred Augusta to Lynn (Mass.), and transferred Bangor to Brockton (Mass.). Both clubs were disbanded a week later, on July 6th.

Schedule Characteristics:
<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G98_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="98" start_month="5" start_day="15" start_on_weekday="4">

This schedule is primarily based upon the schedule printed in the 5/6/1901 edition of The Bangor Daily News.

Each team plays 98 games; 7 home games and 7 road games against each team (there are a couple of 6-&-8-game exceptions).

Teams play either single game or a two-game series'. Prior to the relocations/disbanding of the two clubs above, this schedule was problematic in that Augusta was about 150 miles from the 4 southern-most cities (Manchester, Nashua, Lowell, Haverhill) which were all within about 30 miles of one another, and Lowell was a whopping 230 miles away from those 4 southern-most cities. However, *after* the league contracted, only two teams remained outside of the 30-mile / 4-team conglomeration: Portland, which was about 80-100 miles from the southern teams, and Lewiston, which was around 115-130 miles away. (See the map here: https://www.statscrew.com/minorbaseball/l-NENL/y-1901)

Season starts on May 15th and ends on Sept 7th (the actual schedule - which included numerous changes due to contraction - ended on Sept 2nd).

Games are played Mondays thru Saturdays. While teams occasionally have an off day or travel day, there are no league-wide off days. The exceptions are Sundays, upon which no baseball is allowed.

DOUBLEHEADERS
Doubleheaders for all teams on 5/30 for Decoration Day, 7/4 for Independence Day, and 9/2 for Labor Day. Some of these doubleheaders are home-and-home:

5/30 Lewiston (am) and Portland (pm)
5/30 Lowell (am) and Nashua (pm)
7/4 Haverhill (am) and Nashua (pm)
7/4 Manchester (am) and Lowell (pm)

In what was most-likely an error on the printed schedule, on July 4th it had Augusta playing a morning game at Lewiston and an afternoon game as Portland, and Bangor playing a morning game at Lewiston and and afternoon game at Portland. I *could* have changed this to where, for example, Augusta played two games at Lewiston and Bangor played two games at Portland. However, that would've thrown off the balanced nature of the overall schedule. And since this these inter-city doubleheaders sounded fun (and these 35-mile trips were certainly possible), I left those "as originally scheduled."

The only scheduled non-holiday doubleheader was Lowell at Augusta on May 24th.

Start Times:
Actual start times not known. I used the following start times:

Weekday games begin at noon
Saturday games begin at 2 pm
Regular (both games in one host city) doubleheaders start at 11 am and 3 pm
Home-and-home holiday doubleheaders start at either 10 and 3 pm or 11 am and 3pm, depending upon geography
The 5/24 Lowell at August doubleheader games start at 12:30 pm and 4 pm
The 7/4 "oddball" intercity doubleheaders mentioned above start at 10 am and 3 pm

The attached schedule is primarly based, as noted above, on the original published schedule. The only changes were to move two games that were essentially impossible and clearly published in error. In one instance, the error was easy to determine in that the actual date of the game was the day before (verified by newspaper results); so I moved the game to the correct date. In the other instance, it was after the league had contracted and major changes were made to the real schedule, so I was unable to determine what the correction should have been. Therefore, I simply moved the game to an open date for both teams (which works pretty well with this schedule since one-game "series" were common).

The attached schedule most definitely does not make any adjustments for the franchise relocations and foldings. It also does not factor in any games that were moved around due to rainouts & makeups, etc.

No postseason games were played.

[thehef]

1901 NEW YORK STATE LEAGUE

Teams:
Albany Senators
Binghamton Bingoes
Cortland/Waverly
Ilion Typewriters
Rome Romans
Schenectady Electricians
Troy Washerwomen/Trojans
Utica Pentups

Note: Above are the team names OOTP uses (well, will use once this league is included in OOTP). The league began the season with the teams listed above. On August 11th, Cortland moved to Waverly.

Schedule Characteristics:
<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G105_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="105" start_month="5" start_day="8" start_on_weekday="4">

This schedule is primarily based upon the schedule printed in the 4/27/1901 edition of The Sporting Life.

Each team plays 104-105 games, between 51 and 53 both at home and away. Teams play each other 7 or 9 times at home and away.

Teams typically play two-game series', with four-game homestands the norm. However, single games dotted the summer schedule, and for the last week or so teams played mostly 1-game series during 4-game (sometimes longer) homestands.

Season starts on May 8th and ends on Sept 7th.

Games are played Mondays thru Saturdays. Wed July 3rd, Fri Aug 30th, and Tue Sept 3rd were league-wide off days. No games on Sundays (not allowed).

DOUBLEHEADERS
Same-matchup home-and-home doubleheaders between geographic rivals were featured on 5/30 (Decoration Day), 7/4 (Independence Day), and 9/2 (Labor Day), with one exception, as follows:

Albany (pm) vs Troy (am)... approx 8 miles between cities.
Ilion (am) vs Schenactedy (pm)... approx 66 miles...
Rome vs (am) vs Utica (pm)... approx 17 miles...
Cortana (am) vs Binghamton (pm) on 5/30 & 7/4; both am & pm games at Binghamton on 9/2... approx 42 miles...

No non-holiday doubleheaders scheduled.

Start Times:
Actual start times not known. I used the following start times:

Weekday games at Rome, Schenactedy & Troy begin at 2 pm; at Albany begin at 3 pm; at Binghamton & Ilion begin at 2 pm thru mid-June, then 3 pm; at Utica 3 pm thru mid-Une, then 3:30 pm; at Cortland begin at 3 pm thru mid-June, then 4 pm.
Saturday games begin at 2 pm
Doubleheaders start at 11 and 2:30 pm

The attached schedule does not make any adjustments for Cortland's relocation to Waverly. It also does not factor in any games that were moved around due to rainouts & makeups, etc.

No postseason games were played.

[thehef]

1901 SOUTHERN LEAGUE

Teams:
Birmingham Barons
Chattanooga Lookouts
Little Rock Travelers
Memphis Egyptians
Nashville Vols/Volunteers
New Orleans Pelicans
Selma Christians
Shreveport Giants

Schedule Characteristics:
<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G126_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="126" start_month="5" start_day="2" start_on_weekday="5">

This schedule is based upon the schedule printed in the 3/6/1901 edition of The Sporting Life.

Each team plays 126 games; 9 home games and 9 road games against each team.

Season starts on May 2nd and ends on Sept 25th. Series' are three games. The original schedule includes only a few Sunday games - likely in error - and the article accompanying the schedule includes the following:

"Sunday dates are not given in the schedule, but where clubs can play at home those days, they will transfer Thursday and Friday dates to that day. Selma will not play Sundays at home or abroad."

Therefore, for the few Sunday dates that were in the schedule (likely in error), I left those. In addition, I moved 20 other dates from Thursday to Sunday (basically chosen by geography: Where a Thursday travel day made more sense than a Sunday one, I moved the game from Thurs to Sun).

No regular off days (other than some Sundays). The only league-wide days off are Sat 7/6 and Wed 9/4 (both days are two days after holiday doubleheaders.)

Doubleheaders on for all teams on 7/4 for Independence Day and 9/2 for Labor Day. In addition, Little Rock hosts a DH vs Shreveport on 8/17, and Chattanooga hosts a DH vs Little Rock on 8/30.

Start Times:
Actual start times not known. Based upon joefromchicago's general guidelines, and my own whims to vary the starts times somewhat, the following start times apply:

Weekday games at Chattanooga, Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville start at 3 pm
Weekday games at Birmingham, New Orleans, Selma, and Shreveport start at 3:30 pm
Saturday games start at 1 pm
Sunday games start at 2 pm
Doubleheaders start at either noon & 3 pm, or 11 am and 2 pm

Note that the schedule file printed in The Sporting Life included numerous errors (such as a team "scheduled" to play in two different cities on the same day; and some typos). Best efforts were made to sort these errors out to where the schedule should be very realistic, if not 100% historically-accurate.

As with other schedules I've posted, this schedule does not factor in any games that were moved around due to rainouts & makeups, Sunday additions, etc.

No postseason games were played.

[joefromchicago]

Wow, these are amazing! Thanks so much for posting these 1901 schedules, thehef. I'll add them to the master list.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by thehef

In what was most-likely an error on the printed schedule, on July 4th it had Augusta playing a morning game at Lewiston and an afternoon game as Portland, and Bangor playing a morning game at Lewiston and and afternoon game at Portland. I *could* have changed this to where, for example, Augusta played two games at Lewiston and Bangor played two games at Portland. However, that would've thrown off the balanced nature of the overall schedule. And since this these inter-city doubleheaders sounded fun (and these 35-mile trips were certainly possible), I left those "as originally scheduled."

Thanks again for posting these schedules. My guess here is that this wasn't an error. Instead, it was a gimmick. The major leagues experimented with these "triangular" double-headers in the 1880s, probably as a way of drumming up fan interest. There was a rail link between Portland and Lewiston, and for these sorts of events it would have been common to have special trains carry the teams and fans between the two cities.

The majors quickly abandoned the experiment, but it would persist in the minors for a few more decades. I can't imagine that the players were particularly happy with traveling between games (see my second post in this thread for Lefty O'Doul's account of playing a morning game in Stockton and an afternoon game in Sacramento), but I doubt that they were consulted.

The Negro Leagues routinely played triangular (or quadrilateral?) double-headers, often with two teams playing the first game and two different teams playing the nightcap. But then so much was ad hoc about the Negro Leagues that reliable schedules are almost impossible to find.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Thanks again for posting these schedules. My guess here is that this wasn't an error. Instead, it was a gimmick. The major leagues experimented with these "triangular" double-headers in the 1880s, probably as a way of drumming up fan interest. There was a rail link between Portland and Lewiston, and for these sorts of events it would have been common to have special trains carry the teams and fans between the two cities.

The majors quickly abandoned the experiment, but it would persist in the minors for a few more decades. I can't imagine that the players were particularly happy with traveling between games (see my second post in this thread for Lefty O'Doul's account of playing a morning game in Stockton and an afternoon game in Sacramento), but I doubt that they were consulted.

While your point is correct, in the example thehef posted, it most likely was an error:

Lewiston was scheduled to host two different opponents in the morning game (Augusta and Bangor), which of course is not possible. If one of those games was an afternoon game, then it would work, but both Augusta and Bangor were scheduled to play other opponents in the afternoon game.

The best way to resolve the matter is to check newspaper or TSN accounts for the games actually played that day.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

While your point is correct, in the example thehef posted, it most likely was an error:

Lewiston was scheduled to host two different opponents in the morning game (Augusta and Bangor), which of course is not possible. If one of those games was an afternoon game, then it would work, but both Augusta and Bangor were scheduled to play other opponents in the afternoon game.

The best way to resolve the matter is to check newspaper or TSN accounts for the games actually played that day.

Ah, I missed that. Yes, one of those games would need to be an afternoon game, which is probably what happened. A schedule would go from the league secretary to an editor to a typesetter, with a couple of steps in between, and errors could occur at any step along the way. Especially with these old schedules, I'm kinda' surprised when there aren't any errors in the published versions.

[thehef]

This is one of those "we may never know" scenarios...

LGO states that:

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Lewiston was scheduled to host two different opponents in the morning game (Augusta and Bangor), which of course is not possible.

That may be true based upon his source schedule (TSN?). However, the source schedule I used - the one pub'd in the 5/6/1901 Bangor Daily News - indicated the following Independence Day schedule:

Augusta @ Lewiston, am
Augusta @ Portland, pm
Bangor @ Portland, am
Bangor @ Lewiston, pm

No am/pm conflicts for any teams.

That said and as we all probably know, there are instances of conflicting minor league schedules being published. A handy example of this is the 1903 PCL schedule: the one pub'd in TSN on 3/7/1903 turned out to be significantly less accurate than the one pub'd in the 2/15/1903 LA Times. We'd think the later the publishing of the schedule, the more accurate it'd be. Alas, no. At least not in this example... It's this inconsistency that leads me to conclude that we may never know, as both errors and inconsistencies were all too common...

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

The best way to resolve the matter is to check newspaper or TSN accounts for the games actually played that day.

While usually solid advice ^^^, in this case we can't do that because two of the teams involved in the mystery - Augusta & Bangor - relocated a week prior to the July 4th games (to Lynn & Brockton; and disbanned right after those games), necessitating schedule changes.

What we DO know - from newspaper accounts - is that all eight New England League teams played home-and-home am/pm doubleheaders on 7/4/1901. But there were no split matchups (teams playing different teams on that same day). Here's that day's actual matchups:

Haverhill @ Nashua, am*
Nashua @ Haverhill, pm*
Manchester @ Lowell, am*
Lowell @ Manchester, pm*
*These games were all as originally scheduled, per the 5/6/1901 schedule printed in the Bangor Daily News.

Lewiston @ Portland, am
Portland @ Lewiston, pm
Brockton @ Lynn, am
Lynn @ Brockton, pm

Augusta had become the Lynn team, and Bangor had become Brockton. If the original split doubleheaders were legit, the likely reason for abandoning them simply had to do with geography. Prior to the relocations, the four teams involved in the split doubleheaders were the four northern-most teams - almost like a Northern Division, as the 8 teams at the time were clustered in two groups of four (north & south). However, after the two relocations, Brockton was the southern-most team, and Lynn was the 2nd-most-southern team. The map then essentially became a cluster of six teams in and around the Boston area, and two teams - Portland and Lewiston - on a northern "island." So, geographically, it made perfect sense for the 7/4/1901 schedule to a) have the two southern-most teams (Lynn and Brockton) square off, b) have the the two northern-most teams (Portland and Lewiston) match up, and c) leave the other four centrally-located teams to play as originally scheduled.

At any rate, the 7/4/1901 matchups that I went with in the schedule that I posted are as follows:

Augusta/Lynn @ Lewiston, am
Augusta/Lynn @ Portland, pm
Bangor/Brockton @ Portland, am
Bangor/Brockton @ Lewiston, pm
... along with the four asterisked matchups noted above that were played as originally scheduled.

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Especially with these old schedules, I'm kinda' surprised when there aren't any errors in the published versions.

Um... yeah. Totally!

[thehef]

1902 CALIFORNIA LEAGUE

This was the final season of this iteration of the California League, as its four teams would rebrand as the Pacific Coast League and expand to 6-teams for the 1903 season.

Teams:
Los Angeles
Oakland Clamdiggers
Sacramento Gilt Edges
San Francisco

Schedule Characteristics:
SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G200_T4_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="200" start_month="4" start_day="5" start_on_weekday="7"

This schedule is primarily based upon the schedule printed in the 3/24/1902 edition of The San Francisco Call, and also based upon research in a few newspapers.

Teams play between 181 and 200 games:
LA 188
Oak 199
Sac 181
SF 200

Teams play between 88 and 115 home/away games, and play each other 60-72 times, except LA/Sac play each other just 53 times.
Season starts on April 5th and ends on December 7th. Series' typically run as follows:

• In Los Angeles: 5 games, Thursday thru Sunday, with doubleheaders on Sundays
• In Sacramento: 4 games, Thursday thru Sunday, no doubleheaders
• When Oakland or San Francisco is the host team, 6 games, as follows: Wed at Oak; Thurs, Fri, Sat & SF; Sun am at Oak, pm at SF

(Note that Since OOTP schedule file formatting doesn't allow for games being played at locations other than at the home team's park, Oakland or San Francisco - whichever team is hosting the series - is designated as the home team for both the morning and afternoon game of doubleheaders, and for all other games, regardless of whether they were actually scheduled for Oakland or San Francisco. However, when the matchup includes both Oakland and San Francisco, Oakland is the home team for the morning game and San Francisco is the home team for the afternoon game.)

• No games on Mondays except for a doubleheader (Sac @ SF) and a single game (Oak at LA) on Labor Day, Sept 1st;
• No games on Tuesdays except for LA & Sac on 5/13, and on 9/9 for (California) Admissions Day, Sept 9th, with Oak & SF playing doubleheader and Sac @ LA for a single game.
• The only Wed games were at Oakland (hosted by either Oakland or San Fran); plus LA @ Sac on 5/14
• Doubleheaders as follows:
  • on all Sundays for Bay Area (Oak/SF) and in LA (except opening day- single game in LA)
  • Sac @ Oak on Decoration Day, May 30th
  • Oak & SF (home and home) on Independence Day, July 4th
  • Sac @ SF on Labor Day, Sept 1st (both games at SF)
  • Oak @ SF (both games at SF; not home and home) on Admissions day, 9/9
  • Sac @ Oak (both games at SF) on Thanksgiving, Nov 27th

Start Times
Actual start times not known. For this schedule file:

• Weekday games generally start at 3 pm
• Saturday games start at 1 pm
• Single Sunday games start at 2 pm
• Doubleheader games start at noon and 3 pm, except in Bay Area where the morning game at Oak starts at 10 am and the afternoon game at SF starts at 3 pm.
• No postseason games were played.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by thehef

Thanks, Joe. I tested it out and here's what I was able to determine:

Where I suggested that the only steps were...
1. Import schedule
2. Under Schedule Settings, check the box to Enable Split Season Format

... it's not quite that simple. There are actually two initial steps:

1. Set the number of games in OOTP (League Settings > Options, under Schedule Settings) to match the number of games in the schedule to be imported.*
2. Make sure the balanced/unbalanced setting matches the indicator in the schedule to be imported.*
3. Import schedule
4. Under Schedule Settings, check the box to Enable Split Season Format (I think this step can be done earlier; might not matter exactly when)
*otherwise you'll get an error message when you attempt to import the schedule

As far as my specific questions:

At that point the game will know where to split the season and know what to do at the end of each half of the season? Apparently so. In my test of the 1930 PCL, where the imported schedule is 201 games, OOTP split the season at 100 games. So I'm guessing that for determining where to split the season, OOTP divides the total number of games in half, and in the case where the total number of games is an odd number, it rounds down.

It'll reset the standings (keep the 1st half standings somewhere so they can be viewed?)... Once you start the 2nd half of the split-season, on the Standings panel the standings will continue to reflect the cumulative standings, but this can be changed via the dropdown in the vicinity of the top left of the panel, where you can choose Overall, First Half, or Second Half standings. Beneath the main standings the team & record of the 1st half winner will be shown, and beneath that the team & record of the 2nd half leader. In addition, overall, 1st half, and 2nd half records/standings can be found on the Expanded Standings panel, although the teams are locked-listed in the order of the first half standings.

... and come playoff time will know to match the first half winner vs second half winner? With default settings, yep.

Will it give HFA to the half-winner with the best record? With default settings, yep. Although you can of course edit this.

In the case of the same team winning both halves, will it match the overall 1st place team against the overall 2nd place team? Again, with default settings, yes. In my test, Hollywood won both halves, and Seattle had the 2nd best overall record. They were matched up in the championship series.

Note: The Custom Playoff option is disabled when Split Season is enabled. So, for example, if you wanted to have something whacky like the top two finishers in the first half qualifying, along with the top two finishers for the 2nd half, you can't do that. At least not that I can figure out. (And I guess this makes sense: In a split-season format, the options offered, and what do in the case of 1, 2, or 3 of the teams being repeat winners in each half, well that would be a programming nightmare, I'd think.

An important follow up on how split schedules work in OOTP. To cut to the chase, if the teams in a league are scheduled for different amounts of total games played (a common occurrence in early minor leagues) OOTP does not split the schedule at the same point for each team. Rather, it's splits the schedule for each team based upon the number of games on each team's schedule. I'll use the 1904 PCL as an example:

- I have a 1904 PCL schedule (that I will post soon) that has total number of games per team ranging from a low of 226 (LA & Portland) to a high of 241 (Oakland).
- When Oakland reached 121 games, it's next game - a loss to LA - was counted in the 2nd half standings. Since no other team had reached it's own halfway point of the season, Oakland was the only team listed in the 2nd half standings (with a record of 0-1).
- A few days later, Seattle reached it's halfway point, and the following day the 2nd half standings showed Seattle on top at 1-0, all other teams at 0-0, and Oakland at 0-3.
- So basically, by the end of the full season I'll end up with probably a couple dozen games where the result counted in the first half for one team and in the second half for the other team.

In addition, if you look at the main Play dropdown menu (that typicaly gives you Finish Today, and various Auto-Play Until... and Auto-Play to Event... options, there is no option at any time to play until the end of the 1st half. So, in effect, unless the gamer were to do some significant research and calculations, he'll have no real idea as to the when the first half of the schedule actually ends. And the nature of teams not finishing the first half at the same time makes any sort of pennant race - for the 1st half title - a mystery that can only be understood & appreciated after the fact...

The solution to all of this should be pretty simply, IMO.

First, OOTP would need to be programmed to recognize the split point if it's specified in the schedule. So if Split Schedule were selected on the Options panel, then OOTP would recognize something like this...

<GAME day="90" time="1500" away="6" home="3"/>
<GAME day="90" time="1500" away="4" home="1"/>
<GAME day="90" "SPLIT"
<GAME day="92" time="1500" away="1" home="6"/>
<GAME day="92" time="1500" away="5" home="7"/>

... and split the schedule accordingly (after the games of game day 90 in the above example). If Split Schedule were not enabled on the Options panel and the "Split" indicator were included in the schedule file, OOTP would ignore the indication in the file and not split the schedule.

If, however, Split Schedule is enabled on the Options panel and there is no "Split" indicator in the schedule file, then rather than calculating each team's number of games and splitting each team's schedule at each team's halfway point, OOTP would find the total number of days in a schedule file (in my example above it is 249; in the 2018 Northwest League schedule that is delivered with OOTP it is 81) and divided that number in half to determine the day in the schedule that it would be split in half. In this manner, the split would apply to all teams regardless of how many games each team has played at that point.

Second, regardless of the manner in which the Split Date is determined by OOTP - whether it finds the split date in the schedule or calculates it based upon the number of days, OOTP should add a League Event that would appear in the PLAY dropdown, under the AUTO-PLAY TO EVENT sub-heading. Something like 6/29/1904: 1st Half of Season Ends.

Make sense? Any suggestions on how OOTP might be able to better handle this?

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by thehef

An important follow up on how split schedules work in OOTP. To cut to the chase, if the teams in a league are scheduled for different amounts of total games played (a common occurrence in early minor leagues) OOTP does not split the schedule at the same point for each team. Rather, it's splits the schedule for each team based upon the number of games on each team's schedule. I'll use the 1904 PCL as an example:

- I have a 1904 PCL schedule (that I will post soon) that has total number of games per team ranging from a low of 226 (LA & Portland) to a high of 241 (Oakland).
- When Oakland reached 121 games, it's next game - a loss to LA - was counted in the 2nd half standings. Since no other team had reached it's own halfway point of the season, Oakland was the only team listed in the 2nd half standings (with a record of 0-1).
- A few days later, Seattle reached it's halfway point, and the following day the 2nd half standings showed Seattle on top at 1-0, all other teams at 0-0, and Oakland at 0-3.
- So basically, by the end of the full season I'll end up with probably a couple dozen games where the result counted in the first half for one team and in the second half for the other team.

Well, that's just crazy

Of course, that's not how it was done in real life. You can't have one team playing in the second half of a season and its opponent still playing in the first half. Frankly, I'm shocked that OOTP handles split seasons this way.

Originally Posted by thehef

If, however, Split Schedule is enabled on the Options panel and there is no "Split" indicator in the schedule file, then rather than calculating each team's number of games and splitting each team's schedule at each team's halfway point, OOTP would find the total number of days in a schedule file (in my example above it is 249; in the 2018 Northwest League schedule that is delivered with OOTP it is 81) and divided that number in half to determine the day in the schedule that it would be split in half. In this manner, the split would apply to all teams regardless of how many games each team has played at that point.

Second, regardless of the manner in which the Split Date is determined by OOTP - whether it finds the split date in the schedule or calculates it based upon the number of days, OOTP should add a League Event that would appear in the PLAY dropdown, under the AUTO-PLAY TO EVENT sub-heading. Something like 6/29/1904: 1st Half of Season Ends.

Completely agree, and it's well past time for OOTP to adopt something like this for split-season leagues. If any added impetus is needed, it should be remembered that the Negro Leagues usually had split seasons, so if OOTP wants to have authentic Negro Leagues (consistent with the MLB decision that the Negro Leagues were major leagues), then there should be some mechanism to recreate their split-season schedules accurately.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Of course, that's not how it was done in real life. You can't have one team playing in the second half of a season and its opponent still playing in the first half. Frankly, I'm shocked that OOTP handles split seasons this way.

The closest real life has come to this is when some leagues used a rule which stated that any postponed game in the first half that could not be made up in the first half could be made up in the second half but would retroactively count in the first half standings. That meant the final first half standings might not be known until well into the second half.

The alternative to the above was to count first half postponed games made up in the second half as second half games. This had the effect of teams in the second half having differing numbers of scheduled games (and to that would be added the effects of second half postponements).

In the modern era, it's simple: any postponed game in the first half which cannot be made up by the end of the first half is cancelled and not made up.

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Completely agree, and it's well past time for OOTP to adopt something like this for split-season leagues. If any added impetus is needed, it should be remembered that the Negro Leagues usually had split seasons, so if OOTP wants to have authentic Negro Leagues (consistent with the MLB decision that the Negro Leagues were major leagues), then there should be some mechanism to recreate their split-season schedules accurately.

It shouldn't be surprising, the split season format is an afterthought in OOTP. It was many years after they were added before you could even choose to view first half, second half, or overall standings. All OOTP showed was the overall standings.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by thehef

In the case of the same team winning both halves, will it match the overall 1st place team against the overall 2nd place team? Again, with default settings, yes. In my test, Hollywood won both halves, and Seattle had the 2nd best overall record. They were matched up in the championship series.

There have been a variety of playoff options used in split-season. I can list a lot of them from memory.

Originally Posted by thehef

[Note: The Custom Playoff option is disabled when Split Season is enabled. So, for example, if you wanted to have something whacky like the top two finishers in the first half qualifying, along with the top two finishers for the 2nd half, you can't do that. At least not that I can figure out. (And I guess this makes sense: In a split-season format, the options offered, and what do in the case of 1, 2, or 3 of the teams being repeat winners in each half, well that would be a programming nightmare, I'd think.

Years ago I worked on an XML-based system to do playoffs. These were basically schedule files for the post-season but which included a large assortment of special tags to specify how teams would qualify for the playoffs. It was incredibly flexible and could create almost any conceivable playoff format. It was definitely an advanced user feature, but would allow playoff formats to be shared the way regular season schedule files are.

[joefromchicago]

I haven't done one of these in almost a year

1926 EAST TEXAS LEAGUE

Teams:

Greenville Hunters
Longview Cannibals
Marshall Snappers/Indians
Paris Bearcats
Texarkana Twins
Tyler Trojans

All teams located in TX

Schedule Characteristics:

SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G126_T6_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="126" start_month="4" start_day="21" start_day_of_week="4"

Season starts on April 21 and ends on August 22. Teams play 63 home games. Teams play each opponent 24-27 times. Games start at 3:00, except for holiday - Memorial Day and Independence Day (July 5) - double-headers which start at noon and 3:00.

No off-days for this Class D league. The schedule printed in The Sporting News is in pretty bad shape, so thanks to cmcgill for tracking down a newspaper version that is much more legible.


East Texas League 1926.lsdl

[No Pepper]

Having read thehef's report on OOTP handling of split season schedules, I'm a bit split regarding the translating of published negro league schedules into OOTP format that joefromchicago provided me years ago, and how they'll play out in the game.

I would like to add these to our repository here soon but would also like them to be usable. Any suggestions going forward?

Nothing is perfect regarding the published schedules and I have a couple of seasons I cobbled up a schedule of "as played" games. I could certainly create additional schedules that would both give a sense of the season but also strictly adhere to balance and satisfy OOTP quirks and or inadequacies.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by No Pepper

Having read thehef's report on OOTP handling of split season schedules, I'm a bit split regarding the translating of published negro league schedules into OOTP format that joefromchicago provided me years ago, and how they'll play out in the game.

I would like to add these to our repository here soon but would also like them to be usable. Any suggestions going forward?

Nothing is perfect regarding the published schedules and I have a couple of seasons I cobbled up a schedule of "as played" games. I could certainly create additional schedules that would both give a sense of the season but also strictly adhere to balance and satisfy OOTP quirks and or inadequacies.

I think the answer is in my post above (#253). I will post the request today. I'd guess it's something that can be implemented for v26, as I'm also guessing that the devs - when they implemented the ability to use a split schedule - simply did not foresee the use of such unbalanced schedules. IOW, didn't realize that older minor league schedules were often split and often very wacky, and therefore the logic they used for programming the split schedules would be problematic. So I'm thinking - especially now that there's clamoring for more Negro League stuff - they'll want to get this fixed up!

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by thehef

I think the answer is in my post above (#253). I will post the request today. I'd guess it's something that can be implemented for v26, as I'm also guessing that the devs - when they implemented the ability to use a split schedule - simply did not foresee the use of such unbalanced schedules.

The <SPLIT> function is a simple, elegant solution. However, I suspect it would not be enough. Recall that OOTP needs to know the number of games in the season in order to calculate magic numbers, elimination numbers, and so forth. To calculate such things for each half OOTP would need to know the number of games in each half.

So, the header of the schedule file might need to include something like "first_half_games=60" and "second_half_games=80". (First half ends and second half begins day numbers may still need to be in the header as well.)

Uneven split schedules are not common but they do sometimes happen. The 2024 MLB Draft League schedule for example features 35 games in the first half and 45 games in the second half.