Carl – can you do a blog about how ridiculous the MLB scheduling and interleague play has become? It is June 3rd and we have not played the Cardinals.
I got this reader from earlier this morning after posting a Juvenile NPR Tiny Desk concert blog and I’m happy to respond because that’s the kind of commitment and engagement you can expect from CarlsBlogs.com. I’ve always been a man of the people and that will never change when you guys ask specific questions about the Chicago Cubs in any comment section on this website.
With that in mind, I actually don’t mind the schedule changes, which is probably a good starting point so we’re all on the same page. Here’s a summary from the internet:
In 2023, MLB implemented a balanced schedule for the first time, ensuring that all 30 teams play each other during the regular season. Key changes included:
- Reduced Divisional Games: Each team plays 13 games against each division rival (down from 19), totaling 52 divisional games.
- Intraleague Games: Teams play 64 games against non-divisional opponents within their league, with a mix of six or seven games against different teams
- Expanded Interleague Play: Interleague games increased from 20 to 46 per team. This includes a four-game home-and-home series against a designated interleague rival and single three-game series against the other 14 interleague opponents.
- Reduced Divisional Games – I don’t mind this one because I kind of get tired watching the same teams over and again. As an example, at this time in the 2016 calendar we already played 30 divisional games whereas this year it’s 12. That’s a nice change of pace and I’ve enjoyed getting to see so many different teams early in the season, which blends into the intraleague aspect. For now I just think it’s nice to have more meaningful games when we do play. To me 13 is a solid round number that allows for more emphasis than the traditional 19. Besides 76 divisional games is simply too many
- Intraleague Games – I like more intraleague games because it gives me a better understanding of what’s in the national league and where the Cubs stand. I also like that the West Coast trips were grouped together. While painful to endure a month of 9pm start times, it’s nice spending the summer kicking of at 5:40pm. So the reduction in Divisional Games has caused some weird things like not playing the Cardinals until months into the season. But it’s also brought a whole bunch of enjoyable pitching match ups not to mention downright brutal competition out of the gate that’s essentially defined the Cubs season.
- Expanded Interleague Play: I think you should play 6 games against your divisional counterpart. That’s the big miss here. We have 46 games to work with and I think 30 of them for the Cubs should be against Tigers, Twins, White Sox, Royals and Guardians every single year. That should be normalized for a number of reasons. Then you can alternate east/west divisions on odd/even years for the remaining 16 interleague games. I think the predictability with that would be a nice touch while also reserving the exclusive feeling of a quality interleague matchup. It’s nice when it’s been years between visits to Yankee stadium, etc. Makes it that much more meaningful when we do play.
The downside to all of this is we get weird schedule chunks. Like again, opening the season on the West Coast was practically insane. It was remarkably difficult and there were so many late nights in the first couple weeks of the season. That absolutely sucks.
And I agree it’s weird not seeing the Cardinals yet.
But there’s also some good tension building for that first series and I think that’s kinda cool too. The storylines are much more developed and we’re really settling into our identity. So that’s a good thing.
Another good thing is that Shota could be back in time to pitch. So no complaints here if they even want to postpone further to accommodate his rehab schedule. That’s an added bonus that we should be stronger by the time we play them.
But I also want to acknowledge that I’d be pissed off if we had played the Cardinals 6 times already this year. Or something to that effect where you get the rivalry games in shitty weather when the kids are still in school, etc. That’s no way to go about it and I’m at least glad to see MLB is giving us the primetime games in the primetime of the calendar.
So that’s where I stand on the schedule changes.
Overall pretty good and I’d probably make some changes. But certainly no major complaints.
Go Cubs.
PS – This is INSANE
Thanks Carl! Consider my mind changed.