Is This.....

[OldFatGuy]

year the most games ever played by the All-Star break???

I've been watching games and I keep seeing the broadcasts mention team records for "Most this" or "Most that" by any [enter team name] ever. And I mentioned to my mother the other day (still a BIG baseball fan at her age!), that I thought this was the most games I remember.

But I don't know how to do searches like others do, plus others may simply be able to answer from memory. So, is this the most games played by MLB by the All-Star break? If so, it seems to diminish those records I keep hearing while watching games. I mean if so it would be sort of like comparing season records from 154 and 162 game schedules, you know??

Anyway, thanks if someone knows the answer.

[HoustonGM]

Last year, teams played around 87 games before the break (some teams 86, some 88). This year is more than that (around 91 i think). In 2006, I see some teams in the low-90s, and some in the high-80s.

Since teams play different amounts of games before and after the break, there's no set number really. This year doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary though.

[robinhoodnik]

I heard something about this on WEEI today. I think that they said it was the furthest point into a season that an All-Star game has been held. Wasn't paying too much attention though so I may have missed the finer points of the discussion.

[21C]

Here is the list of All Star games and the dates on which they were played. Before I looked this up, I did not know that there were two games played in each season from 1959 to 1962. Ignoring those years, the latest one played was July 25 in 1972. Since this was a strike year and teams did not play a full 162 games, I went to the next best at July 24 in 1973.

Going through the schedule for 1973 shows that Atlanta had 106 games scheduled before the ASG but had only played 103 as best I could tell.

Anyone with more time on their hands is welcome to check other seasons.

Besides, I would not put too much credence on these "records". They are contrived stats pulled out of the air by TV people to create points of interest. It is like the pitcher who has the most wins in day games on a Tuesday. Is that a record?

[HoustonGM]

Besides, I would not put too much credence on these "records". They are contrived stats pulled out of the air by TV people to create points of interest. It is like the pitcher who has the most wins in day games on a Tuesday. Is that a record?

Sure it's a "record"...is it meaningful? Not at all.

[OldFatGuy]

Thanks guys. Guess it isn't the most played judging by the above posts. Yeah, I know these records aren't that big a deal, but some are interesting since the All-Star break is over half the season. I did remember it wasn't the latest by date, I just wasn't sure about number of games, now that they start in March for some teams.

Thanks again. Wonder if a lot of those team "records by the All-Star Break" were set in 1973, especially since that was also the first year of the DH IIRC. (Could've been the second, memory ain't what it used to be.)

[Passed Ball]

The reason why it seems like the All-Star game is later this year is because the season started earlier than ever before (about half a week to a week earlier). Besides that, attendance is higher than ever before and most people are paying more attention to baseball (and I can understand why, as it allows us to escape for a few hours from the collapsing economy and never-ending election). Of course, it also doesn't hurt that baseball is even more competitive this year than it has been during the rest of this decade (2000, and 2005-2007 were probably the 4 most competitive seasons of all time).

[beerchaser]

The reason why it seems like the All-Star game is later this year is because the season started earlier than ever before (about half a week to a week earlier). Besides that, attendance is higher than ever before and most people are paying more attention to baseball (and I can understand why, as it allows us to escape for a few hours from the collapsing economy and never-ending election). Of course, it also doesn't hurt that baseball is even more competitive this year than it has been during the rest of this decade (2000, and 2005-2007 were probably the 4 most competitive seasons of all time).

I agree, especially about the escape part. I work in the fixed-income markets and it has been more stressful by far the past 12 months than ever before, with the mortgage market meltdown and all the related dominoes that are still falling. Watching the stock market is like Chinese water torture. Baseball is an escape from that, and I'm looking forward to 4 days at Camden Yards right after the AS break.

As I've said before I also think the time is right for MLB to look at expanding again, and frankly I'm surprised that we aren't hearing more about it.

[ohms_law]

As I've said before I also think the time is right for MLB to look at expanding again, and frankly I'm surprised that we aren't hearing more about it.

Hear, hear!