How Can The Season Be Shortened?

The NY Times gives a good summary of the issues involved.

Comments

Well...

I’m rooting hard for the Yankees to win a 27th World Series Championship. But along that ride I hope like hell that the temperatures in the Bronx and Philly are sub-artic and thereby Bud the Dud Selig and his band of greedy bastard owners are forced into doing something. Enough with all these off days during the playoffs in order to tee up a nice weekend TV package. Also, find a bloody damned way to squeeze in more twilight double headers during the season.

This isn’t rocket science.

"Cubs will win 79 to 83 games." BLou (7/21/09)

by BLou on Oct 26, 2009 8:55 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

The easy step

is not to always open on a Monday. This year, they could have opened the season on Thursday, had Friday as the backup weather day for the home openers, then gotten right into weekend games. The Monday in Cincinnati tradition has already been violated with the Sunday night opener and the games in Japan.

I also think baseball could start a new holiday tradition by always scheduling double-headers on the 4th of July. They could expand rosters by 1-2 players that day if there are concerns about stretching pitchers too thin.

Fontenot (fon-te-no): Cajun for "scrappy"

by zambranofan on Oct 26, 2009 9:08 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

This reads just like "MLB the Whoring-Institution".

There’s little regard for doing what’s best for the team, the fans, or the integrity of the game, but there’s constant justification for mistakes due to profit. I wholly understand this is a business, but I also understand a business can alienate its customers. This Bud Selig crap is really starting to bother me.

"The riches of the game are in the thrills, not the money." --Ernie Banks

by dtpollitt on Oct 26, 2009 9:23 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

bring back double headers

that alone could cut a week or three off the calendar.

baseball is a game of outs......pop out, ground out, line out, pitch out, strike out, fly out, and Fox and Bud's favorite black out

by Cubbie-Tim on Oct 26, 2009 10:38 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Obviously, I don't see the owners giving up the revenue

that traditional doubleheaders cost them, but why not at least a few scheduled day-night doubleheaders a year. Also, starting the season a bit earlier and in warm-weather sites still seems to be the most logical step. The argument that doing so would cause the Cubs and Sox home schedules to overlap is weak. Who cares? I can’t see where attendance would be impacted to any serious degree because of any overlap.

"Enough foreplay- let's get crackin'"- Fred Garvin

by davidalanu on Oct 27, 2009 6:44 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hey, I'd have no problem with that...

…but I think many managers and players would. I’ve heard Lou grumble about doubleheaders on at least a couple of occasions. I believe he’s said something along the lines of, “It makes for a very long day at the ballpark.” (And, yeah, there was probably a “look” in there somewhere.) So I would presume the players union would have something to say about any schedule changes.

Catch my act on Twitter as @dat_cubfan_dave.

by dat cubfan daver on Oct 27, 2009 9:26 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

World Selig--I mean, Baseball Classic

You have to move the World Baseball Classic, if it must be played, to a different time of year. And just to save everyone the trouble, the answer is Yes! I am demanding that it must be scheduled around the American MLB season. Yes, I am being an arrogant, ethnocentric American, but hey, we invented the damn game and the Major Leagues in the U.S. is the preeminent baseball league in the world, and the only that even comes close is the Japanese pro league. And the proof that MLB is THE preeminent league? All the Japanese and Korean players now want to come here. American players who go there do so because no team here will sign them. The WBC should be played, if at all, in mid to late November. That way, the normal MLB season is uninterrupted. Granted, this is not an issue every year, but it sure disrupted things this year.

"Don't complain to me about the stormy weather, boys. Just bring the ship into port." --Steve Stone, September 2004

by ctcoff99 on Oct 26, 2009 11:22 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It wasn't just the WBC.

Had the WBC not been held and the season started as it has the last few years… it would have started on March 29. That’s pretty early — the high temperatures in Chicago the week of March 29, 2009 were in the 40’s and 50’s and it rained three of the seven days.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra

by Al on Oct 27, 2009 8:01 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

For me, a big problem with the long season and late WS games

is how it alienates children. Kids don’t get to grow up watching the WS happen live and they lose the drama and tension of a playoff series when it gets stretched out so far.

But perhaps MLB believes they’ve lost children as an audience anyway because children don’t have the attention spans needed to follow baseball.

Inspector #23 certifies that the above post is sarcasm free, most certainly not what she said, and chock full of intangibles, although regressing to the intangible mean, as you'd expect.

by DGU on Oct 27, 2009 8:01 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

It's not just the stretched out schedule...

… it’s the games that go past midnight in the east.

Has there been even ONE postseason game this year less than three hours long?

"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra

by Al on Oct 27, 2009 8:02 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I thought that the Cubs had this figured out

The way to shorten the season is to play bad baseball.

"When you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill

by vonde6 on Oct 27, 2009 11:01 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Shorten?

Shorten the off-season I say!

At least make the division series best of 7.

Increase roster to 26 and play more double-headers, start in March and take the WS to Thanksgiving and have the other top 12 teams besides the WS teams play bowl games in warm weather sights in December.

"I'd rather hit home runs you don't have to run as hard." -- Dave Kingman

by BucknerKongCardenal on Oct 28, 2009 12:35 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs