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Old 01-03-2005, 01:54 PM   #359 (permalink)
gmo
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Grand Forks, ND
Posts: 2,347
Quote:
Originally Posted by DreamTeams
GMO,

This schedule has worked like a charm for the Metros. It certainly adds more vartiety to the weeks schedule. However, it seems like teams are getting off the hook without meeting one of the clubs best pitchers sometimes. This is starting to bother me. Is it possible to create the schedule above with the three and four game series only, eliminating the two game series. Love the staggered off days and weekend series. Also can the schedule start at the beginning of June and end at the end of September or even the biggining of October would be fine. Please include Allstar Game. Thanks.

By the way, does anyone know the reason behind the two game series. Why it was used in past MLB schedules? I seem to recall the Dodgers playing two game series in the 70's and maybe even 80's.
With 16 games per opponent, 8 games home and 8 away works out to perfect balance. So it seems having those 8 games divided into a pair of 4-game series would work out nicely. It does, except that you cannot fit two 4-game series within a week. If you go only with 4-gamers then you lose the meaning of the days of the week, plus though the offdays can be staggered some there is not much variety in them. I could go that route for you, and it would certainly make it less likely to have teams miss pitchers in the rotation.

A better idea though may be to not hold the 8H/8A breakdown for the 16 games against each opponent. I believe that if I split most of the 16 down 9H/7A and 7H/9A I could at least almost completely eliminate the 2-game series and still keep everything else nicely intact. Teams would still have the same total numbers of home & away games (56 & 56), they would just not be balanced perfectly team-by-team. Is it okay to go with attempting that option?

I had thought, and really still do, that the piling in of 2-game series can help balance out some schedule. But I can understand why you are wanting less of them. In this the numbers worked out where breaking the matchups into many more than typical 2- & 4-game series made everything even out. You can do different things when you have many weeks with a 2-game series and a 4-game series rather than a pair of 3-game series. In other cases a pair of 2-game series to start a week can take the spot a single 4-game series would otherwise hold.

So the short series are mainly useful these days for helping try to get closer to the ideal of playing teams equal numbers of times overall and equal numbers home and away. But short series mean at least more travel, and like you noted the quick in-then-out nature can perhaps leave fans wanting. But it is LGO's job to give a better explanation on the 2-game series
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