The World Series shouldn't be in November and here's how to shorten MLB schedule
The Fall Classic is in danger of looking like the Winter Classic
By
Matt Snyder
•
4 min read
As we sit less than a week until the Major League Baseball playoffs, it's an exciting time. In thinking ahead about the postseason, though, there is one thing that brings me down. Here it is ...
Game 1: October 25
Game 2: October 26
Game 3: October 28
Game 4: October 29
Game 5: October 30
Game 6: November 1
Game 7: November 2
That's the World Series schedule. November. Again. Sigh.
I'm fine with the current playoff format and that makes for several weeks of action leading up to the World Series, but there are ways to avoid playing baseball in November -- which, really is something that needs to be done. Facing November or even the last week of October baseball in places like Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit et al is something that should be a priority.
Yes, I'm aware that weather happens all the time, but the league can still attempt to mitigate it by getting things over with more than a week earlier than planned. So how can we chop about 10 days off here? It's not difficult. There are places all over the place with the opportunity.
1. Shorten the spring
The players want this anyway. Spring training is way too long. It doesn't even have to be a full week. Even if MLB just started the season three or four days earlier than usual, we've already bought some time. I'd go a full week, though, with emphasis on the first week of games being played in places with limited chances for weather affecting play.
2. Start play one day earlier after the All-Star break
Games used to start being played the Thursday after the All-Star break, but nowadays we wait all the way until Friday. Why? Players who were All-Stars have their travel day on Wednesday and those who didn't already got their Monday-Wednesday vacation.
3. Bring back the scheduled doubleheader
We had one this season. How about some Saturday or Sunday double-dips? Maybe time them up on Sundays when Monday was to be a day off anyway?
4. Play the wild-card games on the same night
Not only that, but through the process of our suppressing of the schedule, we can surely get the season to end on a Thursday instead of a Sunday. Then that leaves a Friday for any possible regular-season one-game playoffs and Saturday for afternoon and night playoff games. Maybe a 4:00 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET? It's a TV doubleheader on a traditional non-work day for most jobs.
Then we could start the divisional round of the playoffs in earnest on a Monday and it should only take a week.
5. Don't set the entire postseason schedule in advance
What if both League Championship Series (note: This is plural) ends in a sweep? The AL champs will have completed the job on Oct. 18 while the NL champs would have celebrated on Oct. 19. The World Series doesn't then start until Oct. 25? Why not have the flexibility to bump this thing forward two or three days? It's not like this is the Super Bowl and a mid-sized city ascends on the host site for an entire week of hype.
If all of these things were implemented in concert with one another, Major League Baseball would never have a November World Series game again. We'd see some World Series end in the early 20s of October or even in the late teens.
Alas, pretty much none of this is going to happen. We could go through each point and pick it apart if we wanted. To illustrate what carries the day when it comes to sports these days, I'll use point number four as the vehicle.
MLB will never play both wild-card games on the same night and it sure as hell wouldn't play them on Saturday due to TV money. You don't waste both marquee games like this on the same day and you certainly don't do it on a Saturday, when weekday rating are far higher and you deal with college football on Saturday. Not only that, but staggering the games means as little overlap with the ALDS and NLDS as possible. If the wild-card games were played on the same day, you'd have four divisional series games being played at least three days and possibly up to five with the same days off. Instead, MLB has it staggered to make sure there's baseball almost everyday through the divisional series.
And, no, that's not for our benefit. It's for theirs. It's money.
We could go through every point I made above and somehow it boils down to the almighty dollar. Like the doubleheader. Why would they play traditional doubleheaders and sell only one game's worth of tickets when they could split the game up and get twice the turnstile revenue? Spring training has become big business as well.
That's fine. Gotta pay the bills. I understand it and would never begrudge businesses for making the most money they can. By the same token, I also get to complain when it's freezing cold in November and it doesn't really seem like they should still be playing any games of importance -- much less the most meaningful games of the season.
