The Royals at Tigers game set for Wednesday was postponed due to inclement weather and that's kind of been a theme in Detroit's Comerica Park here in the early going, which begs the question: Why even play there to open the season?

The reality of the Major League Baseball season is that making the schedule is a logistical nightmare. You've got 30 teams set to play 162 games each, while unbalancing the schedule to make sure divisional foes play each other far more often than those outside the division. Further, it's not like the weather anywhere is ever predictable. 

Still, starting the season on March 29 in Detroit doesn't really sound like a recipe for success, does it? The Tigers were set to host a six-game homestand against the Pirates and Royals, three games against each, to begin the 2018 season. Here's how the schedule was supposed to look vs. what actually happened. 

Date

Scheduled

Actual

March 29

Season opener

Postponed due to weather

March 30

Off day 

Season opener

March 31

Game 2

Postponed due to weather

April 1

Game 3

Doubleheader, Games 2 and 3

April 2

Game 4

Game 4

April 3

Game 5

Game 5

April 4

Game 6

Postponed due to weather

The game on Tuesday was played in awful weather. Around 40 degrees, overcast and with wind cutting into the mid-teens. There were swaths of open seats. Entire sections were empty, actually. Sure, the Tigers and Royals are both expected to be bad, but the conditions surely had a lot to do with this as well. 

The reported attendance on Opening Day was unsurprisingly good, even if it was a make-up game. The ballclub announced 42,516, which is over capacity. Since then, though? 

  • 14,858
  • 18,438
  • 15,476
  • 15,083

Those are generous, too, as those of us who watched know. Obviously it's "paid" attendance and not how many people walk through the turnstiles. 

To reiterate, I understand making the MLB schedules is an incredibly cumbersome exercise and a logistical nightmare. There's been bad weather over a good portion of the country, too. It's just that Detroit's gotta be on the short list of cities to avoid in the first week and a half of the season. The Indians, White Sox, Cubs, Red Sox and Twins all started on the road for that long. The Tigers probably should have as well. There will always be rainouts, but starting in Detroit in March seems like an unforced error.