Effective Scheduling
It's that time of the month again, the time we celebrate all that good, all that is pure and wholesome about the sport of baseball. I am of course talking about this weekend's series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. This most heated rivalry is renewed with six three-game series this season (April 20-22 and 27-29, May 21-23, June 1-3, August 28-30, and September 14-16). Of these 18 games, 10 are already scheduled for a national television audience on either ESPN or the Fox Saturday game of the week. I am not opposed to Major League Baseball's emphasis on the Yankees-Red Sox rivarly. These two teams would not play on national television so often if people did not want to watch them play.
However, MLB when they put the schedule together miss a golden opportunity. Lost in this Yankees-Red Sox celebration is a chance to celebrate anything else. The St. Louis Cardinals are in Chicago to take on their big rival, the Cubs this weekend. This rivalry is probably the second greatest rivalry in the sport. Fox knows this because each of the four Saturday meetings between the two clubs is scheduled for their game of the week. However, of the 16 games Cubs-Cardinals games this year, 9 of them are played on a day in which the Yankees play the Red Sox. Thus, three of these Fox Saturday games of the week, the national game is Yankees-Red Sox, and unless there is rain in the Bronx or Boston, the Cubs and Cardinals can only be seen in Chicago and St. Louis.
Why does MLB force these rivalries to compete? The health of the sport is measured by just the Yankees-Red Sox series. Is it not in the best interest of the sport to have something to celebrate every weekend? Sure, let the Yankees-Red Sox be the national focus one weekend, but do it in such a way that the next week, a light equally strong can be shown on the Cubs and the Cardinals the following weekend.
MLB errs in a similar way with the interleague schedule. The Yankees-Mets subway series is always the tentpole of this interleague extravaganza, but why do they have to have the idea of the interleague weekend in the first place? They are better this year by having only one of the two Cubs-White Sox series coincide with one of the Yankees-Mets series.
However, MLB when they put the schedule together miss a golden opportunity. Lost in this Yankees-Red Sox celebration is a chance to celebrate anything else. The St. Louis Cardinals are in Chicago to take on their big rival, the Cubs this weekend. This rivalry is probably the second greatest rivalry in the sport. Fox knows this because each of the four Saturday meetings between the two clubs is scheduled for their game of the week. However, of the 16 games Cubs-Cardinals games this year, 9 of them are played on a day in which the Yankees play the Red Sox. Thus, three of these Fox Saturday games of the week, the national game is Yankees-Red Sox, and unless there is rain in the Bronx or Boston, the Cubs and Cardinals can only be seen in Chicago and St. Louis.
Why does MLB force these rivalries to compete? The health of the sport is measured by just the Yankees-Red Sox series. Is it not in the best interest of the sport to have something to celebrate every weekend? Sure, let the Yankees-Red Sox be the national focus one weekend, but do it in such a way that the next week, a light equally strong can be shown on the Cubs and the Cardinals the following weekend.
MLB errs in a similar way with the interleague schedule. The Yankees-Mets subway series is always the tentpole of this interleague extravaganza, but why do they have to have the idea of the interleague weekend in the first place? They are better this year by having only one of the two Cubs-White Sox series coincide with one of the Yankees-Mets series.
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