MLB: Owners, Players Discuss Cutting Season
By Ron Juckett
Recent negotiations between MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA President Tony Clark opens the door to a shorter season.
MLB and the Players Association are considering shortening the season as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Newsday’s David Lennon reported the news Saturday night and no one from either side shot the idea down.
Since 1962, both the American and National Leagues have played a 162-game schedule with 21 built-in days off as the standard. A grueling 26-week marathon featuring 81 games away from home, players for years have argued to shorten the season.
The catch is money. Long gone are the days of the scheduled single-admission doubleheader and 154-game seasons. If they cut, teams will lose four home dates and around 100,000-120,000 tickets sold. Even in a sport driven by television dollars, we are still talking about cutting $2-4 million off the bottom line. The owners will want that restored someplace else. Expanding the Wild Card to a best-of-three or five could help. So could cutting the season to 160 or 158 games.
If both sides reach a compromise, a 158-game season would see teams lose a more reasonable two dates on the calendar. A 160-game schedule would see just one game at home dropped.
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With six divisions of five teams, playing 154 or 158 makes the most sense. As it stands, teams play each other 19 times a year. If eight games are lopped off, you could cut the number of divisional tilts to 17 or 18 playing 158. Again, those divisional games are great for the gate. While most of you will be thrilled to have the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pushed down your throats less, those four games draw roughly 160,000 in person. At $30 a ticket that translates to $4.8 million in ticket revenue. Asking the Yankees to forego $2.4 million without something in return is a non-starter.
It is encouraging to see MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA President Tony Clark talk about it. Of the four major professional sports in North America, baseball has the best relationship between owners and players by far. The price to earn a generation of piece came in losing the 1994 World Series, a memory still fresh in everyone’s mind.
From a records point of view, both leagues settled at 154 games in the early-1900s, with a few adjustments and World War I, until 1961. The AL expanded to ten teams and added eight games while the first NL expansion in 1962 brought the number to the current 162. Except for Commissioner Ford Frick’s blunder attaching an asterisk to Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record, no fan distinguishes records on season length.
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The players are concerned about health. Regardless of the money, it is grueling to play one afternoon in Baltimore and the next night in Los Angeles without a day off. As fans, we expect players to be in top condition every night regardless of fatigue, injuries or family obligations. If concessions can be made on both sides, extra time off helps with fans’ demands.
That is a good thing.