How do you get credit for playing more than 162 games in a season?

Question

On ESPN.com's baseball statistics page, if you look at the all-time leaders for games played in a single season, it has Maury Wills at the top. It says he played 165 games in 1962; how is that possible? How do you get credit for more than 162? There are a bunch of other players on that page who it says played more than 162 in a season: Billy Williams with 164 in 1965, Pete Rose with 163 in 1979, Hideku Matsui with 163 in 2003. Am I misinterpreting this page? If I'm not, how are these stats possible?

The link is below if anyone wants to check it out for themselves.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlbhist/alltime/leaders?breakdown=1&type=0&sort=2&year=0

Answer 1

It can happen in a few ways. The most common one is that the team he was traded to had played fewer games than his old team, and he played every game (eg. 81 games with team a, but team B still had to play 83 due to rainouts, schedule, etc).

Another way is if a playoff is required at the end of the season. If a playoff is needed, then the stats do count as they would in a regular season game. This works in reverse too, if a rainout occured between two teams, and a make-up game is not necessesary (ie. it would make no difference on teams standings) then they only play 161, but do get the credit for the "iron man" season.

The other case is that if the game is rained out, and the score tied, in some cases it may be replayed from the beginning instead of resumed (usually occured when there is a long time between games VS the opponent, and the game is called while tied in the late innings, to prevent it restarting with a loaded lineup). If this happens, he gets stat credit for both games.

I dont know how Matsui did it, but if you want to look at the game-by-game boxscores from that season, the link is below . Somehow he played an extra home game.

Answer 2

In the early part of the century before lights, it was quite common for games to be called on account of darkness. These games were counted in the stats, but not in the win-loss column. Some players have 162 games played compared to 152 for their teams. As a result there are teams that played ten or more doubleheaders in the last month of the season not unlike Cleveland in 2000. This happens occassionally now due to things like rainouts. For instance, in 2003 Hideki Matsui played 163 games, while they Yankees had a 162 game season.

Answer 3

That is quite odd... since u already know todays seasons are only 162 games, and the wierd part is that there used to not even be that many games, they usually increase the games when they add more teams or something... so maury willis playing that many games back then is even crazier...only thing i can think of is maybe a war happened in the middle of a season, or the went on strike, and somehow they made the rules so it was like one season, but i doubt it cause those numbers are so close to 162... OH I THINK I GOT IT... I bet they were traded during the season, like at all star breaks some teams play anywhere from 60-85 games i think, so if he was on a team that played a few more games before break, got traded around break, and played the heavy part of the season for his new team, it could cause u too play more games...AHHH i dont know, cause next to some players there are two teams...I bet thats the reason for them...as for willis... the only other thing i can think of is a pig-tail game (between two teams that are tied, to see who goes to the playoffs) I'm almost positive it counts as a season game, but I have no idea if theres any way to have like four teams tied, causing two teams to have 2 pig tail/tie breaker games... those are my best guess...

Answer 4

There definately was a 3 game playoff that year between the Dodgers and Giants. Those games counted as regular season games.

Edit: I am sorry that I don't have time to research the other names mentioned, but another possibility is that many of them played in a game that was postponed due to rain. There is a time where the stats for the game do count, I believe, even if the game does not count.

Answer 5

It looks like both the Giants and the Dogers played 165 games in '62 - I'd guess there was a 3-game playoff between the two after being tied at the end of the season, and those games counted as regular season games. When there was a playoff to determine the league/division winner (as opposed to the playoffs and World Series), then it counted as part of the regular season.

Answer 6

In Wills' case, there was a 3 game playoff between the Giants and Dodgers to determine the NL title. This also happened in 1951 with the same teams and same outcome.

There have been a number of one game playoffs to determine division or league winners.

Also, it appears that MLB counts games that are rained out but the stats remain intact. Not positive about that, but in the Matsui case, that is what it looks like.

Answer 7

One possible way to play 163 or more games in a single season would to be traded in the middle of the seaon to a team with more games left to play that season than the one you left due to schedule or rain outs.

A one game playoff between to teams tied for a wild card may count as a regular season game.

Answer 8

If a player gets traded during a season and the team he goes to has played less games it is possible to go over 162.

Answer 9

There is a possibility that these numbers are including playoff games. I would think just aobut every player sits out a couple games during the regular season, but if you included playoff games it would be very possible to go over 162... though I'm sure it is rare..

Answer 10

I can think of at least three ways, if you're not counting post season games. 1)being traded to a teem who had played fewer games at that point in the season. 2)a tie between 2 teams that wukd effect final standings would require a tie breaker game. 3) if a trade occured beteen 2 teams that had a game post poned (tied score after 5 inning) you could actually play in that game form 2 different teams.