Travel Considerations

The Major League Baseball season is a grind.  Everyone knows this.  They play 162 games in 182 days and, if they're lucky, get three off days a month.  The travel is brutal.  To make matters worse, sometimes it doesn't make sense either.

Because of a three-hour rain delay at the start, last night's Yankees-White Sox game didn't start until 10:00 local time in Chicago.  The game ended just after 1:00 a.m.  The Yankees then had to get on a plane to Houston.  They landed at 6:30 a.m. and had a game against the Astros just over 12 hours later.  That's unacceptable.

There were a bunch of factors that came into last night's situation--the main one being that it was the last game this season between the Yankees and White Sox--but starting a game at 10:00 when one of the teams has to travel simply should not happen.  Especially when the teams have a common off day later in the season, which the Yankees and White Sox do (August 7).  But instead of rescheduling the game, they made the asinine decision to sit around three hours before playing.

Now, the lack of rest seemed to have little to no impact on the Yankees.  But if they'd been blown out, you easily could've seen why (and that would've been a completely reasonable explanation).  And the fact of the matter is certain teams (them being one) get put in this situation over and over again.  Rain delays happen.  I get that.  But why are they always scheduled for night games on travel days anyway?

I say this about the Sunday night game all the time, and it should apply to all games where one or both teams is playing the next day in a different city.  Why do you think every Sunday game except the one is in the afternoon?  Why do you think there are so many day games on Thursdays?  Not only is it more considerate, it gives you the chance to sit through a rain delay and still have an opportunity to get the game in at a reasonable hour.

In fact, how many times have you seen a game rained out in the morning simply because one or both teams needed to get out of town?  And most of the time when that happens, it's a scheduled afternoon game!  Yes, there are different factors, and the forecast can often have a lot to do with it.  But there's a big difference between sitting through a rain delay for the first game of a series on Friday night and sitting through one on a day when you already know you're hopping on a plane immediately after the game and getting in late.

Yes, sometimes you have to wait it out.  If it's the last game of a series, a doubleheader isn't an option.  And if there's no common off day, rescheduling it could be a nightmare.  If you do have one, I can understand wanting to preserve it.  But is preserving an off day really that important if it means you're starting the game at midnight?  (I also say this about long rain delays in the seventh or eighth inning of games.)

It really should be a rule that you're required to play a day game on a travel day unless you have a day off.  I'd even be willing to let it go if the travel is short (you can go from New York to Boston or LA to San Francisco or something like that).  But there's no reason a team should be playing a night game, then traveling, getting into a city at 3-4 a.m. and playing that night.  Especially when only one team is traveling.  (And I'm sure the home team would enjoy getting a rare night off at home, too.)

At the Union's request, there will be three additional off days built into the schedule starting next year.  That's a positive step (even though the Thursday Opening Day will be very weird).  It should alleviate some of these problems, but probably not all of them.  That's why common sense needs to come into play.

Playing the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Cubs during the week shouldn't mean you automatically play all night games.  Teams do it for attendance.  I get it.  Those are marquee opponents and you want to sell as many tickets to those games as possible.  But fans will come to those games anyway, especially if it's their only visit to the city.  The popular teams need to stop being punished for being such a big draw.  They need to be able to play a day game on getaway day every once in a while.