1918 Ticket - who got it wrong?

[Shoeless Moe]

Since his reply was a bit long, I'm just going to cut and paste and you can read it, if it turns out I was wrong, I apologize to him:

"you just have to refer to the original schedule when determining game numbers. Each game for the season was assigned a game number before the season started. 1-77. Those game numbers never change no matter what happens. Game 2 is still game #2 even if game #1 gets rained out. But if you look at retrosheet....game 2 is going to look like game 1 because game #1 (rain out) isn't shown. think about a season ticket booklet with each ticket in the book having a game number on it...game 1 is for 1st scheduled game....game #2 is for 2nd scheduled game, etc. The game # and corresponding date is shown on the back cover. if game 2 is rained out...you don't use game #2----you jump right to game #3. Same with box office tickets...they printed games 1-77 for each of the 77 scheduled home games. game #11 was determined before the season started....

Take for instance the opening day 1923 yankees ticket shown Its dated and has game #1 on it. If that game had been rained out you could have used that ticket for any other game in 1923 but when you went to the game the next day... they were selling game #2 tickets. (with a different date on them.... because game # 2 was scheduled for the next day)Looking at retrosheet.... its going to be the 1st game but its not game #1...its game #2. You have to factor rainouts in when determining game number. The guy with a season ticket book uses game #2 ...because he is at HOME GAME #2 as determined by the original AL schedule. The game # never changes. It is preassigned and used the entire season. Tickets were printed before the season started. In this case... game #4 ticket and game #6 ticket were not used because of rain outs. So when you count to the 11th home game played---it was actually home game #13.

So opening day....they sell out and use all the game #1 tickets. everybody is ready for the game to start...it rains...they go home. Game #1 is done. Game #1 tickets are gone.


(People can use their rain check for a later game but game #1 never happened. ) Its not on retrosheet. In your scenario...they sell game #1 tickets again the next day? Absolutely not... they sell game #2 tickets because its the 2nd scheduled game. Actual games played has nothing to do with the game # on the ticket. Just always consult the original schedule ---not the log of games played.

for example, the back of the 1928 yankees season ticket shows each scheduled game for the year 1-77 and the corresponding affiliated date. No matter what happened during the course of the year...rain outs, makeups, etc. those game numbers and associated dates did not change. Game #11 was played on May 5th and game #11 tickets were sold and used on that date. Even if games 1-10 were rained out-- May 5th was game 11. Even though it would have been the 1st home game actually played that year.

for instance, attached are a dated and undated copy of a ticket to lou gehrigs last game on 4/30/39. Both tickets say Game #8 on them. go to retrosheet and look at what "game number" that game was "actually". It was the 5th game played that year but tickets used on 4/30/39 were the game #8 tickets because there were 3 rainouts prior to the game being played. They didn't sell dated tickets with game #8 on them and sell game #5 undated tickets --it was all game #8. it was established before the season (when all of the tickets were printed) that 4/30/39 was game #8. If game #7 started at 1:00 pm and after numerous rain delays gets called due to darkness at 8:00 pm... they didn't say, Oh crap...we have to run down to the printing company and print up 50,000 game 7 tickets for tomorrow because this game 7 didnt count and tomorrow is going to be game 7 again because its going to be our actual 7th home game again!" It was just game 8 the next day"

so there you have it.