(Warning: Plenty of cynicism to follow.)
It appears Major League Baseball will avoid the unseemly appearance of players dressed as though they’re prepping to remove snow from their driveways rather than play in the game’s showcase event as the World Series shifts from the warm-weather domed environment of Houston to Philadelphia tonight through Wednesday.
The weather forecast for Philly calls for daytime highs in the upper 60s to low 70s and overnight lows dipping into the low 50s. Chances of precipitation are minimal. So, yay for this, I guess.
Last off-season’s labor unrest led to a later-than scheduled start and subsequent conclusion to the regular season because, you know, it’s important to always play 162 games, er, ensure every team has 81 home gates for maximizing profit and player salary over quality of product.
So, while this year’s World Series could run later than any in the event’s 118-year history (Game 7 would be November 5th in Houston while both 2009 and 2000 were played November 4th) inclement weather should not be an issue.
Will the same be true on March 30, 2023 in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and New York?
I only ask because the Red Sox, Cubs, Reds, and Yankees all host 2023 Opening Day games on that date.
- The Cubs, inexplicably, have Milwaukee in for the opener even though the Brewers play in a dome. Even more inexplicably, Milwaukee hosts the Cubs for the season’s final three games … just swap those series.
- As we know, tradition dictates the Reds open at home but does that hold for the Red Sox as well. Thed Reds have Pittsburgh in followed by the Cubs and the Red Sox get Baltimore.
- But the Yankees might have gotten pinched the hardest by the best-possible playable condition gods. After leaving Spring Training in Tampa, New York hosts San Francisco and Philadelphia before hitting the road for Baltimore and Cleveland only to return home for a 10-game homestand featuring Minnesota, Los Angeles Angels, and Toronto. It is actually not until their trip to Texas April 27-30 that the Yanks have any guarantee of solid weather.
What’s the solution?
I’ve long been a proponent of returning to a 154-game schedule, but we all know that’s never going to happen (see paragraph 3 above).
Before the move to a more balanced schedule for the 2023 season, I also felt some of the 19-divisional games could have been played in Spring Training sites. This would serve two purposes: Better weather/playing conditions and a carrot for those communities who house Grapefruit and Cactus League games by having bonafide MLB action in those stadiums (which, by the way, would be guaranteed to sell out as opposed to the majority of non-Opening Day games which are played before sparse crowds, especially in cold-weather venues).
Now that we’re in the new better-balanced-schedule era, I suppose the only reasonable solution for those of us in northern climes with non-covered venues is long underwear, stocking caps, and hand warmers.