Baseball Scheduling

Scheduling classes and teachers at a middle school is a daunting task, which reminded me of one of the most difficult scheduling tasks ever described to me: major league baseball. If your opening day is at home this year, you must be away the next. If you play the Fourth and Labor Day away this year, you're at home next year. The Red Sox always have to be in Boston on Patriot's Day (and there are other such requirements). In two-league cities (San Francisco, New York, Chicago, LA), both teams should not be home at the same time. You should play all the teams in your division the same number of times. Road trips must be rational. The Yankees have to play the Sox, and the Dodgers have to play the Giants in the last two weeks (I am sure there are other mandatory rivalries of which I am not aware). And you have to break some of the rules every year just to make it work. Whew! It makes my head spin.