Time to thaw out the cold with tweak to schedule
The Detroit Tigers were scheduled to open the season with a six-game home stand. Three of the games were postponed. The others were played in temperatures of 40 degrees or cooler. Then they went into Chicago where they endured snow showers during their first game there. It was clear when the second game was played but the game-time temperature was 32.
It was also clear in Minneapolis that day so the Twins hosted the Mariners in an afternoon game. The temperature when that game began was 27, but the wind was 12 miles per hour so it felt even colder.
Many other places, including New York and Philadelphia, were only marginally better. Heating devices in dugouts are common at this time year. So is the sight of ballplayers wearing ski masks.
To state the obvious, it isn’t cool to play baseball in cold weather. But Major League Baseball insists on doing it every year. In fact, it’s doing more of it this year than ever before. Opening day was March 29 — the earliest opener in history. Why? A lot of people have hard heads. That’s why.
The owners insist on playing a 162-game schedule and they want their 81 home games to played on 81 separate dates. They also want a postseason that involves 10 teams and four layers of competition and want that postseason completed before Election Day. That’s not going to change.
Television wants off days built into every postseason series so that it can air more games in prime time and work around football on the weekends. That’s not going to change either.
The players are demanding a sufficient number of off days during the season so that they’re not playing or travelling every single day. That, too, is not going to change.
Can’t anything change? Maybe something can.
This isn’t an original thought. I’ve heard the question asked many times: Why can’t baseball schedule more games in warm-weather locations at the beginning of the season? The answer is that it would be unfair to pile extra April dates on teams in the warm-weather locations and then give more mid-summer home games to the teams in the igloo zone. That’s a valid consideration. Every team’s attendance is better when schools are closed and people are taking vacation time. The schedule needs to be drawn up in way that gives all teams approximately the same number of home dates during that stretch.
Perhaps there’s a way to do both. Just a thought from my frozen brain ...
There are two teams in Florida, two in Texas, one in Arizona and five in California — all places that are likely to have decent baseball weather in late March. Throw in Atlanta, which might be a little bit iffy, and you have 11 franchises that could be designated as warm-weather sites. Now, add Seattle, Milwaukee and Toronto, which have stadiums that can be enclosed, and that makes locations 14 — seven in each league — that could reasonably host games at that time of year.
If each of those 14 teams were scheduled to open at home, that would leave only one of the remaining 16 teams to face the likelihood of wintry weather. Suppose all 14 of those teams were scheduled to play home games the first week and a half of the season. That would be three series against three opponents. It would cover the entire first week of April.
After that the reverse could occur. For a week and a half (three more series) those 14 teams would all play on the road and the teams in cold-weather locations would host the games.
Yes, there would probably still be some difficult weather conditions for some of those games, but probably not as many and probably not as harsh. In all parts of America there’s a significantly better chance of having playable baseball weather in mid-April than there is late March. Major League Baseball would be — uh — playing the percentages.
It would also be handing out an equal number of early-season home dates to every team, thus making it possible to distribute the home dates uniformly during the more agreeable time of the year.
Just a thought ...
The Mets have won nine games and five of those times the winning pitcher has been a reliever. Moreover closer Jeurys Familia leads the majors with six saves…The Royals have posted three shutouts. That’s the only three games they’ve won…The White Sox are 3-2 on the road but 5-0 at home… The Phillies are 3-0 against left-handed starters. They’re 2-5 against right-handers…Brandon Drury of the Yankees has played only seven games at third base but has already made three errors… The Nationals have stolen 15 bases on 18 tries…Pirates left fielder Corey Dickerson has already logged three outfield assists…The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani has been in his team’s lineup only five times in 12 games. Still, he leads AL rookies in homers with three and RBIs with seven… The Brewers bullpen has a 2,73 earned run average but has been charged with seven blown saves…Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons, always known for his glove, not his bat, leads the majors in hits with 19.