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Baseball, Optimization, and the World Wide Web

Author

Listed:
  • Ilan Adler

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, 4135 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720)

  • Alan L. Erera

    (School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0205)

  • Dorit S. Hochbaum

    (Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, 4135 Etcheverry Hall, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720)

  • Eli V. Olinick

    (Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Southern Methodist University, P.O. Box 750122, Dallas, Texas 75275-0122)

Abstract

The competition for baseball play-off spots—the fabled pennant race—is one of the most closely watched American sports traditions. While play-off race statistics, such as games back and magic number, are informative, they are overly conservative and do not account for the remaining schedule of games. Using optimization techniques, one can model schedule effects explicitly and determine precisely when a team has secured a play-off spot or has been eliminated from contention. The RIOT Baseball Play-off Races Web site developed at the University of California, Berkeley, provides automatic updates of new, optimization-based play-off race statistics each day of the major league baseball season. In developing the site, we found that we could determine the first-place elimination status of all teams in a division using a single linear-programming formulation, since a minimum win threshold for teams finishing in first place applies to all teams in a division. We identified a similar (but weaker) result for the problem of play-off elimination with wildcard teams.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilan Adler & Alan L. Erera & Dorit S. Hochbaum & Eli V. Olinick, 2002. "Baseball, Optimization, and the World Wide Web," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 32(2), pages 12-22, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:32:y:2002:i:2:p:12-22
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.32.2.12.67
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. S. Thomas McCormick, 1999. "Fast Algorithms for Parametric Scheduling Come From Extensions to Parametric Maximum Flow," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(5), pages 744-756, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. John E. Mitchell, 2003. "Realignment in the National Football League: Did they do it right?," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(7), pages 683-701, October.
    2. Raack Christian & Raymond Annie & Schlechte Thomas & Werner Axel, 2014. "Standings in sports competitions using integer programming," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-7, June.
    3. Russell, Tyrel & van Beek, Peter, 2012. "A hybrid constraint programming and enumeration approach for solving NHL playoff qualification and elimination problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 218(3), pages 819-828.

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    Keywords

    Recreation and sports;

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