Teams tied but no one-game playoff

[J.HenryWaugh]

Fictional league, early 20th century, 154-game schedule. Midwest League: Chicago Black Sox finishes 1911 season with a 89-62 record, while the Kansas City Cowboys managed to split a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Grays to close out the season at 90-63. Chicago edged KC in win percentage .589 to .588 but they finished in a virtual tie for first place, with the Detroit Wolverines just one game back.

However, when I moved the game to the next following day there was no expected playoff between Chicago and Kansas City. The game declared the Black Sox as league champs.

Simple question: why? I thought the games behind was the one factor that determined a champion and if teams were tied, even with different win-loss percentages, there was a playoff.

Even OOTP is confused though. While the Baltimore Bridegrooms have an X next to their name as Atlantic League champs, there is no X next to Chicago. In fact, they still have a magic number of 3, while KC's magic number is 2.

[Bobfather]

You said it yourself virtual tie. More importantly why the 2 games played difference?

[andyhdz]

Originally Posted by J.HenryWaugh

Fictional league, early 20th century, 154-game schedule. Midwest League: Chicago Black Sox finishes 1911 season with a 89-62 record, while the Kansas City Cowboys managed to split a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Grays to close out the season at 90-63. Chicago edged KC in win percentage .589 to .588 but they finished in a virtual tie for first place, with the Detroit Wolverines just one game back.

However, when I moved the game to the next following day there was no expected playoff between Chicago and Kansas City. The game declared the Black Sox as league champs.

Simple question: why? I thought the games behind was the one factor that determined a champion and if teams were tied, even with different win-loss percentages, there was a playoff.

Even OOTP is confused though. While the Baltimore Bridegrooms have an X next to their name as Atlantic League champs, there is no X next to Chicago. In fact, they still have a magic number of 3, while KC's magic number is 2.

Did you set it up to have tiebreaker games in league settings?

[Brad K]

No tiebreaker is needed. There's no tie. Chicago won.

[cheo25]

The team with the highest winning percentage is the winner if games are not going to be made up. Ideally, the team in first with two fewer games played would make up those games and the second-place team also would have a game to make up since they're at 153.

In the modern era, games have always made up if they could have an effect on the pennant race, except in cases of a strike. In 1972, the Tigers finished one-half game ahead of the Red Sox because the strike wiped out the first few days of the season. The agreement to end the strike did not allow for those canceled games to be made up. The Tigers won 1 more game than the Red Sox did, thus, they were crowned AL East champs.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by J.HenryWaugh

Fictional league, early 20th century, 154-game schedule. Midwest League: Chicago Black Sox finishes 1911 season with a 89-62 record, while the Kansas City Cowboys managed to split a doubleheader with the Cincinnati Grays to close out the season at 90-63. Chicago edged KC in win percentage .589 to .588 but they finished in a virtual tie for first place, with the Detroit Wolverines just one game back.

Exciting finish, but Brad K is right: there's no playoff because there's no tie. Chicago won the pennant based on a better winning percentage. Same thing happened in the 1915 Federal League, where the Chicago Whales edged out the St. Louis Terriers by a percentage point. The major leagues didn't require teams to make up cancelled games that might affect the pennant races until, I think, the 1940s. Before then, it was up to the teams to determine whether they'd make up those games or not. The 1908 AL pennant race was won by the Tigers with a 90-63 record, even though the second-place Naps had a 90-64 final record. Detroit wasn't required to make up a rain-out with the Senators, even though, if the Tigers had lost that game, it would have resulted in a tie with Cleveland. That's just the way they rolled back in the good old days.

[edit]

Originally Posted by J.HenryWaugh

Even OOTP is confused though. While the Baltimore Bridegrooms have an X next to their name as Atlantic League champs, there is no X next to Chicago. In fact, they still have a magic number of 3, while KC's magic number is 2.

Well, kinda'. The magic number is calculated based on the number of games in the schedule. But if teams don't play all of their scheduled games, then yes, OOTP gets confused and can't calculate the magic number accurately. But the magic number has no bearing on who actually wins the pennant.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

The magic number is calculated based on the number of games in the schedule. But if teams don't play all of their scheduled games, then yes, OOTP gets confused and can't calculate the magic number accurately. But the magic number has no bearing on who actually wins the pennant.

OOTP also gets confused in 1961, when the AL has expanded to 10 teams and has a 162-game schedule, but the NL remains at 8 teams with a 154-game schedule. It calc's the AL's magic numbers correctly, but appears to calcluate the NL's based upon the AL's 162-game season, which of course the NL never reaches. So by the end of the regular season you might find the Dodgers with a five-game lead over the Giants, but LA's magic number at 4...

[thehef]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Exciting finish, but Brad K is right: there's no playoff because there's no tie. Chicago won the pennant based on a better winning percentage.

Perhaps worth noting is a feature that may be little-known because it's a bit hard to find:

If you don't like the way OOTP handled a tiebreaker scenario - you want add'l regular-season games scheduled as "make-up" games to address the exact scenario in the OP - you can go to League Settings > Options, select Edit Playoff Matchups, and then select Reset To Regular Season Mode. This would allow you to go to the schedule editor and schedule additional regular-season games (which are what tiebreaker games are considered).

Note that if OOTP has scheduled tie-breaker games and you have not played them, and you want to change the matchups or format, you wouldn't need to utilize this feature because if there are tiebreakers to be played, OOTP would still be in regular season mode, and you can still add or edit regular season games.

When doing schedule edits to deal with custom tiebreakers, always a good idea to make a backup before tinkerin'...

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by thehef

OOTP also gets confused in 1961, when the AL has expanded to 10 teams and has a 162-game schedule, but the NL remains at 8 teams with a 154-game schedule. It calc's the AL's magic numbers correctly, but appears to calcluate the NL's based upon the AL's 162-game season, which of course the NL never reaches. So by the end of the regular season you might find the Dodgers with a five-game lead over the Giants, but LA's magic number at 4...

The game calculates the magic number based on the number of games that is listed in the schedule file. This is what the 1961 major-league schedule file says:

<SCHEDULE type="ILN_BGY_G162_SL1_D1_T10_SL2_D1_T8_C_" inter_league="0" balanced_games="1" games_per_team="162" start_month="4" start_day="10" start_day_of_week="2" allstar_game_day="93">

So OOTP calculates the magic numbers for both pennant races based on the number of games in the AL because the schedule file says that the season is 162 games long. Not much can be done about that.* But again, the magic number has no bearing whatsoever on determining who wins the pennant.

*[edit] - well, yes, you can do something about that. You can load separate schedules for the AL and the NL. That way, the game will correctly calculate the magic numbers for both leagues.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by thehef

Perhaps worth noting is a feature that may be little-known because it's a bit hard to find:

If you don't like the way OOTP handled a tiebreaker scenario - you want add'l regular-season games scheduled as "make-up" games to address the exact scenario in the OP - you can go to League Settings > Options, select Edit Playoff Matchups, and then select Reset To Regular Season Mode. This would allow you to go to the schedule editor and schedule additional regular-season games (which are what tiebreaker games are considered).

Well, that's certainly a new one on me. I'd handle this a bit differently. Say, on the final day of the season, Team A wins the pennant by a half-game over Team B because Team A played one fewer game (like the 1908 AL example I mentioned before). If you want Team A to play that washed-out game, then, before advancing to the next day, simply go to the schedule editor and add the make-up game as a regular-season game. OOTP won't advance to the post-season if there are any regular-season games left to play, so you can replay that missed game. But it's very important to do that before advancing to the next day, otherwise OOTP will automatically go into the post-season.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

Well, that's certainly a new one on me. I'd handle this a bit differently. Say, on the final day of the season, Team A wins the pennant by a half-game over Team B because Team A played one fewer game (like the 1908 AL example I mentioned before). If you want Team A to play that washed-out game, then, before advancing to the next day, simply go to the schedule editor and add the make-up game as a regular-season game. OOTP won't advance to the post-season if there are any regular-season games left to play, so you can replay that missed game. But it's very important to do that before advancing to the next day, otherwise OOTP will automatically go into the post-season.

That's exactly how I handle it. It's also how I handle setting up historically-correct best-of-three-game playoffs. But I guess the feature was added in case you advance to the next day and into postseason mode. You can essentially undo that, although you can't go back a day. Pretty much same difference tho

[J.HenryWaugh]

Wow guys, thanks for all the replies. Never thought about editing the schedule to add washed out games but I will keep it in mind for the future. I just let it flow, and Chicago won their second straight pennant and took their second straight Diamond King Championship over the Baltimore Bridegrooms.

I forgot about the major league examples of mismatched games played that have resulted in tenuous pennants. But since this is a fictional league, I am only trying to follow MLB loosely - same dead ball era, segregation, locale (no big league team West of the teams in Missouri), no night games, small pitching staffs, etc.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by J.HenryWaugh

Wow guys, thanks for all the replies. Never thought about editing the schedule to add washed out games but I will keep it in mind for the future. I just let it flow, and Chicago won their second straight pennant and took their second straight Diamond King Championship over the Baltimore Bridegrooms.

I forgot about the major league examples of mismatched games played that have resulted in tenuous pennants. But since this is a fictional league, I am only trying to follow MLB loosely - same dead ball era, segregation, locale (no big league team West of the teams in Missouri), no night games, small pitching staffs, etc.

If you want all games played make it easy. Uncheck allow rainouts.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Brad K

If you want all games played make it easy. Uncheck allow rainouts.

The game-generated rainouts are always played out, even for games that don't matter. Unbalanced schedules are more common for historical or as-played schedules, where MLB didn't play them out that year since they didn't matter but in the replay they might.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

The game-generated rainouts are always played out, even for games that don't matter.

You can always override that by manually rescheduling those cancelled games , or else not rescheduling them at all. That's especially relevant for games in the pre-lights era, as OOTP reschedules rainouts as 7:05 starts - a total immersion breaker for deadball-era leagues.

[Brad K]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

The game-generated rainouts are always played out, even for games that don't matter. Unbalanced schedules are more common for historical or as-played schedules, where MLB didn't play them out that year since they didn't matter but in the replay they might.

I had a memory of occasionally having them not be - not often enough to be realistic - so checked the screen shots of final standings. I didn't find any where rainouts weren't played so I remembered wrong. I think I'm gong to uncheck rainouts in the future because to me missed games are a big part of having them.

[joefromchicago]

Originally Posted by Brad K

I had a memory of occasionally having them not be - not often enough to be realistic - so checked the screen shots of final standings. I didn't find any where rainouts weren't played so I remembered wrong. I think I'm gong to uncheck rainouts in the future because to me missed games are a big part of having them.

When the game reschedules a rain-out, just go into the schedule editor and find the make-up date. Then, you can either keep the rescheduled game, change it to a different date, or just delete it.

In the good ol' days, teams tried to reschedule all cancelled games. After all, most of their revenue came from gate receipts, so no team wanted to lose a home date if they could avoid it. Rescheduling a cancelled game as the back-end of a double-header was a popular choice, especially after around 1900. But as cancelled games started to add up during the season (remember, games were cancelled much more frequently back then than today*), the make-ups tended to bunch up in September. Back in the day, it wouldn't be uncommon to see a team play two or three twin-bills in a row in September.

The game will usually reschedule make-up games as double-headers, but if no date is available, it will choose an open date on the schedule. Players who want historical accuracy should be careful about that, as the game might reschedule a make-up game to be played on a Sunday in a city where Sunday baseball was not allowed.


*If anyone wants a more realistic weather file for historical leagues, they can check out my "It's Usually Sunny in Philadelphia" mod, linked in my signature.