New Schedule for October Baseball Unveiled

Major League Baseball just released the schedule for October baseball today. The schedule has caused a great deal of aggravation the past few years because of the many off days that were built into the schedule. With the amount of off days, teams complained it took away from the sanctity of the regular season schedule. Here is a quick and dirty history of postseason scheduling since 1996.

From 1996-2006, Major League Baseball used essentially the same postseason schedule. The regular season ended on a Sunday and the Division Series would start on the following Tuesday. The League Championship Series would start the Tuesday and Wednesday after that (depending on the league) and the World Series would begin on a Saturday. FOX and Major League Baseball saw that having potentially four World Series games on the weekend (and going up against college football and the NFL) was really hurting ratings. So, in 2007, they tweaked the schedule so that the World Series would start on a Wednesday and therefore it only covered one weekend. The result was three extra off days (one between games four and five of the Division Series, one between games four and five of the League Championship Series and one between the LCS and the World Series).

Right away, there were problems because there were too many sweeps. In 2007 alone, three of the four division series resulted in three and outs. Teams were “rewarded” with great play by having to sit around waiting for the NLCS for as many as four days. Even worse, the Colorado Rockies dusted off the Arizona Diamondbacks in four games in the NLCS and had to wait around for eight days before the World Series started. Predictably, they were out of sync and were quickly swept by the Red Sox (who had taken the ALCS in seven) in the World Series. That was the worst case scenario for Major League Baseball and it happened right away. Another problem was an off day built in between games four and five in the LCS. At the time, there were stories circulating that there was an extra day given to prevent delays due to bad weather. (2006 saw four rainouts in October). This gave teams with three strong starters an advantage because it allowed managers to use one starter three times in a seven game series but only once on three days rest. The rest of the starters would pitch on full rest. Strangely, only two teams in six postseasons took advantage of this. In 2010, MLB thankfully eliminated the off day between games four and five in the LCS, but added an off day between the LDS and the LCS.

For as long as fans can remember, most every team started regular season play on a Monday. This year, the schedule was moved up to the previous Friday. This means that the schedule ends on a Wednesday instead of a Sunday.

Therefore, the Division Series can start on a Friday (eliminating one off day) and for the first time since 1996, every Division Series will have the exact same format. Previously, one series would have an off day between games one and two, but now every series is played over seven days if necessary. Another off day was eliminated between the LDS and LCS. Finally, there is only one off day between a possible game seven of the NLCS and the World Series.

This is a MUCH better schedule and frankly, I’m surprised it took baseball four years to finally get it right. Hopefully, great postseason series will follow which will further eliminate downtime that has cost recent Octobers necessary momentum.