In theory, a club may play 182 games in a single baseball season. That's quite a bit of baseball. The season now begins towards the end of March or early April and ends near the end of October or early November. There are 13 regular season games per week during most weeks of the year, with three game days (not including Sunday games) and one night game every other week. Some seasons have an increased number of games due to tiebreakers for division titles.
In practice, however, few teams play as many as 183 games because of the heavy burden of travel involved in playing so many away from home. A club is required by league rules to provide its own transportation for all players who travel on road trips. If a team uses a commercial airline to travel to its away games, it cannot fly its own employees or their families at government-subsidized rates. Instead, the team must pay full freight for each passenger it flies.
The major league average over the past 10 years has been 180 games played. Only two clubs have ever played in excess of 200 games in a single season: the 1921 Chicago White Sox and the 2001 New York Yankees. Both teams went on to win the World Series.
The most any club has ever played in a single season was 207 in 1969 when the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels both had 100 wins.
Every year, from April to October, the 30 big league baseball clubs perform one of the great organizational accomplishments in American sports by playing 2,430 games across North America. Each team travels across the continent on flights, trains, and buses to play 162 times. The only other sport that plays this many games is soccer.
The season begins with all the major leagues opening their schedules on March 31. After playing a few exhibition games, they go into regular-season play which ends in October. The World Series is played between the champion of the National League and the champion of the American League. It is the only series in any professional sport played over two seasons.
There are several factors that determine how far a club travels each week during the season. These include road attendance, the location of other teams in the league, the make-up of the schedule, and the extent to which teams stay in one city or move around within a region. Teams that play more games on weekends generally travel farther than those who don't. In addition, since most weekend games are played after working days, these games usually don't conflict with school vacations or spring training trips.
In 2014, the average distance traveled by a club was 7,879 miles. This is calculated by adding up the total miles driven by a team's players, coaches, staff members, and vendors for all games during the season.
The Ordinary Season The Major League Baseball season lasts from April 1 to September 30, with each team playing 162 games. That equates to one day off every 10 days, making baseball a "game-a-day" sport. In addition to the regular season, there is also a postseason series of games known as the World Series.
In reality, most MLB teams will not play all 162 games during an ordinary season. Some teams have more close games than others, so they won't be able to finish the schedule without a break. As a result, each team gets a minimum of one day off and a maximum of four. Here are the numbers of days that each team has played since 2000: 133 (Yankees), 132 (Orioles), 131 (Rays), 130 (Red Sox), 129 (Indians), 128 (Athletics), 127 (Mariners), 126 (Braves), 125 (Phillies).
During a playoff year, all teams will receive the same number of days off, but only those who make the postseasion will be allowed to rest up before starting back up again. If a team goes over their allotted days off, they will be fined $100,000 for each additional game.
In addition to regular seasons, there are two other types of games that are played during the year: exhibition games and start-time games.
The American League chose a two-division structure. The National League, on the other hand, had agreed to a 165-game calendar with 15 games against each opponent while maintaining a single division, even if it meant that each club had an unbalanced amount of home and away games. In the end, the NL followed the AL's lead, and the game proceeded.
Posted on Baseball Briefs by Adam Hughes | 2 | Each Major League Baseball team plays 162 games every season. Because there are 30 MLB clubs and they (obviously) play each other in every game, the total number of games in a season is.. (162 games X 30 teams) / (2 teams each game) = 2430 games every season.
Every season, each of the 30 MLB teams is scheduled to play 162 regular-season games. The schedule is created with a certain amount of games for each team to compete against one another. These components make up the predetermined formula.
Due to travel concerns and the sheer number of games, teams are never scheduled to play single games against each other (except when making up a postponed game or, more rarely, a one-game playoff to determine a postseason berth); instead, they play games on several consecutive days in the same ballpark.
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