Operations Research

The [travelling:moving] salesman problem is a [favourite:familiar] math conundrum: if a salesman has to [visit:reach] a bunch of cities, how do you get him to all of them once via the [shortest:smallest] possible route? But the travelling salesman's predicament pales in [comparison:similarity] to figuring out the best ways to get four-man crews of umpires to every major league baseball game. A research team attacked the problem for the last few years. Their solution appears in Interfaces. It's a journal of operations research.In addition to minimizing travel, here are some of the umpire constraints. Crews should visit each MLB city at least once. They should work each team at home and on the road. They should not work more than 21 days in a row. They should not ump any one team's games for more than four series all year. There are plenty more.The researchers first had to develop the question, dubbed the "travelling umpire problem." They used [brute-force:colts] computation and heuristics for their solutions. The result was good enough for Major League Baseball to adopt the last three seasons. Previously, a former umpire made the schedule. That guy is out.