Tie at end of Regular Season

[joeswell]

I have "simmed" two seasons in my "historical fantasy" league and I'm enjoying the results so far.

However, I have come across an odd situation. I have one league with two divisions. In the playoffs there the two division winners and two wild card teams. At the end of the regular season, two teams in one division are tied with identical records. Instead of a playoff game to decide the divisional champion, the game skips right to round one of the playoffs.

Is this a mistake on my part? Did I set up the league incorrectly? Or is this a "bug?"

I'm playing as a commissioner. Can I manually schedule a playoff game before the first round to determine the division champion? Or is there anything else I can do?

I'm playing the newest version of OOTP for Mac OS X.

[Raderick]

Head-to-head records is the tie breaker. If there is a tie after that, then the team with the best record in their own division is the winner..

[joeswell]

Thanks for your answer.

I'm not crazy about this feature. In real baseball, if there was a simple tie at the end of a season, there'd be a playoff game. If they had that rule in real baseball, there never would have been a walk off homer by Bobby Thompson in 1951 or that Red Sox-Yankees playoff in 1978... Bucky Dent never would have hit that cheap home run.

I hope they fix this. Could I schedule a playoff manually?

[Whitey]

Originally Posted by joeswell

Thanks for your answer.

I'm not crazy about this feature. In real baseball, if there was a simple tie at the end of a season, there'd be a playoff game. If they had that rule in real baseball, there never would have been a walk off homer by Bobby Thompson in 1951 or that Red Sox-Yankees playoff in 1978... Bucky Dent never would have hit that cheap home run.

I hope they fix this. Could I schedule a playoff manually?

There was a work around once upon a time I think in 6.5 dealing with three way ties where one could manually schedule a game or games between the teams with a possibility of a tie. If there was no tie, those games were deleted and the game went on to the post-season. I'm not sure if this would work in 2006 but you might test it.

[Zeyes]

Originally Posted by Raderick

Head-to-head records is the tie breaker. If there is a tie after that, then the team with the best record in their own division is the winner..

I'm not sure that the game actually applies a tie-breaker, unless this has been changed/fixed in 1.02 Final and it does now. I wouldn't be surprised if the teams simply entered the playoffs in alphabetical order (or something similar, perhaps based on the order in which they're set up in the league).

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by joeswell

Thanks for your answer.

I'm not crazy about this feature. In real baseball, if there was a simple tie at the end of a season, there'd be a playoff game. If they had that rule in real baseball, there never would have been a walk off homer by Bobby Thompson in 1951 or that Red Sox-Yankees playoff in 1978... Bucky Dent never would have hit that cheap home run.

In your scenario, the game is correct - there is no tie-breaker game, since both teams would be going the playoffs anyways:

Originally Posted by mlb.com

Scenario #1: If there is a tie for a Division Championship and the winning percentage of the two Clubs tied for first place is higher than the winning percentage of each of the second-place Clubs in the same League, the Division Champion shall be:

The Club with the higher winning percentage in head-to-head competition between the two tied Clubs during the championship season; or

If the Clubs remain tied, then to the tied Club with the higher winning percentage in intradivision games during the championship season; or

If the Clubs remain tied, then to the tied Club with the higher winning percentage in the last half of intraleague games during the championship season; or

If the Clubs remain tied, then to the tied Club with the higher winning percentage in the last half plus one of intraleague games during the championship season, provided that such additional game was not a game between the two tied Clubs. This process will be followed game-by-game until the tie is broken.

Example of Scenario #1: The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners end the championship season tied for the AL West Division Championship. Both Clubs have a higher winning percentage than the Boston Red Sox. Through games of September 7, the Mariners have the higher winning percentage in head-to-head competition (7-6, .538) and would be declared the Division Champion. Oakland would be the Wild Card.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/ne...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[joeswell]

I just scheduled the game manually. If a different team won, I'd have rescheduled any playoff games.

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

[DerekT]

Originally Posted by joeswell

Thanks for your answer.

I'm not crazy about this feature. In real baseball, if there was a simple tie at the end of a season, there'd be a playoff game. If they had that rule in real baseball, there never would have been a walk off homer by Bobby Thompson in 1951 or that Red Sox-Yankees playoff in 1978... Bucky Dent never would have hit that cheap home run.

I hope they fix this. Could I schedule a playoff manually?

Your forgetting that there was no wild card back in 1951 or 1978. As of now if there are two teams tied and both teams would make it into the playoffs, they don't have a playoff game in MLB baseball. One team is declaired the division winner and the other just the wildcard.

[jm47048]

Originally Posted by joeswell

Thanks for your answer.

I'm not crazy about this feature. In real baseball, if there was a simple tie at the end of a season, there'd be a playoff game. If they had that rule in real baseball, there never would have been a walk off homer by Bobby Thompson in 1951 or that Red Sox-Yankees playoff in 1978... Bucky Dent never would have hit that cheap home run.

I hope they fix this. Could I schedule a playoff manually?

Not so. In 2005 (last year) the Yankees and the Red Sox had the same record at the end of the season. In the end, the Yankees had the better season series record, and I believe that was 10-9 in favor of the Yankees. Close, but the Yankees still had one more win. Baseball ruled that depending on the outcome of the central division in the American League, there would be no play off, and the Yankees would be division winners, and the Red Sox the wild card. Detroit (or Minn., I am not sure which) was eliminated and the White Sox were the division leaders. The Red Sox had the best "second place" record. The Yankees had the same record, but because the season series belonged to the Yankees, they were listed as the offial divions winners, being given home field advantage. It didn't matter though. The White Sox went on to win the whole thing.

Bucky Den'ts home run was great, no doubt, but sadly, the wild card did not exist then, and so because of that, the league schedules were "round robin" so to speak, and were balanced. This ended in a smple tie. Therefore, they had the play off. In todays game, with a third round in the play offs, managers do not want their pitching staves messed up, so they opted to go with these types of tie breakers. My issue with the wild card (and not to bring up the debate) is that it is less important to win your division as it used to be. All you have to do is make the playoffs. As the Marlians (twice), the Angels, Giants, Astros, and Red Sox, and Mets.. None of these temas were division winners, yet all appeared in the World Series as league champions.

[jm47048]

*** lol steps down from his soap box ***

[Le Grande Orange]

The same thing happened in 2001. Houston and St. Louis finished tied atop the NL Central Division, but there was no playoff game because the loser still would have been the wildcard team. So the division title was given to Houston due to its better head-to-head record against St. Louis (9-7).

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by jm47048

Detroit (or Minn., I am not sure which) was eliminated

Actually, it was Cleveland.

[eriqjaffe]

dola,

Last year, the White Sox clinched the A.L. Central with 3 games left - and they had a 3-game lead over Cleveland. Even if Cleveland had swept the Sox over the last 3 games (which they didn't, so it's irrelevant) and the teams had finished up with identical records, the Sox would still have been the Central Division champs, and the Indians or Red Sox would have been the wild card.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by eriqjaffe

dola,

Last year, the White Sox clinched the A.L. Central with 3 games left - and they had a 3-game lead over Cleveland. Even if Cleveland had swept the Sox over the last 3 games (which they didn't, so it's irrelevant) and the teams had finished up with identical records, the Sox would still have been the Central Division champs, and the Indians or Red Sox would have been the wild card.

There was some pretty good potential for some crazy tie-breaker situations last year. If Cleveland could have won 2 of 3 from Chicago in that last series, there would have been 3 teams (New York, Boston and Cleveland) with 95 wins. So, New York & Boston would have had a one game playoff for the East (the head-to-head and other tiebreakers wouldn't be valid because both teams would not be guaranteed playoff spots). Then the loser of the Boston/New York matchup would have had to play Cleveland for the Wild Card spot. I was definitely rooting for this to happen.

[jm47048]

Originally Posted by eriqjaffe

dola,

Last year, the White Sox clinched the A.L. Central with 3 games left - and they had a 3-game lead over Cleveland. Even if Cleveland had swept the Sox over the last 3 games (which they didn't, so it's irrelevant) and the teams had finished up with identical records, the Sox would still have been the Central Division champs, and the Indians or Red Sox would have been the wild card.

I actually think (and I could be wrong, and thanks by the way for the team correction. You're right, it was Cleveland) that if the Indians had swept the Sox, that the Red Sox would not have been wild card, and they WOULD have had a playoff with the Yankees.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by jm47048

I actually think (and I could be wrong, and thanks by the way for the team correction. You're right, it was Cleveland) that if the Indians had swept the Sox, that the Red Sox would not have been wild card, and they WOULD have had a playoff with the Yankees.

Yup, both Chicago & Cleveland would have had 96 wins which would have been more than any other team in the league. So, it would have gone to tie-breaker giving Chicago the division and Cleveland would have won then won the wild card. New York & Boston would have had a playoff for the AL East.