So...will SABR be the July 17 weekend or the June 19 or 26 weekend? Here's hoping for the former, because if it is either of the other two I will not be going.

-- MWE

I think a lot of us are hoping that a huge snowstorm blankets New England on April 4, to thwart ESPN's plans to once again give us the two AL East evil empires to begin Sunday night baseball.

Personally, I think MLB should let the World Series champion open at home on a Sunday night a la the NFL, but ESPN is probably fearful the opening night opponent would be the Pirates, Royals or Nationals.

Isn't that what they did with the Phillies and Braves this year?

I think the opening day game (the teams that get to play one day before everyone else) should always be the reigning World Champion hosting the team it beat in the LCS.

Finally, no Cardinals-Tigers. That was getting annoying.

I think a lot of us are hoping that a huge snowstorm blankets New England on April 4, to thwart ESPN's plans to once again give us the two AL East evil empires to begin Sunday night baseball.

I hope they resolve to give us a different matchup anyway. I'll likely have tickets; I'd much rather take Monday off for a daytime opener than to go to a Sunday night game; and a snowstorm royally messes with my plans.

This will be my third consecutive home opener vs. the Yankees. The first home opener I ever went to was in 1985 (Boyd vs. Niekro); my father had a single ticket he got from work that he couldn't use. He wrote a note for me to bring to school, saying I was to be excused to attend the game. I was pleasantly shocked that they would accept such a thing. I also made the other home opener vs. the Yankees since then, in 2005.

How the hell do the Dodgers not come to Yankee stadium? They've never been in the regular season, and are the only NL team to not make the trip. Instead, Yanks get the goddamned Dbacks again.

Yeah, the funny thing was that the N.Y. Post leaked that the Dodgers-Yankees stadium was in New York.

The same thing happened in 2004 I think, where the Dodgers were originally scheduled to play the Yankees, and then it was switched to the Rays.

Is there no rhyme or reason to interleague matchups anymore? The Royals seem to have a few random Central teams mixed in with a few random West teams and no longer have a home and home with the cross-state Cardinals. Why?

So...will SABR be the July 17 weekend or the June 19 or 26 weekend? Here's hoping for the former, because if it is either of the other two I will not be going

I'm rooting for the Aug. 6 weekend. I'd come in on Wednesday and catch the Mets game.

Is there no rhyme or reason to interleague matchups anymore? The Royals seem to have a few random Central teams mixed in with a few random West teams and no longer have a home and home with the cross-state Cardinals. Why?

It'd be easy to say, "You're the Royals. You're an afterthought," The problem is the uneven divisions, which forces things like this to happen. I wish one of the NL teams would shift to the AL to allow three 5-team divisions in each league, making scheduling far more equitable (it will never be completely equitable, mind you, but it would be an improvement). Personally, I'd prefer expanding by two more teams, thus enabling us to have leagues with four 4-team divisions.

four 4-team divisions.

I don't care if they add more teams. But I'm against adding more divisions.

I don't care if they add more teams. But I'm against adding more divisions.

Please explain why; unless you expanded to 36 teams, you would have inequitable divisions and problems with scheduling.

I've stated before that under a 4-division plan I endorse, you would retain a wild card team, which would play the division winner with the worst record in a best-of-3 series, with the winner facing the division winner with the best record in the division series. (This would also provide incentive to avoid having the worst record for a division winner, giving you a few days off to set up postseason pitching rotations.)

Get rid of divisions, play a balanced schedule among all teams in a league, allowing inter-league to be the only varying factor.

Odd. Yanks get only 7 games at home in April. But they are down playing in Anaheim by week 3.

So thats nice.

Yet another year where the Cardinals don't come to Texas to play the Rangers. Color me unsurprised, yet more than just irritated.

They've only been here once since interleague play started. I'm so glad that they have that rotation set up that they set they were going to have.

AO

The Pirates start the season at home for the first time since 2005. Against the defending World Series champion Dodgers!

Please explain why; unless you expanded to 36 teams, you would have inequitable divisions and problems with scheduling.

I've stated before that under a 4-division plan I endorse, you would retain a wild card team, which would play the division winner with the worst record in a best-of-3 series, with the winner facing the division winner with the best record in the division series. (This would also provide incentive to avoid having the worst record for a division winner, giving you a few days off to set up postseason pitching rotations.)

Ok, keeping the wild card would help eliminate my main problem, which is that very good teams wouldn't make the playoffs.

I'd like to see 2 divisions with 2 wild cards.

the cubs play 15 interleague games in a row in june, the first 9 at home

How about just one league, no playoffs. That Angels Yankees game Monday might have gotten one-fourth the ratings Monday Night Football got!

This is sort of in regard to the earlier note that ESPN will almost certainly begin Sunday night baseball with Yankees at Red Sox: Are there charts or statistics showing the team-by-team popularity of merchandise in the four top North American sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA)? I'm wondering how the disparity from top to bottom compares; I would think the NFL has the most "parity" among the four leagues. In other words, networks would be comparatively less fearful of seeing the Carolina Panthers in the postseason than the Kansas City Royals, Columbus Blue Jackets or Sacramento Kings.

Yankees/Sox will of course be the April 4th game which sucks and I say that as a Sox fan. Not only is it boring in it's predictability but while I'm not a big "why aren't there more day games?" sort I think Opening Day should always take place in sunlight.

I'm rooting for the Aug. 6 weekend. I'd come in on Wednesday and catch the Mets game.

Last I heard they were looking mostly at July.

-- MWE