MLB does not want to see World Series games played in November, so even though the 2022 season will start a week late (thanks in large part to the owners' refusal to bargain for the first six weeks of their unnecessary lockout), it will still end on October 5. Cramming in that missing week of games has resulted in some strange and idiotic scheduling.
The Rockies will end the season with six games against the Dodgers in Los Angeles (September 30-October 5).
The Royals close out the season with six games against the Guardians in Cleveland (September 30-October 5).
The Cubs and Reds also finish the season with a six-game series, but the games will be split between Chicago (September 30-October 2) and Cincinnati (October 3-5).
The Brewers play three games in Philadelphia (April 22-24), go home for a single game (April 25), then fly back to Pittsburgh for three games (April 26-28).
The Tigers come back a day early from the All-Star Break to play a doubleheader in Oakland (July 21). Then they have a day off before starting a homestand (July 23).
Texas also returns early from the break to play one game in Miami (July 21) before going to Oakland (July 22-24).
The Yankees come back one day early with a doubleheader in Houston (July 21) followed by a series in Baltimore (July 22-24). New York finishes the season with four games in three days in Texas (October 3-5): a night game, a day-night doubleheader, and a night game.
The Giants play a three-game series in Los Angeles (September 5-7), go to Milwaukee for a doubleheader (September 8), and then head to Chicago (September 9-11).
The Red Sox play three teams on three consecutive days: Atlanta (August 10), Orioles (August 11), and Yankees (August 12). However, those games are all at Fenway, so no travel involved.
3 comments:
I hesitate to ever take the Commissioner's side, but I will on this one. November is just too cold, dark and wet for baseball in New England. And that's just if you're playing games that start early! The players can handle the travel. People who are out mowing the grass in November are the real idiots.
You DO want to see Fenway baseball well into the late fall, right? Just not THAT late.
I really wish, in some regards, that the league would return to a 154-game schedule to improve the chances of NOT playing baseball in November. I agree with D.ing that late October baseball at Fenway, while exciting for obvious reasons, is when the weather is usually hit-or-miss. I have plenty of photos in my archives from sitting in the bleachers in October, and almost always I'm wearing a winter hat and gloves (what you don't see is the long underwear I also wear under my clothes).
Your point, however, is valid; none of this would have been necessary if the owners had not dragged their feet and taken so long to get to the table with the players association.
MLB really screwed this up. Start on time, around April 1st, and play doubleheaders on one of the weekend days. Greedy owners be damned!
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