2011 Baseball Schedule-Strange...

[Mitchell]

Mils and other forum baseball fans will be interested to hear this.

I dont know if any baseball fans have taken a look at the tenative 2011 schedule, but it is mighty strange.

I've been a baseball fan for 28 years, and, in my lifetime, the season always started on a Monday or Tuesday, or sometimes, Sunday night, for Sunday night baseball, and always ended on a Sunday, except for the case of a makeup rainout, or tiebreaker playoff.

The Braves just released their schedule for 2011 on their site, and it is odd.

According to the schedule, Opening Day is Saturday, April 2, against the Nats. I always remember Opening Day being on a Monday, or Tuesday, or, in recent years, on a Sunday night.

The season ends with a home game against Philly on Wednesday, Sept
28th. This is the first time I ever remember a season ending during the week before.

Additionally, the Braves play two series against the Mets in New York in August. Another oddity,

Has anyone else gotten a look at their team's 2011 schedule yet? Some of the scheduling just strikes me as weird.

Mitch

 

[Backstep]

There was a note on ESPN this morning that the season was nudged back next year to make sure that the World Series was wrapped up in October. I still say baseball should trim the schedule down to 140+ games and add a fifth playoff team, but that's just me.

 

[Mitchell]

An interesting idea. Almost like how it used to be in the NBA, where the best team in each conference got a first round bye. They got rid of that system in the 1980s.

I'm not sure about trimming it back to 140 plus games. The season was 144 games in 1995, after the strike.

What might help, is if they went back to the old 154 game schedule they had before the early 1960s. This would be compensating for the fact that they've added an extra playoff round. Then, you could theoretically extend the first round to a best of seven, instead of five, just like the NBA did a few years ago.

Think of it, if the season was 140 games this year, the Braves would have likely won the NL East. As it is, the Phillies have taken advantage of a nightmarish Braves September swoon, and the Phillies will likely be in the NL East champs.

To me, 140 odd games is too short, and 162 seems too long. 154 would be just about right.

Mitch

 

[Backstep]

Actually, I was thinking about having the #4 and 5 wild card teams have a 1-game playoff, not giving the #1 team a bye.

Beyond that, I'd like to see the divisional round go to 7 games as well, so I'm with you on that. I suggested a total in the 140's so as to allow the season to tighten up a little more and have the playoffs start in mid-late September. After all, how much has the NFL been overshadowing baseball right now? If the playoffs started next week, some of that attention might switch over to focus on the remaining pennant races. But I get your point about finding middle ground.

As for your Braves, they're 2 back with a couple weeks to play. The Phillies are hot, no doubt, but there's enough time, especially since they play again. Besides, Atlanta also needs to focus a little less on Philly and more on collecting wins to shake off the NL West teams trying to sneak into the wild card spot.

 

[milagros317]

Starting the season earlier to make sure of no November World Series games is a good idea. Just imagine a Twins World Series Game 7 scheduled to be played in November in Minnesota. 😱 (The Twins new stadium is not in a dome.)

 

[Mitchell]

Backstep, I dont like the idea of a 1 game playoff in such a series. I can see in the sense of a tiebreaker, but not as a lead in to the playoffs. In such a scenario, a three game series might not be a bad idea.

The Braves lost again today, as you may know. I don't think they're going to win the NL East. As for the wild card, they are one game ahead, but with this killer road trip coming up. I told my friends on the Atlanta Journal Constitution website, that the odds are likely against the Braves making the playoffs.

Mils has a good point of starting the season earlier, to make sure of no November World Series games. A November World Series game in Minnesota has the potential to be played in mighty cold weather. I remember the World Series in 1995: The Braves-Indians games, at Jacobs Field, in Cleveland, were played in temps in the 30s and 40s at night, with rain at times. That must have felt lousy!

Mitch

 

[Backstep]

Well, the Phillies play in about an hour so we'll see. I still think the East isn't locked up yet.

There is the concern about having too much time off for idle teams which is why I suggested a 1-game playoff in the wild card. It's okay where it is, but that fifth team could really shake things up.

 

[tequila!]

As long as the Reds kick off at home every single year, i'm content.

 

[natural tickler]

I just looked at the Cubs schedule for 2011, and strange is an understatement....heavy laden first weeks of nothing but NL West teams, and hardly any divisional games...dont make much sense

 

[ticklingfeet4fu]

Mils and other forum baseball fans will be interested to hear this.

I dont know if any baseball fans have taken a look at the tenative 2011 schedule, but it is mighty strange.

I've been a baseball fan for 28 years, and, in my lifetime, the season always started on a Monday or Tuesday, or sometimes, Sunday night, for Sunday night baseball, and always ended on a Sunday, except for the case of a makeup rainout, or tiebreaker playoff.

The Braves just released their schedule for 2011 on their site, and it is odd.

According to the schedule, Opening Day is Saturday, April 2, against the Nats. I always remember Opening Day being on a Monday, or Tuesday, or, in recent years, on a Sunday night.

The season ends with a home game against Philly on Wednesday, Sept
28th. This is the first time I ever remember a season ending during the week before.

Additionally, the Braves play two series against the Mets in New York in August. Another oddity,

Has anyone else gotten a look at their team's 2011 schedule yet? Some of the scheduling just strikes me as weird.

Mitch

Now I have read and I understand what you are saying with the schedules, In the 1970s they opened up the season on Friday. For example, in 1973 the Mets opened up their season at home against the Phillies. That season the Mets had 7 doubleheaders scheduled including 2 twi-night doubleheaders.

So the schedules for 2011 are strange but then again, I find any schedule that doesn't include doubleheaders or 8:05pm games or games that don't have starting pitchers completing what they start strange.

It is just the way the game has changed.

Also on a different note, I thought you were just as old as me. Only 28 years you have been following the game?

 

[Mitchell]

I'm 40 years old, 4u. I was born in January of 1970.

I went to a few games with my father in the 1970s and early 80s, but it wasn't until 1983, that I really considered myself a "fan", where I used to watch the Braves on TBS every night. My first Mets-Braves game was in 1984, and that was when I sat through my first 9 inning game. In the 70s, the few times I went, I would get bored, and ask him to leave in the fifth or sixth inning. Since I didnt start following one team, the Braves, until 1983, and sitting through 9 inning games until the year after that, I didnt consider myself a true fan until then. So, like I said before, I have been a baseball "fan" for 28 years, since 1983.

Mitch

 

[Dave Pavet]

I remember the 154 game schedule for years and years... I think Bud Selig is the worst commissioner in ANY sport in my lifetime. You can rarely watch a game for more then a few innings without some politically correct shit thrown at you...Left-handed women with tourettes syndrome, ICYTCWTFHS...Inner City Youths That Can't Wear their Fucking Hats Straight and for the life of me, I can't figure out why they retired Butch Huskey's Number, #42 at Shea Stadium. The beginning of the schedule is even more fucked up! For the last 10 years or so they are still playing a few spring training games after a few regular season openers. I have never seen that in any major sport and at one-time that never happeed in MLB.

 

[Mitchell]

Dave, Selig isnt a good commisioner. I dont like him at all.

As for number 42: If you didnt know, that was universally retired for all of baseball, in honor of Jackie Robinson, the first African American in the majors. The only guy in baseball who still wears number 42, is Yankee closer Mariano Rivera, who is the only player who had that number, who hasn't retired yet, and was grandfathered in. After Rivera retires, no player, manager, or coach, will ever wear that number again.

I wish baseball had a better commisoner than Selig. Bart Giamatti showed guts by banning Pete Rose for life. It's too bad he passed away at such a young age, after such a short period of time as commissioner. If Giamatti had lived, and served a long tenure as commissioner, the guys who did steroids probably would have had very harsh penalties for it, including ineligibility for the Hall of Fame. Selig is nothing but a wimpy puppet for the owners, because, essentially, he is an owner. Baseball needs a better commisioner than him.

Mitch