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Tuesday, April 10, 2007

MLB.com: MLB unlikely to alter scheduling

Although there was a hue and cry on Monday for a schedule adjustment to open in warm weather sites, beginning next year, it’s probably not going to happen.

“If somebody can predict weather for me 18 months in advance we’d be happy to do it another way,” added Katy Feeney, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of scheduling and club relations, when reached in New York on Monday. “But nobody has been able to do that.”
...
About a decade ago, when MLB tried playing the first two weeks in predominately warm weather cities, the weather was worse the third week of April when the eastern teams finally went home, said Feeney, whose late father Chub, was a former president of the Giants, the Padres and the NL.

“The warm weather teams don’t want to be heavily home in April and May, either,” she said. “They want their June, July and August dates (after school lets out), too. Plus, if you go by that logic, would you have any of the Florida teams or the eastern teams at home during hurricane season? And that’s June through September.”

More on the Great Scheduling Debate…

NTNgod Posted: April 10, 2007 at 04:45 AM | 30 comment(s) | Login to Bookmark
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   1. PreservedFish Posted: April 10, 2007 at 05:49 AM (#2330898)
She sounds like an idiot.

Something I've learned on the internet is that whenever you read the phrase "if you go by that logic," you should ignore the second half of that sentence.
   2. Best Regards, Larry Mahnken (Dewey is a slacker) Posted: April 10, 2007 at 06:27 AM (#2330902)
Something I've learned on the internet is that whenever you read the phrase "if you go by that logic," you should ignore the second half of that sentence.

If you go by that logic, I have no idea what you've learned.
   3. Flynn Posted: April 10, 2007 at 06:33 AM (#2330904)
Don't trust someone who is surely in their 40s and still uses the diminutive of their name.

Don't trust someone in the corporate ladder who is someone's kid.
   4. We don't have dahlians at the Palace of Wisdom Posted: April 10, 2007 at 07:06 AM (#2330909)
Don't trust someone who is surely in their 40s and still uses the diminutive of their name.

Using the younger, diminutive name probably makes her less likely to be at the wrong end of a MR(S). FEEEEEEEEEEEEEENEY!!! joke.
   5. Big Train Posted: April 10, 2007 at 11:21 AM (#2330937)
Why not say they will look into it and not do anything about it?

Has congress taught them nothing?
   6. Bob Dernier Cri Posted: April 10, 2007 at 11:54 AM (#2330949)
Don't trust someone who is surely in their 40s and still uses the diminutive of their name.

Don't trust someone in the corporate ladder who is someone's kid


These are excellent points, but I have to say I agree with Katy. You could schedule all April games next year for Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, and then it could be the warmest, most heartbreakingly beautiful April that the upper Midwest has ever seen, just aching for baseball to be played. You just can't win by betting on the weather.
   7. Suff Posted: April 10, 2007 at 12:13 PM (#2330960)
Changing the way they schedule because of one freak cold snap is they type of knee-jerk thing you might expect baseball to do. It's refreshing that they are dismissing the idea offhand. Anwyway, where are you going to play? It snowed all day Saturday in Arlington, and it's been in the 30s and 40s for every Rangers home game so far. There aren't 15 domes.
   8. bunyon Posted: April 10, 2007 at 12:29 PM (#2330978)
Indeed. As a player and fan with a ticket, I'd rather the game be cancelled than have it be 33, with 20 mph wind and drizzle off and on but not so bad as to call it. Many of the games played the last week have been in pretty crappy weather, but just not as bad as the stuff in Cleveland. I really wish that MLB would tell the umps to call it much earlier. the last few years they've really let them play in awful conditions.
   9. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: April 10, 2007 at 12:53 PM (#2330998)
I agree with Dernier and Suff. People are upset but this is the first time in years its been a problem. Weather is crazy. You can't really plan around it.
   10. TerpNats Posted: April 10, 2007 at 01:15 PM (#2331018)
As a player and fan with a ticket, I'd rather the game be cancelled than have it be 33, with 20 mph wind and drizzle off and on but not so bad as to call it. Many of the games played the last week have been in pretty crappy weather, but just not as bad as the stuff in Cleveland. I really wish that MLB would tell the umps to call it much earlier. the last few years they've really let them play in awful conditions.


In the old days, before huge TV contracts and a reluctance to play any kind of doubleheaders, the games would have been postponed. There were also two other reasons: the season started later (mid-April), and all teams visited multiple times a season. With three-division and interleague play, that's not an automatic now.

One thing I think MLB will learn from this is to make sure that all interdivision games played in potential cold-weather sites over the first two weeks of the season be multiple-visit situations, although I believe this is almost exclusively an AL practice since it only has 14 teams. (But as I've stated before, if MLB expanded to 32 teams, with four 4-team divisions in each league, scheduling would become both infinitely easier and more equitable.)
   11. Frisco Cali Posted: April 10, 2007 at 01:41 PM (#2331039)
There aren't 15 domes

Great idea! Spread them throughout the country so that every fan is within driving distance, and we will never have another cancelled game.
   12. TVerik, AKA Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dog Posted: April 10, 2007 at 01:51 PM (#2331049)
Someone get Al Gore on this so that we have lovely baseball weather in all cities all the time!
   13. Barry`s_Lazy_Boy Posted: April 10, 2007 at 01:53 PM (#2331051)
My solution: I don't buy tickets to games in April. I use the uncertain schedule to maximize my advantage in fantasy leagues by somewhat paying attention to the weather.
   14. Best Regards, Larry Mahnken (Dewey is a slacker) Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:26 PM (#2331105)
In this thread, I've learned how to insult PreservedFish without him knowing.

If you go by that logic, your mother is a whore, PreservedFish.
   15. Joe Dimino Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:33 PM (#2331109)
"“If somebody can predict weather for me 18 months in advance we’d be happy to do it another way,” "

Let's see. In early April 2009, I'm predicting it's going to be pretty cold in Cleveland, Chicago (north and south side), New York (both Bronx and Queens), Boston, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Detroit.

I'm guessing it will be warm in Phoenix, Miami, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Diego, Houston, Arlington.

It will probably be room temperature in Milwaukee, Toronto, Seattle and Minneapolis.

At least schedule weekend day games in the cold places. Playing a Saturday night game with 30 degree wind chill, like they did in Washington is just plain stupid. What's going to get better attendance in that kind of weather, a day game or a night game?
   16. Dewey, Steven Wright Wannabe and Soupuss Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:36 PM (#2331112)
In the old days, before huge TV contracts and a reluctance to play any kind of doubleheaders, the games would have been postponed. There were also two other reasons: the season started later (mid-April), and all teams visited multiple times a season. With three-division and interleague play, that's not an automatic now.

Also, modern fields drain much faster. In the old days, they used to cancel games even if the rain had stopped, because the field was an unplayable mess. Now, the fields just don't stay wet that long.

Looking at old game logs on retrosheet can be instructive. It was not uncommon for teams in cold-weather cites to have multiple days between games.
   17. Joe Dimino Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:37 PM (#2331114)
I like the suggestion I heard the other day. One double-header a month. Then you can start the season a week later.

Give the players union a little something back to make it worth their while.

This is a problem every year. There are always games played in way too cold weather in April in the Northeast. This year was worse than normal, but this isn't a new phenomenon. That's why they used to start the season April 8ish, before Bud had to have his extra round of playoffs.
   18. TVerik, AKA Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dog Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:37 PM (#2331115)
It ain't about attendance, Joey. It's about TV ratings.

Now if a game gets called because of snow because it's a night game, I'm sure it's awful for the TV nets. I wonder what the ratings for night game "rain delay theater" are like as opposed to the ratings for a live day game?
   19. Joe Dimino Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:45 PM (#2331121)
Are Saturday's 7 p.m. MASN ratings any better than they'd be for a 1 p.m. game? Really? I guess they might be, but I can't imagine it's significant. What kind of $$ are we talking about?
   20. Bob Dernier Cri Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:49 PM (#2331123)
One double-header a month. Then you can start the season a week later.

Give the players union a little something back to make it worth their while


Again, I think that the owners would love to schedule more day/night doubleheaders, but those are ghastly on the players, and rightly resisted. Owners have zero incentive to schedule traditional two-for-the-price-of-one doubleheaders, and I don't think we'll see very many of those in future, whatever the union thinks.
   21. TVerik, AKA Snoopy Snoopy Poop Dog Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:49 PM (#2331124)
I don't have that in front of me, but in my part of the industry, ad rates are a direct function of daypart. Buying spots for air at 7PM is more expensive than buying for 1PM, regardless of the programming.

I don't know whether that model holds up for YES and MASN with game coverage.
   22. bfan Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:51 PM (#2331128)
"One double-header a month. Then you can start the season a week later. Give the players union a little something back to make it worth their while."

So the owners have to give up one game a month at the gate, and in return for getting that less gate (and potential parking) revenue, they have to in turn give the players a little something, extra? What am i missing here? Why don't we shorten the schedule back to 154 games, and give the players a raise so they can deal with the extra money they spend on their extra days off?
   23. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:57 PM (#2331134)
"One double-header a month. Then you can start the season a week later. Give the players union a little something back to make it worth their while."

The loss in revenue from having doubleheaders seems like a poor answer for what is not that big of problem.

Divisional rivals the first week, coupled with perhaps trying to keep games in warm weather climates the first week seems to be the only answer that makes sense.
   24. Dewey, Steven Wright Wannabe and Soupuss Posted: April 10, 2007 at 03:59 PM (#2331136)
Owners have zero incentive to schedule traditional two-for-the-price-of-one doubleheaders

Well, for owners who have attendance troubles, Sunday doubleheaders would be an attractive option. They were traditionally better-attended than normal games were. In the old days, when getting a million fans through the gates in a season was a big deal, the owners liked them because they put butts in seats. It was better to have one gate where you drew 25,000 than two where you drew 8,000 each.

Nowadays, however, in an era where the worst-drawing teams do better than some of the best-drawing teams of the 50s, teams don't have as much work to do to get fans to come.
   25. Bob Dernier Cri Posted: April 10, 2007 at 04:12 PM (#2331152)
in an era where the worst-drawing teams do better than some of the best-drawing teams of the 50s, teams don't have as much work to do to get fans to come

Exactly. And another factor is that in the olden days, expensive seats weren't that much more expensive than cheap ones. Now, in the newer parks, each home date is a chance to sell unGodly-priced box seats. The incentive is to maximize the product of expensive seats (often bought by corporations and brokers, and hence usually sold out) times home dates. There's no objection to filling the cheaper seats too, but two dates at 15K with all the expensive seats filled probably does generate more money than one doubleheader with 40K and all the cheap seats filled. This parallels the trend towards less capacious ballparks.
   26. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: April 10, 2007 at 04:13 PM (#2331153)
I guess I don't see the appeal of doubleheaders. One Royals loss a day is quite enough for me.
   27. Joe Dimino Posted: April 10, 2007 at 04:16 PM (#2331159)
3 Day-night doubleheaders a year for each team. No loss in gate. Washington lost plenty of gate with a 30-degree wind chill this weekend for Saturday night and Sunday.
   28. Bob Dernier Cri Posted: April 10, 2007 at 04:50 PM (#2331195)
3 Day-night doubleheaders a year for each team

That, AFAIK, is forbidden by the CBA. Day-nights are now only allowed for makeup games, and limited to two per season. It would take some serious negotiating for the union to permit three of those puppies in the original schedule.
   29. El Hijo del Ron Santo (Alan Keiper) Posted: April 10, 2007 at 07:37 PM (#2331397)
I sat through six months without baseball. Daytime temperatures are in the mid-40s all this week and you know what? !#%&$ it. I don't care how cold it is, I'm getting my fix.
   30. Joe Dimino Posted: April 10, 2007 at 07:53 PM (#2331418)
"That, AFAIK, is forbidden by the CBA."


Which is why I said, in post 17:

"Give the players union a little something back to make it worth their while."


As if avoiding them playing a few games in sub-freezing wind-chills, and starting Spring Training a week later isn't enough of an incentive.
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