[Ads-l] "split season" not in OED

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 25, 2015, at 12:44 PM, Joel Berson <berson at ATT.NET> wrote:
> 
> 'Split season" -- the division of the game schedule for a sports league (a "season"; sense 9) into two parts, with a separate champion for each part.  Usually the two champions play each other for the final league championship.
> 
> Also applied to hunting  or fishing seasons divided into two or more parts.
> 
> A superficial Google Books search turns up (from snippets):
> 
> For sports -- perhaps 1924 (Association Men; Young Men); perhaps 1922 (Lanigan, Baseball Cyclopedia; no preview).
> For hunting -- perhaps 1923--29 (Louisiana Conservation News), perhaps 1928 (Forest and Stream).
> Joel
> 
For baseball (because of the strike) -- 1981.  As described, only of course the champions of each half-season didn't play for the championship but for the right to play in the World Series (Dodgers beat  Montreal Expos in the National League, the only post-season the Expos ever got to, and the Yankees beat the Brewers, before the Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series.

LH

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