Baseball should not be played in late October, and the possibility of someone being referred to as "Mr. November" shouldn't exist, outside of Playgirl magazine.

Whoa, Rick. Be careful. Better not tell this to Jeff Kent.

Assuming the owners don't like my idea of a shorter season—assuming, while we're at it, that they don't like being flogged with a birch switch—what about playing the World Series at a neutral, warm-weather site? Sacrilege, I know. But if football can do it, why can't baseball?

1. Because the World Series is played during the week, making it much harder for fans of the respective teams to make work/travel arrangements.
2. Because the financial commitment for baseball season-ticket holders in is much greater, and teams rely on the promise of postseason (and World Series) ticket rights in order to get people to commit to buying 81 (or 65) tickets in advance.
3. A lottery system similar to the NFL would likely lead to empty seats (or at least seats selling on the secondary market near or below face value) in years such as this one which lacked a Boston/New York/Chicago.
4. If a guarantee of no rain in a warm-weather location is needed, there are only 3 such venues in all of baseball (Houston, Phoenix, and the dreaded Tropicana Field).

I'd like a 250 game schedule. World Series on Thanksgiving weekend, with opening day starting the Monday after the NFL's regular season ends.

He's probably one of those goofballs who complains about too much sex as well.

Ooh, no, the start of the baseball season is just right -- the NCAA tourney flows right into baseball ... perfect! I'm in heaven over those 2-3 weeks.

Much better is to simply abolish the NFL and have MLB play April to early Jan. Then give the players a month off, then spring training.

Morrisey will not #### us over he is Mr. November

Why not? Because that would suck.

Bigmouth strikes again. That joke isn't funny anymore.

Morrissey hasn't done anything worthwhile since he kicked Johnny Marr to the curb, and this article does nothing to improve that record.

Solution: Build a gigantic stadium in Las Vegas and hold the World Series there during a week in October. Invite all the other 28 teams' players to party and gamble hard and set the pace for general debauchery.

because I want more than 130 games to watch.

because the phillies wouldn't have made the post-season (?) the past two years, and the mets would've instead.

Every sports season is too long. Solutions:

1. No playoffs in any sport
2. 124 or so MLB
3. 40 NHL/NBA
4. 10 NFL
5. 10 college football
6. 20 college basketball

At present every sport hangs around like an over-the-hill DH only. I could compromise on the playoffs thing, but only if just one "world" series was allowed. Think of it...gaps between sport seasons. Cool.

Assuming the owners don't like my idea of a shorter season—assuming, while we're at it, that they don't like being flogged with a birch switch—what about playing the World Series at a neutral, warm-weather site? Sacrilege, I know. But if football can do it, why can't baseball?

This is so, so dumb. You know why football plays its championship game at a neutral site? Because it's just that, *A* game! Not seven games, one. The conference champions play totally dissimilar schedules during the regular season so when there's only one game to decide the championship it only makes sense to not give one team home field advantage.

Had to listen to Peter Gammons telling Mike and Mike this morning that the neutral site is really worth considering after this years debacle and ending games at 1:47 AM.

WTF DOESN'T ANYBODY POINT OUT THAT IF YOU START A GAME EARLIER IT WILL END EARLIER?

If I didn't know of Baseball Reference as a web site and was just estimating as to the revenue impact of dumping 32 games I might do this math:

30 games x 30,000 fans x 30 teams x $30/ticket.

All round numbers. Seems pretty straightforward. No outlandish figures. No adding in concessions or any other revenue streams. No impact on TV revenue. Just a pure attendance/ticket connection.

That's $810,000,000.

That is a lot of money. How can anyone make this suggestion and then make it out that the folks being asked to give up that revenue are terrible people because they will react poorly to that suggestion?

Geez........

I've never understood the problem...just do what I've always done during World Series time.

1-Don't go to work the week of the World Series.

2-Keep your kids home from school and let them stay up to watch the games.

Easy.

Invite all the other 28 teams' players to party and gamble hard and set the pace for general debauchery.
Cool, combine THE World Series and the World Series of Poker at the same time and venue.
On second thought...

1-Don't go to work the week of the World Series.

2-Keep your kids home from school and let them stay up to watch the games.
The Repoz plan is elegant yet simple. A masterpiece.

Actually, the warm-weather site idea could work well. Loads of fanatical soccer fans give up their lives for a couple of weeks to attend European championships, which are held basically on one large site. They leave work and family behind, find cheap places to stay, drink heavily, and watch sports either in bars or at a stadium. It'd just be an extra vacation or like a SABR convention.

But the trouble is the weather in October isn't necessarily any more reliable in the southern US. Isn't it the tail end of hurricane season?

I like me a long season. 130 games is just silly. Cutting back to 154 might be workable though. I'd lop a week off both the front and back and schedule a handful of double headers -- day/night ones should keep revenues pretty close to what they are now for games on 2 days.

Some of the bad weather cities get some bad attendance for the first month or so after opening day, so the loss on the front end of the schedule would be pretty small.
I know the union has to agree but you'd think the extra time off would have some appeal.

Actually, the warm-weather site idea could work well. Loads of fanatical soccer fans give up their lives for a couple of weeks to attend European championships, which are held basically on one large site.

They get a lot more vacation time than we do. Plus, many European businesses pay workers extra when they go on vacation, so they can afford it.

Oh come on!

No "November Spawned a Monster" references?
I suppose next you'll tell me I'm the only guy on earth who actually likes Morrissey's solo stuff?

154 is the absolute minimum. I could live with a return to 154, but he lost revenue probably prohibits it.

30 games x 30,000 fans x 30 teams x $30/ticket.

All round numbers. Seems pretty straightforward. No outlandish figures. No adding in concessions or any other revenue streams. No impact on TV revenue. Just a pure attendance/ticket connection.

That's $810,000,000.

I think it would only be half that, since half the teams will be away. So around $400M. It's a lot less, but your point stands - it's still not nothing. Even if it were only like $5M, it would be hard to ask teams to forgo that revenue. Once you're already counting on the money coming in, it's very hard to give it up.

The problem is that I'm not sure exactly what the benefit of a shorter season is to anybody.

You cut it enough that there's a big difference in length of season and weather of playoffs and the tradeoff is a lot of money.

You cut it a little and there's no real difference in anything. What's the benefit of 154 vs. 162 games? You lose 3.6 million paying fans in those 120 games and I doubt people are going to pay more because the season is a week less. In a week's span, the weather isn't any drier (in the baseball cities, October is on average the driest month of the baseball season) and you only save a degree or two, which could actually be more than saved by starting games at 7 instead of 830.

The problem, as I see it, is baseball is trying to make the playoffs like the Super Bowl. That doesn't work, because the scheduling of football games and the short-term tactical nature of the game makes it more suited to be a Big Event. The constant off-days during the playoffs and the constant waiting for the game to start and the endless distractions don't serve to build up the excitement and anticipation of baseball playoff games.

I suppose next you'll tell me I'm the only guy on earth who actually likes Morrissey's solo stuff?

I do.

Only problem with solo Morrissey is that without Marr, it's hard to listen to a lot of Morrissey in one sitting because once you get to about an hour or so, you just wish someone would give the guy a prescription for Zoloft or something.

Yeah certainly Smiths >>>>>>>>> Morrissey

He just has the ocassional nugget I really like...such as when faced with death in "On the Streets I Ran" asking God to spare him and take the people of Pittsburgh, PA....truly a coward's coward!

Of course, there's a much less disruptive way to keep the WS from going into November: shorten the playoffs. Eliminate the division series, and the postseason ends a week earlier. (Of course, there's no chance MLB will give up the revenue from that, either. But it's less stupid than cutting out 20% of the season.)

Drop the extra days off during the playoffs and start the games at 7pm local time. Problem solved.

They get a lot more vacation time than we do.

Well why don't you do something about that?

The new Leninist slogan: Peace! Bread! Vacations!

4. If a guarantee of no rain in a warm-weather location is needed, there are only 3 such venues in all of baseball (Houston, Phoenix, and the dreaded Tropicana Field).

Not to nitpick (but I must), but while they don't have domes, it seems that Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Diego seem like fairly safe choices to have October baseball.

Of course, there's a much less disruptive way to keep the WS from going into November: shorten the playoffs. Eliminate the division series, and the postseason ends a week earlier. (Of course, there's no chance MLB will give up the revenue from that, either. But it's less stupid than cutting out 20% of the season.)

Amen. Expand by two teams (I'll suggest Montreal and Las Vegas), have four 8-team divisions, and make winning your division worth something again.

Drop the extra days off during the playoffs and start the games at 7pm local time. Problem solved.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!!!!one!

Drop the extra days off during the playoffs and start the games at 7pm local time. Problem solved.

Dropping the extra days is fine, but the 7 PM start time just won't fly. No way are they starting a game earlier than 5 PM Pacific time, especially if you have a west coast team involved. The later times seem to maximize ratings. Apparently far more people are able to stay up late, than are able to leave work early. If they actually started the games at 8:05 or 8:10, that would be a big improvement.

You know what's too long?

Rick Morrisey columns. Lacks the insane bombast of Mariotti, but with all the short-sightedness and il-logic.

How about this novel idea. There is no problem. So it rained, once. Big deal. The suspended game was the best thing about this years world series. Why would you want to change the best thing that just happened?

Let's just get rid of baseball all together.

I know a place where, in October, it's much warmer during the day than it is at night. I call it The World. (Or, it might be New York City. I get them confused.)

Morrissey: 130-game baseball season? Why not

Umm, because I like baseball?

I understand why they won't start earlier than 8pm on weeknights (would be nice if we had an actual 8:05pm ET first pitch though and less FOX build up), but I still don't get why they don't have earlier start times on weekends -- why not a 7pm ET start on Sat/Sun? There's no reason for games to end after midnight on weekends, especially on a Sunday.

Actually, the warm-weather site idea could work well. Loads of fanatical soccer fans give up their lives for a couple of weeks to attend European championships, which are held basically on one large site. They leave work and family behind, find cheap places to stay, drink heavily, and watch sports either in bars or at a stadium. It'd just be an extra vacation or like a SABR convention.

The European Championships are also only held once every four years.