The Internet rumor-mill has been swirling with some nonsense
about lessening the MLB regular season schedule back to 154 games or so.
Thankfully it will likely never happen, at least not in our lifetime. The
reasons why it won’t happen are not the ones that a fan of the sport would have
thought. Listen, 154 games is enough. It’s enough to determine which teams
should win the division and make the playoffs via the wildcard. It’s enough to
fill any fans void of watching baseball games. It’s enough for the players who
seem to wear out towards the end of the season like an old pair of shoes.
But, as a fan of statistics of the game and records I pray to
the baseball Gods that it never happens. The plain and simple reason is that is
screws up and asterisks every record that’s out there. Team records and more
importantly individual player records will all be askew. This affects both the
holders of existing records and those trying to break them. Eight less games
equates to roughly 32 less at bats, two less starts and all the rest.
Owners will refuse to let this happen for the even plainer and
simpler economics of it. Four less home games means a minimum of 80,000 or so
less fans clicking through the turn-style. With an average (low assumption) $50
spend per, that’s a conservative loss of $4,000,000. Not the end of the world
for someone who owns a baseball team, but hey, it puts gas in the yacht and
pays the electric bill at the Hamptons house.
The reason MLB wants the shorter schedule is mostly weather
driven. They are trying to eliminate the early April snow-outs and the November
freeze-outs. With the World Series seeming to end later in later in the year,
one day we might see a Thanksgiving promotion. The league either wants the season
to start later or end earlier, or a little bit of both. They think the only way
to do this is to shorten the schedule.
Well, Mr. Clutch has the
answer. It somewhat solves everyone’s problems. It’s not a new answer, but
bringing back something from the past. It’s called the “Scheduled
Doubleheader”. Mr. Clutch remembers
the old old days of waiting patiently for the Met’s schedule to come out for
the purpose of circling the dates of all the scheduled doubleheaders. These
were usually the dog days of Summer Sundays. This thought process solves the
shrinking of the “Schedule” and would lessen the range of dates games are
played. It would also keep the record-keeping intact with the 162 game
schedule. The home run king would truly be that. We are almost there…we almost
have the answer. There is one problem though.
The problem is that the owners will never sign off on a single
entry doubleheader. That, unfortunately, is as extinct as the Velociraptor.
Though it solves “Most” of the problems, the revenue would still be at the 154
base. The tweak to the solution is to do what is done today when there is a
plethora of away game rainouts. It’s a rip-off to the client base, but does
work. It’s the dual-entry doubleheader also known as the day-night
doubleheader. Game one ends, kick everyone out, wait a few hours, then
charge them again.
Hail to the good old days when money wasn’t everything and the
fans were able to enjoy a full and extended day of live baseball without
breaking the bank. And if you got lucky you would run into the starting left
fielder of your favorite team working at a hardware store during the off season
to make ends meet.
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