Baseball seasons last 162 games because of math

Today’s question: One hundred and sixty-two games for a season in majorleague baseball is kind of an odd number. Why did they decide on 162? Has it always been 162 games? I hope by “odd” you mean “unusual’’ and not in the sense of divisible by two because otherwise it would mean you are even worse with numbers than I am.

And I don’t see why 162 should be an unusual number for an MLB season. It seems like a perfectly fine number to me, although I suppose some of the players get sort of weary by the time that last game comes around.

Anyway, back in the old days, when life was simpler, although a lot of people still didn’t have indoor plumbing and let’s face it, there is a lot to be said for indoor plumbing, not to mention air conditioning and power car windows and those little rubber thingies on the end of your toothbrush and …

Where was I?

In the old days American and National leagues each had eight teams and the baseball gods decided each team would play its league rivals 20 times for a 140-game season. In 1920, it was expanded to 22 games against each rival for a 154-game season.

In 1961 the leagues, American first, began to expand to include more teams, and to play 22 games against each rival would have required a 198-game season.

Everyone agreed that was a few games too many, so they settled on 162 and, despite further expansions and abominations such as designated hitters and inter-league play, it has remained that way ever since.