The Colonel: I love how some teams play on Monday and then take Tuesday off and then resume their series on Wednesday. I don't get why this sport just can't have everyone play on one opening day. Open the season on a Thursday or Friday, play through the weekend. Or have everyone start the season on a Tuesday and then have them play through Sunday. Teams don't need days off already.
49er16: I'm sure it's a scheduling thing, but still they can open up the season with everyone playing on Monday and then a few of the teams playing 4-game series. It's really not that hard to figure out.
The Colonel: Well MLB still has the unbalanced schedule so yes it is. Speaking of unbalanced schedules, I heard the Pirates announcer say the Pirates and Cubs will play each other 19 games this season. HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER. 19 games! Cubs and Pirates fans don't want to see each other 19 games a year. Baseball has got to figure out what to do with this unbalanced schedule. It's not that hard to lop off one series from those 19 games and schedule a Cubs-Dodgers series or whatever. Why is this so hard to figure out?
49er16: It's hard to figure out because MLB and Selig need an excuse to air 19 Red Sox-Yankees games a season. It's that simple. They think the entire baseball world revolves around those teams.
The Colonel: Well that's fine. Then schedule 19 Red Sox-Yankees games for a season and give everyone else a balanced schedule.
49er16: How about that Giants loss to start the year? Get shutout by Kershaw and watch him win the game with a home run. Probably the most Giants way to start a season.
The Colonel: The Giants always start slowly to begin the season and start slowly for whatever reason against Divisional opponents. I don't know why this happens, but it happens every year. I'm not concerned that they lost to the Dodgers today though.
49er16: My God that Marlins lineup today to start the year. Juan Pierre was their leadoff hitter. Placido Polanco was their cleanup hitter. They're going to be really bad this year. I think they'll be worse than the Astros. The Astros at least have some youth, the Marlins have nothing right now.
The Colonel: Now watch them get the first pick and next year's draft will have another Mike Trout or Bryce Harper type of player cued up to be drafted first and the Marlins actually take him. Seems like Loria always wins at the end.
49er16: And that's why everyone hates Loria. Dammit why does have to win all the time at the end of the day?
The Colonel: You know nothing says Opening Day like a series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
49er16: Thankfully MLB gave us that matchup to start the year. Knowing them, I thought for sure we'd get an exciting Rockies-Royals series to start the Interleague schedule.
The Colonel: Or start the year with a Astros-Cardinals series to confuse everyone. "These two teams are divisional rivals right? No they're not? They used to be? This is Interleague? Am I on drugs?"
49er16: Just wait until next year when everyone is using the DH. That's really going to confuse folks.
The Colonel: Selig: "It's all a part of the plan."
Why not just take 3 or 4 days off to start the season and then have an Opening Day instead of having exhibition games at home, or in the case of what happened here in Salt Lake, have the Rockies play the Mariners? (Not to mention Dinger was running amok in my town. I was this close to calling Governor Herbert to see if he can put a stop to that sort of foolishness.) Further, the "exhibition" games the Giants always play the weekend before the season seems so pointless to me. Wasn't that the whole point of spring training to begin with?
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that some teams play "exhibition" games before the season and some just stay in Arizona/Florida playing spring training games or teams like the Yankees play West Point.
DeleteI agree they should have all teams break camp on the same day, rest for a couple of days, and then have them all start the year on a Monday. Then you can have a few of those teams take days off on Thursday and the rest the following Monday. Teams like the Astros don't need two days off in a week. That's ridiculous.
Truthfully, I actually liked the exhibition games in a place other than the team's home ballparks--maybe the Giants could play a game in Fresno or Reno and the A's could play an "exhibition" game at Raley Field in Sacramento? But the whole play one game on Sunday night and call it "opening day" just seems a little too NFL-ish to me. It's as though Bud and the rest of MLB think to themselves "gee, it works great in the NFL, why not try it in baseball?"
DeleteAgreed. I actually watched several innings of the games at the Alamodome just because of the uniqueness of it.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete