World Series Scheduling
By Marc Smith
October 22, 2009 12:20am
The Philadelphia Phillies are on their way to the World Series, but will have an entire week to prepare. The World Series is scheduled to start on October 28th and the Phillies just wrapped up the NLCS on October 21st. The Yankees are one game away from sealing the ALCS, meaning there could be five full days off where no one is playing baseball. Who comes up with this scheduling?
Even if both League Championship Series had gone the full seven games, there would still be two full days in between the ALCS finishing and the World Series starting. I’m guessing TV executives drive this process because they want to know exactly when games will be played. However, as fans, we need to voice our disapproval of this ridiculous system. In the heat of the playoffs there could be almost a full week with no baseball? That makes no sense to me.
To make matters even worse, if the World Series were to go seven games, it wouldn’t end until November 5th! I believe the only other time the World Series was ever played in November was in 2001 due to the season being pushed back a week following the September 11th attacks.
Bud Selig and Major League Baseball need to take the game back from TV executives and have series start a day or two after the previous round is completed. There is no decent reason why baseball fans across the country will sit for a week with no playoff games. Baseball players play 162 games in six months and are therefore perfectly prepared for playing everyday, not taking 3, 4, 5 or more days off in a row before starting another season.
Think about it this way. The Phillies are going to play for the World Series, trying to defend their title from last season and will have to endure a break longer than any break they have had since last off-season. That’s right, since players reported to spring training in February/March, they have not had more than three off days in a row and that was at the All-Star break.
I think this scheduling is horrendous and MLB needs to do something to keep this from happening in future years. Please send your thoughts to marc@marcdown.com