Games behind

In most North American sports, the phrase games behind or games back (often abbreviated GB) is a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division.

A partial view of the Green Monster at Fenway Park, with standings for the American League East division, including a "GB" column

Example

In the below standings from the 1994 Major League Baseball season, the Atlanta Braves are six games behind the Montreal Expos. Atlanta would have to win six games, and Montreal would have to lose six games, to tie for first. The leading team is zero games behind itself, and this is indicated in standings by a dash, not a zero.

NL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Montreal Expos	74	40	0.649	—	32–20	42–20
Atlanta Braves	68	46	0.596	6	31–24	37–22
New York Mets	55	58	0.487	18½	23–30	32–28
Philadelphia Phillies	54	61	0.470	20½	34–26	20–35
Florida Marlins	51	64	0.443	23½	25–34	26–30

Computing games behind

Games behind is calculated by using either of the following formulas, in which Team A is a leading team, and Team B is a trailing team. Example math in this section uses the above standings, with Montreal as Team A and Atlanta as Team B.

{\text{Games Behind}}={\frac {({\text{Team A's wins – Team A's losses}})-({\text{Team B's wins – Team B's losses}})}{2}}

{\text{Games Behind}}={\frac {({\text{74 – 40}})-({\text{68 – 46}})}{2}}={\frac {\text{34 – 22}}{2}}={\frac {12}{2}}=6

Alternately:

{\text{Games Behind}}={\frac {({\text{Team A's wins – Team B's wins}})+({\text{Team B's losses – Team A's losses}})}{2}}

{\text{Games Behind}}={\frac {({\text{74 – 68}})+({\text{46 – 40}})}{2}}={\frac {\text{6 + 6}}{2}}={\frac {12}{2}}=6

Notes:

It can alternately be said that Montreal is six games ahead of Atlanta.
A games behind situation can change rapidly when two teams contesting for the lead play each other. For example, Atlanta could cut Montreal's lead in half (to three games) by sweeping a three-game head-to-head series.
The leading team, in terms of games behind, is the team with the best won–loss difference. This is not always the team with the most wins. For example, a team with an 80–70 record (10 more wins than losses) would be one game behind a team with a 79–67 record (12 more wins than losses).

Anomalies

The formulas implicitly treat any difference in the number of games played by the two teams as each unplayed game being "worth" 0.5 wins and 0.5 losses. This can lead to anomalies when teams have played an unequal number of games, especially during the early portion of a season.

Two teams with different winning percentages may be tied in terms of games behind. For example, Team A at 6–4 would be tied with Team B at 4–2, in terms of games behind. However, Team B has the better winning percentage, at .667 compared to .600 for Team A.
A team with a lower winning percentage may lead (in terms of games behind) a team with a higher winning percentage. For example, Team A at 6–4 would lead Team B at 2–1 by a half-game when calculating games behind. However, Team B has the better winning percentage at .667, compared to .600 for Team A.

An example of this occurred in May 2018, when the New York Yankees were 28–13 and the Boston Red Sox were 30–14. The games behind calculation had New York a half-game behind Boston; however, New York had the better winning percentage, at .683 compared to .682 for Boston.[1]

Also, on December 28, 2018, in the National Basketball Association, the 24–10 Milwaukee Bucks were a half-game behind the 26–11 Toronto Raptors. Yet the Bucks were ranked first in the Eastern Conference, their .706 win percentage superior to the Raptors’ .703.

Leagues generally use winning percentage to order teams, so in both of the above examples Team B would be considered to be in first place.

Usage

NBA standings in November 1965 as published in The Minneapolis Star

The games behind calculation is often used in professional baseball and basketball, where tie games are not permitted. Standings for these sports appearing in print or online during a season usually will have teams ordered by winning percentages, with a "GB" column provided as a convenience to the reader. Games behind is used less often in American football, where ties are possible but relatively uncommon. Games behind is rarely used in ice hockey and soccer, where ties are traditionally common and standings points are typically used.

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) defines games behind as "the average of the differences between the leading team wins and the trailing team wins, and the leading teams losses and the trailing team losses."[2] A games behind column almost always appears in MLB standings for each five-team division.

Wild card race

In the 1994 MLB season, the American League and National League each split into three divisions, and each added a wild card team to the playoffs. Following this change, it became common for the media to publish an additional set of standings for the wild card race. It included all teams from a league, with the exception of the division leaders, and games behind was calculated with respect to the team with the highest standing in the wild card race.

In the 2012 MLB season, both leagues added a second wild card team. Now, games behind in the wild card race is calculated with respect to the team with second highest standing in the wild card race. MLB's website distinguishes this statistic as wild card games behind, abbreviated WCGB. Assuming that teams are not tied for first place in the wild card race, this results in the team leading the wild card race being shown as some number of "games ahead" of the second place team, indicated by a plus sign ("+") in the standings. As an example, see the 2012 NL Wild Card standings, which shows the Atlanta Braves six games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals.

National Basketball Association

National Basketball Association (NBA) standings typically report games behind within each five-team division. However, it is not as closely followed as in baseball, because more teams qualify for the NBA playoffs, and the divisional statistics are not as important for playoff qualification. Sometimes, especially nearing the end of the regular season, games behind will be given with respect to the eighth position in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference, as the eighth position is the last to qualify for the playoffs in each conference.

National Football League

NFL standings in October 1972 as published in the Tampa Bay Times

National Football League (NFL) standings sometimes report games behind, although the statistic is not emphasized; winning percentage is used, computed from each team's win–loss–tie record. This is especially true since the introduction of the bye week in 1990, exacerbating differences in the number of games that teams have played at various points in time, and since tied games (while highly uncommon since the introduction of overtime in the regular season starting in 1974) do still occur on occasion. Games behind is omitted from standings on the NFL's website and is absent from most published standings.

Other sports

The games behind statistic is eschewed in sports where tie games are traditionally common, such as the ice hockey and soccer. Leagues in these sports typically rank teams by awarding a certain number of points for each win or tie. In competitions where ties have been abolished (especially in hockey), points are still awarded for an "overtime loss" such that they are often (but not always) the same value as ties previously were, while in soccer the traditional value of two points for a win has been replaced by three points, while ties are still worth one point. These changes would make calculating a "games behind" statistic even more complicated compared to if it were to be used under the traditional system in which a tie was effectively worth a "half-win."

The Canadian Football League (CFL) also does not use games behind, and awards standings points. However, unlike leagues such as the National Hockey League (NHL) the CFL does not award points for overtime losses, although it experimented with such a system in the early 21st century. Also, unlike most other football codes which use a point system the CFL still uses the traditional values of two points for a win and one for a tie. Therefore, a tie in the CFL is still effectively worth a "half-win" as it always has been in Canadian football (and also as it has been in the NFL since 1972).

Related usage

Teams are sometimes referred to as being over or under "five hundred", in comparison to a .500 winning percentage. The calculation for this is simple subtraction (there is no division by two). For example, a team at 55–50 is "five games over five hundred", while a team at 40–50 would be "ten games under five hundred". 'Above' and 'below' can be substituted for 'over' and 'under', respectively.

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References

"MLB Scores and Standings". Baseball-Reference.com. May 17, 2018. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
"Standings". MLB.com. April 5, 2010. Archived from the original on April 5, 2010 – via Wayback Machine.