2008 MLB Schedule Makers

[Tribefan]

What is up with these guys? Did they not learn from this year? The Indians, whose 4-game home-opening series was snowed out in April this year, opens the season at home on March 31 against the White Sox. What are the odds of that series being played? I'm betting we'll still have snow on the ground (not to mention the cold)...The Indians haven't started a season at home in more than 5 years, basically due to weather...These guys are freakin' geniuses.

By the way, I'm loving the Indians schedule (note sarcasm). Among the teams in April we play include the Angels, Detroit, Boston, Minnesota and the Yankees...for Interleague, we get the Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres and Reds...and to finish the season, we end with 7 on the road with 4 at Boston and 3 at Chicago (insert groan)...

How's everyone else's schedules looking?

[Game4Tino]

Like crap, as usual. The Yankees don't even play their final games of the season at the closing Yankee Stadium.

[4bronxbombers]

Like crap, as usual. The Yankees don't even play their final games of the season at the closing Yankee Stadium.

I've gotta imagine that is going to change. If not, Selig should be lynched.

[powerpinstripes]

I've gotta imagine that is going to change. If not, Selig should be lynched.

Some MLB guy under Selig said on M&MD the other day, they were looking to change that.

[Game4Tino]

Some MLB guy under Selig said on M&MD the other day, they were looking to change that.

Talk is cheap, I'll believe it when I see it. They talked to another rep for MLB immediately following the release of the schedule and she spoke to the difficulty of moving a series. What's the big deal? Just swap a couple of series', I don't think season ticket holders would have a problem with changing dates that are six months out at this point. The longer they wait, the bigger the backlash.

[4bronxbombers]

I think fans are gonna go nuts if the Yanks last game isn't played at YS. I know I will.

[SanDiegoYankeeFan]

What is up with these guys? Did they not learn from this year? The Indians, whose 4-game home-opening series was snowed out in April this year, opens the season at home on March 31 against the White Sox. What are the odds of that series being played? I'm betting we'll still have snow on the ground (not to mention the cold)...The Indians haven't started a season at home in more than 5 years, basically due to weather...These guys are freakin' geniuses.

By the way, I'm loving the Indians schedule (note sarcasm). Among the teams in April we play include the Angels, Detroit, Boston, Minnesota and the Yankees...for Interleague, we get the Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres and Reds...and to finish the season, we end with 7 on the road with 4 at Boston and 3 at Chicago (insert groan)...

How's everyone else's schedules looking?

Where do you see info about the schedule for 2008? MLB.COM has nothing.

[Ljberkow12]

Where do you see info about the schedule for 2008? MLB.COM has nothing.

The schedule released is only tentative.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...rom+Boston.com

There's an October 17 link to a story on the Sox 2008 schedule which shows them possibly beginning the season in Japan and ending it at home against the Yankees.

[Tribefan]

Where do you see info about the schedule for 2008? MLB.COM has nothing.

It was on indians.com.

[cubhater]

What is up with these guys? Did they not learn from this year? The Indians, whose 4-game home-opening series was snowed out in April this year, opens the season at home on March 31 against the White Sox. What are the odds of that series being played? I'm betting we'll still have snow on the ground (not to mention the cold)...The Indians haven't started a season at home in more than 5 years, basically due to weather...These guys are freakin' geniuses.

By the way, I'm loving the Indians schedule (note sarcasm). Among the teams in April we play include the Angels, Detroit, Boston, Minnesota and the Yankees...for Interleague, we get the Giants, Dodgers, Rockies, Padres and Reds...and to finish the season, we end with 7 on the road with 4 at Boston and 3 at Chicago (insert groan)...

How's everyone else's schedules looking?

It's not really that bad when you look at it. We, your Tribe and my Sox, have plenty of chances for make up games later in the season compared to what you went through this year with Seattle. At least you get two West Coast series which shouldn't be a problem weatherwise once we leave town. Plus, who knows what kind of weather early April brings. I remember our 2005 home opener and series against the Tribe when it was in the 70s every game.

The early part of our schedule sucks if weather is a factor. Besides opening up against you guys, we then go to Detroit before coming home against the Twins, Tigers, and A's.

Plus we play 10 of our final 13 games on the road.

[bigwampum]

It's not really that much to ask that the first week or two be played primarily in domes or warm-weather locales.

[LuckyLopez]

Its damaging to the local teams financially if you can't get a home game for 2 weeks. The problem is probably more on the North East teams (or otherwise rough weather teams) for building new stadiums without domes.

[Logan]

What is this, third year in a row? That's insane considering it's the closing year of YS.

[Game4Tino]

Its damaging to the local teams financially if you can't get a home game for 2 weeks. The problem is probably more on the North East teams (or otherwise rough weather teams) for building new stadiums without domes.

I don't get it. You're still going to get the same 81 games, they would just be moving the location and timing of a couple of series. Also, attendance early in the season is adversely affected by poor weather, so moving the dates may serve to actually improve attendance for a couple of those games.

[CTSoxFan]

I think fans are gonna go nuts if the Yanks last game isn't played at YS. I know I will.

Aw, come on...where's the confidence that there will be playoff games?

[LuckyLopez]

I don't get it. You're still going to get the same 81 games, they would just be moving the location and timing of a couple of series. Also, attendance early in the season is adversely affected by poor weather, so moving the dates may serve to actually improve attendance for a couple of those games.

I don't have the numbers and I don't have the time to find them, so I apologize for that. But I believe I've read a number of times that attendance runs higher in general in the early weeks of the season. I know that seems logical to me. Baseball is new and returned and the people who haven't seen it in months are excited to watch. MLB teams all want Opening Day and those opening series and they all want it to be ideal for attendance. Its why everyone's Opening Day is followed by a day off, so that they can insure the security of that pay day. If you tell a half dozen or so teams that they won't get a home game for the first 2 weeks of the season I suspect they'll still get nice gates for Opening Day but diminished ones for the other games. Baseball on April 25th might just have less newness and appeal to many fans than baseball on April 5th. And if you tell those teams they'll ALWAYS be without a home game for 2 weeks purely due to their geographical location I would think that eventually would take a toll.

But like I said, I don't have numbers to give so its more or less my admitedly poor memory and my often questionable logic.

In addition I would think there's a flipside to that of the other half of baseball getting stuck with extended road trips. I'm sure it could be resolved for the most part but its an extra difficulty thrown into the season hassles. In the end I would presume that MLB weighs the actual damage the weather does to the schedule vs the hassles working around it would create. As another said, its easier to make up games lost in the early part of the season. Something like what happened to the Indians with the snow this year was a fluke. You can try and avoid it happening again but in the end I suspect Cleveland would prefer to take the chance on that Opening Day gate and attention at the risk of it being affected by the weather. It appears to be 2 games in 3 days (the typical day off after Opening Day I presume) followed be an extended West Coast trip. So it seems to clearly be an effort to get Cleveland Opening Day and that's it. Then they're on the road to nicer weather.

I just think that trying to steer the tough weather teams away from games in the early weeks of the season just grows too unwieldy at some point and potentially starts to affect them financially. But I've never sat down with a schedule maker or detailed financial reports.

[mentalgidget]

One thing I've been thinking of is to schedule in 5 Sunday doubleheaders (one per month, April - August). In August, every Monday would be an off day for everyone. This would allow for teams to make-up games from earlier in the season in an easier way. It would certainly lead to some one day trips but with a month of Mondays to choose from, finding one that is at least logistically decent might not be too difficult.

[SI Baseballman]

Here's the problem with sending the cold weather cities on the road for 2 weeks - come June, July and August, the cold weather city teams will have a lot more home games than the warm weather teams which means bigger gates for them, and home field advantage when the games start to really count as the pennant races heat up.

As for the Indians 2008 schedule - the only games in the first three weeks that can't easily be made up are the 2 games against Boston. For everything else, their opponents are either divisional or have a return trip.

[RhodeyYankee2638]

One thing I've been thinking of is to schedule in 5 Sunday doubleheaders (one per month, April - August). In August, every Monday would be an off day for everyone. This would allow for teams to make-up games from earlier in the season in an easier way. It would certainly lead to some one day trips but with a month of Mondays to choose from, finding one that is at least logistically decent might not be too difficult.

Damn dude, thats smart and pretty creative. no way Selig or his cronies would come up with something like that

[bigwampum]

Here's the problem with sending the cold weather cities on the road for 2 weeks - come June, July and August, the cold weather city teams will have a lot more home games than the warm weather teams which means bigger gates for them, and home field advantage when the games start to really count as the pennant races heat up.

If anything, that should balance out the "more interest in the first couple of weeks" phenomenon. The home field argument is meaningless since, as I'm sure you know, all the games 'count' the same.

[SI Baseballman]

If anything, that should balance out the "more interest in the first couple of weeks" phenomenon. The home field argument is meaningless since, as I'm sure you know, all the games 'count' the same.

Yes, but when the kids are out from school in June and July in Florida, Texas, and the West Coast, those teams will have fewer home games to capitalize on that potential attendance boost because they had an uneven number of home games in April.

Also, I doubt Selig would go for days without baseball during the summer months (aside from All-Star week) because he has a monopoly on that time. Don't want people wasting Mondays getting hyped up about Football when there could be an important baseball game on the tube.

[RYMASTER or Ryan_Yankees]

Don't want people wasting Mondays getting hyped up about Football when there could be an important baseball game on the tube.

They call that "ESPN."

[PinstripeDynasty]

I think every Saturday should be a day-night doubleheader, 1pm and 7pm. More day games means more kids can go to the games or watch them on TV, and Saturday nights you don't have to worry about going to school or work early the next day so it's an ideal night. And all the games should be on TV without blackouts.

With that you can cut the season by 2 weeks (since I don't think it makes sense to have playoff and WS games in usually freezing weather when almost the entire regular season is played in warm conditions) and add 10 off days for rest and makeup games.

[jughead]

Talk is cheap, I'll believe it when I see it. They talked to another rep for MLB immediately following the release of the schedule and she spoke to the difficulty of moving a series. What's the big deal? Just swap a couple of series', I don't think season ticket holders would have a problem with changing dates that are six months out at this point. The longer they wait, the bigger the backlash.

I don't think you realize how complex schedule making is. Don't they use professors at MIT to produce the schedule? Just the sheer number of constraints due to MLB rules about back to back series, coastal trips, home and away games, etc. etc. make it almost impossible to just "swap a couple of series'"

[SI Baseballman]

I don't think you realize how complex schedule making is. Don't they use professors at MIT to produce the schedule? Just the sheer number of constraints due to MLB rules about back to back series, coastal trips, home and away games, etc. etc. make it almost impossible to just "swap a couple of series'"

plus 15 years ago you had multiple teams (Phillies, Reds, Marlins, Padres, A's, Mariners, Rockies, Astros, Pirates, Twins, Giants) all sharing their stadiums with NFL teams at one point or another.

For the longest time, it was a husband and wife team who put the schedule together, but they outsourced it a few seasons back and decided there'd be less playing the same team in back to back weeks.

Heck, I still remember the 3 week stretch where the Mets and Yanks would play 9-10 games against the 3 west coast teams at home and then go out there for a trip right after.