There is an interesting little article on MLB.com which you can link to here about how they create the schedule. It always seems that as we approach the stretch drive in baseball, there are some fantastic match-ups. The Yanks and Sox match up, Anaheim and the White Sox and well the NL is just so fantastic right now its unreal. It might seem like an easy task and given the fact that it seems to work out so well at the end of the season, you might forget that it is actually pretty daunting. Try doing this on your spreadsheet…30 teams, 2,430 games, 181 days, teams covering 3,133 miles on some trips and oh ya lets not forget the rainouts, blackouts and anything else that comes up during the season. Not to mention the schedule needs to be different every season and every once in a while something comes up that makes it neccessary to skew the whole thing. The MLB article reminds us of the Astros’ month-long, 26 game road trip in 1992 to permit the Republican National Convention to be held in the Astrodome; the Dodgers and Angles having to vacate sourthern California during the 1984 Olympics and most recently the Braves 19 game road trip in 1996 to accomodate the Atlanta Olympics.

Its an interesting read if you’ve got a few seconds.