in baseball some teams are back half games in the table how is this possible?

Answer 1

It's just a bookkeeping method.

Each game has two teams participating -- therefore (and I realize this sounds silly, but remember, it's just bookkeeping) the outcomes (win, lose) are worth one-half game to each team. And it's only for comparative purposes.

Half games only appear in the games-behind column between teams that have played an odd-number differential of games. GB is calculated as the absolute value of the difference in wins plus absolute value of the difference in losses, divided by two.

GB == ( abs(W1 - W2) + abs(L2 - L1)) / 2

Example:

rank // team // wins // losses // w% // games behind
1. Boston 100 62 .617 -- (GB is meaningless for the leader)
5. New York 62 99 .385 37.5

Differential of 38 wins and 37 losses == 37.5 GB.

The Yankees would have to win 37 games AND the Red Sox lose 37 games in order for the Yankees to catch up -- plus make up that one rain-out, or whatever it is, and win that one too. The other team in that missed game "owns" the other half-game in the standings.

Answer 2

Baseball Team Agame

Answer 3

because they havent played the same amount of games as the division leader.

Example
Red Sox 56-38
Yankees 48-45
Yankees played 93 games and Sox played 94 so there must be a half game, thus the Yankees are 7.5 games back

Answer 4

In this example in the American league east the Orioles and Devil rays are 13.5 and 18.5 games back of the RED SOX because the Sox have played 96 games where as the other 2 teams have played only 95 games. Another term for this, is "the Red sox have a Game in Hand"

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/standings;_ylt=AviyMDUbKGzjJQIm97dPdKsRvLYF

Hope this Helps!