The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Time to cut back MLB schedule
Maybe Anthony Rizzo is right: The Chicago Cubs’ first baseman thinks it’s time to think about cutting back the Major League Baseball schedule. Thus far, 24 Major League Baseball game have been postponed due to weather through Friday.
First of all, there is no reason why the season needs to start before April 1. It’s been a 162-game schedule since 1961, but maybe it’s time to at least look at a 150-game slate and start the season in midApril in warm weather cities or indoors if at all possible.
But because of the almighty dollar, which includes loss of revenue for both teams and players, everything will stay the same, which is just fine with me. Play ball!
⏩ It’s even harder to condense a 20-game regularseason high school schedule into eight weeks. Should the conclusion of the postseason be pushed back a week? It couldn’t hurt, but again, with graduations and proms to work around, it’s not an easy fix.
⏩ One thing that should happen is for the high school boys and girls golf season to move to the fall. I wrote about this possibility five years ago — when the Connecticut Section PGA head golf pros, and a number of coaches around the state, were all for it.
It make sense weatherwise. It make sense that the golfers will be in peak form versus extended action on the indoor driving range And the golf courses will be in much better shape than they are now.
But there needs to be more of an approval rate from the membership, the Waterbury RepublicanAmerican reported there was a 59-percent approval rate among coaches who took the CIAC’s 2015 survey. Apparently much more is needed. When I wrote the story in 2013, I remember one person telling me 90 percent is needed.
And girls golf would need to go along with it. While the move really does makes sense, it appears we are no further along than we were five years ago.
⏩ The PGA Tour is changing its schedule, and it has nothing to do with the weather. It’s because the pros have long wanted to end their season by Labor Day weekend and in small part because the Olympics now includes golf.
The PGA Championship moves from August to May next year. In fact, the first spring tournament will be held at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York. The Fed Ex St. Jude’s Classic in Memphis, Tennessee will now become a WGC event, replacing the longtime stop in Akron, Ohio. The event moves from midJune to either late July or early August in 2019.
Even with these moves, there still needs to be some tournaments eliminated from the Fed Ex Cup schedule to get the Tour Championship in by Labor Day. Will the Boston tour stop be eliminated from the playoffs? Who else will move? What effect will that have on the Travelers Championship?
“We are very confident we will continue to be the third week in June,” Travelers Championship tournament director Nathan Grube told Hearst Connecticut Media last week. All signs point to that as well with Travelers locked up as the title sponsor of Connecticut’s only PGA Tour event through 2024. The PGA Tour is expected to announce its 2019 schedule in May.
⏩ I’m not nearly as confident in this selection as I have been the last couple of years, but I’m going back to the well one more time: Golden State vs. Cleveland in the NBA Finals in June. I still have a hard time believing anyone in the East can beat LeBron James four times and, assuming Steph Curry returns in the next round healthy, the same goes for Golden State. The Houston Rockets need to prove it in a big spot.
Either way, James comes up short of title No. 4. I am intrigued for the Summer of LeBron one more time. Do we have another collective shirt burning in The Land when The King heads West? Or does he decide to stay put this time?
⏩ Matt Harvey will turn things around. A member of the Register’s 2007 AllState baseball team, Harvey, a Mystic native, was demoted to the bullpen Saturday by the New York Mets. He’s been awful this season.
I’m not sure we will ever see Harvey at his zenith, throwing eight innings of shutout ball in Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, then demanding to start the 9th before Kansas City tied the game. But I’m pretty sure Harvey will be elsewhere next season, just not with the big contract he had been hoping for.
⏩ I haven’t given much thought to Harry Dean Anderson since the sitcom Night Court ended, but I was still saddened by his passing this past week. You start to show your age when you remember all of the 1980s sitcoms — and some from the 1970s.
⏩ I’ve used E-Z-Pass for years so I’ll be ready when tolls return to the Nutmeg State. But it will be annoying watching the politicians duke it out to get there.
⏩ The Walter Camp Football Foundation’s golf tournament is being resurrected after a decade. It will be held May 14 at the Course at Yale. Herschel Walker and Kevin Gilbride are among the celebrities expected to tee it up. A few foursomes are still available. Call 203-288-CAMP or email info@waltercamp.org.
⏩ It’s just over four months to the start of the football seasons — high school, college and the NFL. Clear your weekend calendars once September hits. The Boston Red Sox will have locked up the American League East title by then — if not sooner.