Most US-based sports show their standings as Games Behind (GB) which purports to show how far behind the leader your favorite team. The formula to calculate is:
((leading-team-win-count - your-team-win-count) - (your-team-loss-count - leading-team-loss-count)) / 2
This is a useful metric when the teams have played the same number of games; however, the actual number played by each team varies widely over the course of a season, until (hopefully) the season’s conclusion.
These are the standing for MLB’s American League East before play on June 14, 2023.
Simple Example
The standings show Baltimore to be 4 games behind Tampa Bay. The reality is that Tampa Bay has played four games more than Baltimore, meaning that if Baltimore wins four more games they are only two games behind.
Silly Example
When the number of games played is different by an odd number, you get 1/2 games behind. My question is: How does one play half of a game?
Philadelphia, New York, and Washington have played one more game than Atlanta, resulting in a half-game behind until Atlanta plays one more game, at which point Miami may have its own half-game behind Atlanta.
Absurd Example
The Chicago Whales won the 1915 Federal League by .001% because they played two games less than the St. Louis Terriers. However, the games behind have them tied, showing the uselessness of the metric.
Proposal: Losses Behind
I call for the creation of a new metric called Losses Behind
(your-team-loss-count - leading-team-loss-count)
The important fact is that, regardless of how many games each team has played, a trailing team only decreases the loss gap when the leading team loses, which the trailing team only impacts in head-to-head contests. Otherwise, trailing teams rely on help from other teams to close the gap.
The National League East standings above show Miami four games behind but are in fact five losses behind. Losses Behind more accurately reflects Miami’s deficit as must lose an additional five games to allow Miami to catch up (assuming they don’t lose themselves).
A Final Aside
In the spirit of their football (soccer) heritage, European leagues use points to determine final standings, as shown by the final standings of the British Basketball League:
