When talking about how many games behind a team is, how is half a game determined? As in, 7 1/2 games out of first. This has been bothering me for years, and most people I’ve asked who I’d think should know, look at me like I’m stupid and say it’s too hard to explain. I personally think they don’t know. I’ve never know sports stats to be hard to figure.
Also, what does IIRC mean? I see it a lot on the boards and don’t have the first cluse what it means.
Thanks
Games behind = [(TeamAWins - TeamBwins) + (TeamBlosses - TeamAlosses)]/2. Thus:
As of 12:06 PM CDT, 6/19/00, the D-Rays are [(35-27)+(40-29)]/2 games behind the Red Sox, or [8+11]/2 or 19/2 or 9 1/2 games behind the Red Sox. This calculation is necessary, because at various points in the baseball season, teams may have played as 4-5 games more or less than another team. A 1 game decrease in GB stat represents a loss by teamA AND a win by teamB on the same day. If both win or lose on the same day, the GB stays the same. If TeamA plays and wins, while teamB isn’t playing, GB goes up by one half. That is how the “1/2 game” business works. At the end of the season, when all games are played, there aren’t any half games anymore, with the notable exception of “163 game” seasons required to break divisional ties for first place or for the wildcard spot.
IIRC means If I Recall Correctly.
The difference in the number of wins is added to the difference in number of losses and divided by two.
ex: Boston 35-29
New York 34-29
Boston has one more win than NY, with the same number of losses. The net difference is +1 in favor of Boston. Divide by 2 = 1/2 up for Boston.
ex: Boston 35-29
New York 34-27
Boston has one more win than New York, but two more losses. The net difference is +1 in favor of New York. Divide by 2 = 1/2 game back for Boston.
Thank you very much. And the uncomplexity of the formula shows that, in fact, the people I asked had no idea what the answer was, either.
There are often half games left over at the end of the season due to rainouts. For instance, in 1968, the White Sox were 67-95 and the Senators 65-96. By the formula, Chicago has +2 in wins and +1 in losses. That puts the Sox a game and a half up. The Senators played only 161 games instead of 162; if they played that last game, it would have been an whole number of games. The Senators were 37.5 games behind the Tigers. Cleveland was also 16.5 games behind Detroit.
This isn’t all that rare; usually one or two teams end up with half-games at the end of the year. In 1997, all the teams in the AL Central except Cleveland had a half game in their GB stats.
If a rained-out game has a bearing on the standings, it is replayed, but if it isn’t going to make any difference, it isn’t played.
Yeah, what’s up with that? This is a very simple concept. If the Giants are two games up on the Dodgers and then beat the Mets in New York at noon, they are now two and a half games up on the Dodgers. When the Dodgers lose to the Astros that night in LA, the Giants are now three games up on them. Half games are usually temporary, and often depend on different time zones and days off. See?
Half games just mean that the difference between the total games played by two teams is an odd number. If there is no half game, the difference is even. Check out the present standings in the NL West. Colorado and Arizona have no differences in the “GB” column, but Arizona has played four more games with two more wins and two more losses than Colorado.
Not surprisingly, the only 4-team division has the smallest variance in games played.
Bob, if I’m reading what you wrote correctly, that goes to show that it’s actually the team’s winning percentage that counts. The GB statistic is not that meaningful.
As Robert Creamer writes in his wonderful book Baseball in '41:
Published by the Penguin Group. Copyright © Robert W. Creamer, 1991.
Games behind gives fans an instant way of knowing how their team stacks up within the division, but it’s winning percentage (not games won) that actually determines who’s in first place.
My indentations didn’t work. Damn.
Well, you can read it anyway, can’t you?
Yep, winning percentage is the decisive factor. Check out the 1915 Federal League race (It was a major league.)
In the 19th century, some leagues used number of games won as the decisive factor, not percentage. However, once a team with the highest winning got screwed, the league would change.
And we should all shed some tears for the 1981 Reds, who had the best record in the majors, but didn’t go to the playoffs and the 1981 Cardinals, who had the best record in their division and got screwed also. (I only shed a few tears because my Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series that year.)
And let’s not forget the 1972 Red Sox, who lost the AL East title to the Tigers by only half a game. Because of the strike or lockout (I keep forgetting which) that happened that year, any missed games were not made up. When all was said and done, the Tigers played one game more than the Red Sox, and won that game. Had that missing game been a rain out, it would have been made up.
Zev Steinhardt
1972 was a strike. The 1908 Tigers won by a half game over Cleveland because they had a rained out game that wasn’t made up.
The 1915 Federal League top 3 finished this way
Chicago 86 66 .566
StLouis 87 67 .565
Pittsb. 86 67 .562 1/2