Are the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians playing their series in Cleveland or the North Pole? Every game this series has been postponed due to snow. IF they are fortunate they will play a ONE game series tomorrow. The forecast is for morning snow showers and a high of 37 degrees.
This brings me to a larger problem: scheduling. While I realize that the schedule won't be reduced from 162 to 154 games anytime soon, baseball CAN and SHOULD do something. Here are some common sense solutions:
Every team should have four doubleheaders per season scheduled, two home and two away doubleheaders. The length of the season would be shortened by a week.
Start the regular season on the second Monday in April at noon EDT in Cincinnati.
Have the cold weather teams that play outdoors start a six or nine game road trip to start the season and have the warm weather and dome teams start at home. That way the cold weather teams would have their home openers in mid to late April, when the weather begins to warm up in cold weather cities.
By having the cold weather teams start on the road, they most likely will be playing either in domes or in warm weather cities, and that means fewer injuries and/or better quality of baseball as a whole. Baseball was meant to be played in warm weather; the weather in Cleveland this weekend was made for football.
Major League Baseball needs to examine this issue of scheduling in light of the Mariners-Indians series. What if the Indians are in a pennant race at the end of the season? Considering the depth of the AL Central, they may or may not be. Hopefully they will get one game in tomorrow.
Thank you Saxman57. As far as this season goes, maybe they could use the day after the All-Star game to play the makeup doubleheader. Only a suggestion.
After Friday, knowing what the weather forecast was, they should have plopped them all onto the team planes, flown out here and played at the Safe. It was 80 degrees here on Friday, and has been in the high 50's since then. Yeah, it has been raining a bit, but there is a roof and it would have been a heck of a lot safer and more comfortable for everyone involved, and they might have missed only one game to make up in September instead of what is likely to be four (latest forecast as of 2:45 am PDT still snowing and cold) what with 18+ inches of snow on the field, and no efforts to clear it as of yet.
I hope that they don't play just for the sake of playing if they don't have it cleaned up to the point where it is safe for the players to be on the field--that would be sheer lunacy. I know it sucks for the Cleveland season ticket holders, but safety should be the first consideration, not entertainment. And, BTW, the M's could be in contention in September, too, ya know (yeah, right, like that's gonna happen).....*smiles*
UPDATE as of 8:48 am PDT: Per the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, today's games have been scrubbed as well. The Indians will likely be enplaning for Anaheim to hold their series with the Angels in warmer weather, and the M's will go to Boston (which is where the bad weather is heading) to attempt to play some baseball there tomorrow morning. Maybe they ought to have Boston come here instead?
It finally stopped snowing in Cleveland around 10 am local time, but with 18 inches of snow on the field there was no way they could play those games. I have a sweetheart that lives about 5 minutes from the Jake and she stated the sun finally came out in the afternoon but that they're expecting rain throughout the week and temps in the 50's. I've also heard the Angels-Indians series may be moved to Miller Park in Milwaukee since the Brewers are in Florida to play the Marlins. That is also my question: why WERE the Mariners scheduled to have a long road trip to two cold weather cities early in the season and MLB knowing that there would be a likelihood of snow? If MLB was wise (which they aren't) Seattle would have had a nine game home stand to start the season against cold-weather teams.
With Seattle going to Boston and a good chance of snow there, if the same thing happens to Seattle and Boston, Seattle would be at a HUGE competitive disadvantage of having to make up a lot of games in such a short time.
They should have found an alternative site for the Boston/M's games, too, just in case. If they miss even one game of the next three before they come home, it will be tantamount to writing off our entire season here in Seattle. They will be flying all over the country on their days off, getting little or no rest/no true days off, and seriously increasing the risks of injury.
What has been done with the schedule to this point is little short of totally irresponsible. Hope they find some way to fix it that doesn't take a human toll.
Owners don't want to start their team with a six game road series. It's been discussed each time the season starts with COLD weather.
This cold snap hit everywhere.
The Rangers first home series(Game 4 of the season) was darn cold. I turned down free tickets, since I don't want to drink cold beer in cold weather.
Conspiracy theory: This weather is due to Global Cooling brought on by an over reaction and readjustment to global warming.
Sis: Ivar's sells as much cold beer as they do hot clam chowder on cold game days--doesn't keep any one home.
What the owners don't like is not having their home opener early in April. They could still have it, but against another cold weather team or a divisional rival. They don't need to bring teams in from halfway across the country who could be having games if they were at home. For example, instead of flying off to Cleveland, the M's could have played the Angels or the Ranger (or both) after finishing with the A's, and it would have been a week and a half later, and it would probably have warmed up in the Midwest and the East.
Oh, well, it's too late now and too much water under the bridge. Hope they do a better job with the rescheduling than they did with the original schedule.
I have a suggestion: how about using the All-Star Game off days as make up dates? And also temporarily allowing those affected teams to add an additional player and pitcher? Personally I would be in favor of the former.
The M's already called up a pitcher from AAA yesterday. Question is whether he will stay or go back. If he stays, someone else with an option has to go.
Assuming there are only 1 or 2 M's on the All Star team this year (Ichiro probably for sure, anyone else who knows?), that might be a viable option for at least a couple of the games. I'm sure they will consider it.
I am from Central California. I am passionate about sports, particularly the NFL and NASCAR. My favorite teams are: Panthers (NFL), Lakers (NBA), Flyers (NHL), and Dodgers (MLB). I am also a Kevin Harvick fan in NASCAR. I am a Fresno State honk. (I'll admit it!) And I am also a fan of MMA. Jackie Robinson to this day represents what is right about baseball. I also enjoy discussing the relevant (and sometimes irrelevant) issues of the day pertaining to sports. I will never understand why televised poker is so popular. Who wants to see a bunch of people sitting around a table, muttering to themselves? I do my best to keep politics out of my sports discussions. That is why I recently created a nonsports blog, cencalscribe. blogspot.com. That is where I post my nonsports topics.
