How screwed is the season schedule?

stlmark · Post by **stlmark** » April 15 07, 8:12 pm

haltz wrote:What a great day to have Snell, Cain, Torres, Wheeler, and Grienke on your fantasy team. And, oh yeah, be tied in Wins, and lose K's by two.

Oh Snap! That's a terrible way to lose.

Balltilyafall4 · Post by **Balltilyafall4** » April 15 07, 10:38 pm

And another thing - who thought it was a good ideas for the Cards to play 2 in Pittsburgh, fly to San Fran for 2, then fly back to Chicago for 3 with no rest. Hello?? McFly??

Well..it was no one's idea...because the Cards play at home for the 2 against Pittsburgh, then to SF, then back to Chicago..

But I think it's STILL stupid....2 gamer in SF and then back to Chicago for 3? Whatever happened to a west coast trip?

stlmark · Post by **stlmark** » April 15 07, 10:45 pm

I think this mom and pop business that does the MLB schedule needs to get a freakin clue. This STL to SF back to Chicago is just ridiculous.

jim · Post by **jim** » April 16 07, 8:05 am

The schedule isn't as easy to put together as it seems. Play early season games in warm weather cities? Nope, cuz nobody wants those dates. Except for opening day, attendance in April is the lowest in virtually every MLB city (Boston, St. Louis are a few exceptions). And, believe it or not over the past ten years there have been more April games in warm weather cities than not, so the schedule makers have made some attempt at this.

The problem is you have 3 rounds of playoffs which push baseball into November almost. With 162 game schedule, you pretty much have to start the first of April. Opening day has been creeping up over the years, when Jackie Robinson played is was April 15 or so, when I was a kid it was a bit earlier but still around April 10. Now we are pushing March, and have had games in March.

To me an obvious solution if you want to keep 3 rounds of playoffs (I do not) is to cut back the season to 154 games. You could shave off 1.5 weeks of the regular season.

ghostrunner · Post by **ghostrunner** » April 16 07, 8:40 am

I don't know. If this happens one season out of ten or twenty, is it that big a deal? Just play the season out, make the games up where you can and see if the remainder will matter in terms of the playoffs.

jim · Post by **jim** » April 16 07, 8:41 am

In 1973 the Cardinals played eight DH's. I think only two were scheduled, that was a miserable year with the weather.

valley_card22 · Post by **valley_card22** » April 16 07, 9:56 am

Yeah, WTF? Home, San Fran for TWO, then back to CHItown? Crazy. I know they want a weekend Cards-Cubs series for $$$$ and TV, but come on.

We should have played Pitt 3, off day Then CHI. Or Fly to SF for 3 off day, SD, 3 days, or something...just screwy!

jim · Post by **jim** » April 16 07, 10:06 am

It's not ideal, but making a schedule isn't as easy as most people think.

And besides, they aren't taking busses or trains, compared to 50 years ago travel is pretty easy, even if you are ping-ponging across the country.

One interesting article I read last week looked at revenue in spring weekday/weekend games. One thought was to allow teams to trade some early dates for weekend summer dates. In other words, load the schedule up with crummy April dates in warm weather cities, but give them more weekends during the summer to compensate.