When Did Baseball Go To 162 Games?

A history of baseball’s regular season length, from 1876 to today.

The History of Baseball’s Lengthy Season

In 1903, baseball saw a revolution in the form of the first World Series. It was so popular, that it convinced the owners of the time to make some changes to the sport. One of those changes included lengthening the season from 140 games to 162. But, how did baseball get to that number? Let’s take a look.

Pre-1880s: Variable game lengths

The baseball season has always been a long one, but it hasn’t always been the same length. Prior to the 1880s, game lengths were variable and depended on a number of factors, such as daylight availability and travel distance between cities.

As baseball expanded across the country, it became increasingly difficult to maintain consistent game lengths. In an effort to standardize the length of the season, Major League Baseball (MLB) adopted a 154-game schedule in 1884.

This schedule remained in place for nearly 100 years before MLB made the decision to increase the number of games to 162 in 1961. The season was expanded once again in 1998, when an additional eight games were added to the schedule.

The current 162-game season is the longest of any major professional sport in North America, and it shows no signs of shrinking anytime soon.

1884: The first season with a uniform game length

In 1884, Major League Baseball adopted a uniform game length of nine innings, which has remained unchanged to this day. This marked the first time that all MLB teams played the same number of games in a season. The season length was set at 154 games, which was increased to 155 games in 1885 and 156 games in 1886. In 1887, the season was reduced back to 154 games.

It wasn’t until 1962 that all teams again played the same number of games in a given season. That year, the Houston Colt .45s (now the Astros) and the New York Mets were expansion teams that joined the league, bringing the total number of teams to 10. To accommodate these new teams, each existing team played 162 games (81 home games and 81 away games), while each expansion team played 160 games (80 home games and 80 away games).

Since 1962, every MLB team has played 162 regular-season games.

Late 1800s: The season gradually lengthens

The late 1800s were a time of transition for baseball. The sport was growing in popularity, and as more teams were formed, the need for a longer season became apparent. In 1879, the National League – the first professional baseball league – increased its schedule from 50 to 56 games. Two years later, it expanded again, to 60 games.

By 1886, the National League was up to 66 games, and both the American Association and the newly formed Players’ League – a short-lived rival to the National League – were playing even longer seasons of 72 games. The following year, when the two leagues merged, the decision was made to settle on a uniform length of schedule: 140 games.

The Modern 162-Game Season

The first 162-game season was in 1962. Prior to that, the season was 154 games long. The extra eight games were added to help promote baseball’s popularity after the 1958 National League tie for first place. Baseball’s popularity was on the decline in the early 1960s, so the extra games were added in an attempt to help increase attendance.

1961: The last 162-game season

The 1961 season was the last in which all teams played 162 games. In 1962, the schedule was expanded to 163 games to accommodate the new franchise in Houston, and since then there have been two more expansion teams added (in 1968 and 1969), necessitating additional schedule adjustments.

The current 162-game season was introduced in 1998, when baseball added two more teams (the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, now the Rays). That created an unbalanced schedule, in which teams play more games against divisional opponents than they do against teams in other divisions. To compensate, interleague play was introduced in 1997.

1962-1968: The season expands to 163 games

The modern 162-game season dates back to 1961, when the American and National Leagues each added a game to their schedules. (The extra game was necessary to accommodate the new franchise in Los Angeles.) The following year, the NL expanded again, this time to 164 games, creating the unbalanced schedule that exists to this day. (The AL remained at 163 games.)

In 1962, the New York Mets became the first team to play 163 games in a season, as they were schedule to play a makeup game against the Chicago Cubs on October 16th. However, that game was rained out, meaning that the Mets only played 162 games that year. In 1963, both the Mets and the San Francisco Giants played 163 games, as they each had one makeup game on their schedules.

From 1964-1968, no teams played more than 162 games in a season. In 1969, both the Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates were scheduled to play 163 games, but once again, rain intervened and prevented any team from playing more than 162 games. It wouldn’t be until 1970 that a team would successfully complete a 163-game schedule.

1969: The season returns to 162 games

The season was increased to 162 games in 1961 to accommodate the new franchises in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. (the Angels and Senators, respectively). This arrangement balanced the schedule so that all teams would play each other an equal number of times. The schedule consisted of 154 games played within each league plus 10 interleague games. At the time, it was felt that the increased gate receipts from the additional eight games would more than offset any decrease in interest caused by the dilution of talent over a longer season. However, after only eight seasons, it became apparent that attendances were not increasing as planned, and commissioner Bowie Kuhn reverted to a 154-game schedule for 1968.

Kuhn’s successor, Fay Vincent, restored the 162-game schedule for 1989. In an attempt to placate TV networks, who were unhappy about having fewer “prime time” games on weekends under the shorter schedule, Vincent arranged for all 26 teams to play on Opening Day that season (a Monday). The resulting tiebreaker game between the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants was not completed until October 28—five days after the end of the World Series—making it both the latest regular-season game and latest postseason game ever played up to that point.