Opening Day and Baseball in 2020

"Tough  Call"

Norman Rockwell 

(1949)

When baseball games were 

postponed for more prosaic reasons

Okay, so the original plan for this afternoon was to plant myself in front of the tube and watch the Pirates begin their charge to the World Series in the Opening Day clash with the Tampa Bay Rays in that dump they call a ballpark in St. Petersburg.  However, as we all know, all of organized baseball has been put on hold for at least the next eight weeks for reasons that we all know and that don't need to be restated here.

This doesn't mean that we can't still read about the sport we love, and more specifically, about how MLB is scrambling with plans to provide some type of baseball season in 2020, however truncated it might be.  Both today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Washington Post have interesting stories on the subject of Baseball in 2020.  Eight weeks, the current length of the postponement period, from today takes us to May 21.  Let's allow for a "Spring Training 2.0" to allow the players, particularly pitchers, to ease back into shape, and let's then say that the new Opening Day for 2020 will take place Monday, June 8. 

At that point in time, the Pirates will have lost 65 games from the 2020 schedule leaving a total of 97 games remaining, and for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that this would be the case for all of the twenty-nine other teams, give or take a couple of games.  Let us also assume that the MLB will stick to the original schedule, rather than trying to create a whole new schedule.

So, here's the question.  Will a schedule with varying numbers of games for each team, ranging from, say 95 to 105, games be fair or sufficient to determine a champion, or, specifically, teams worthy of competing for a championship in the post-season?  If that is how MLB chooses to go, then the answer is "well, yes, it's just going to have to be sufficient."  And if some players and some owners and the legions of hidebound traditionalists and purists, don't like it, then send them all a T.S. Slip.

Another thought might be to have teams make up a sufficient number for games so that all teams will conclude the season having played an equal number of games, let's say that number would be 115 games.  In the example of the Pirates, that would mean shoehorning in an additional 18 games over sixteen weeks.  Certainly doable, but it might mean giving up some previously scheduled off days, and adding scheduled double headers to the card.  The Players Association might balk at this, but these are tough times and unusual circumstances, to say the least, so they'll just have to suck it up for a season.

The idea of double headers is seriously being considered, and the idea seriously being considered with them is the idea of they would consist of two seven inning games, something that is done in the minor leagues.  I have a couple of thoughts on this, should this concept come to pass....

One, if double headers are scheduled, will the greedy, money  loving Lords of Baseball possibly be able to bring themselves to make these single admission events?  You know, you buy one ticket for both games, making these double headers true "bargain bills", as they used to be called.  Or, will they continue making them split admission events?  The idea of giving the paying customers a "twofer" probably already has Bob Nutting throwing up in the executive washroom at 115 Federal Street.

Two, I can't wait to hear the angry howls of protest coming from the Purists and Traditionalists over the idea of seven inning games, never mind that it makes a whole lot of sense (you know, like saving extra wear and tear on the arms of pitching staffs) given these extraordinary circumstances.   It will just be so much fun to watch the fulminations of the Purists.  It might be even more fun than the games themselves.

Oh, and here's another one floated by Jason Mackey in the PG this morning.  To avoid the possibility of, say, a 17 inning game on the night before a scheduled double header, MLB might consider beginning all extra innings with a runner on second base.  Personally, this is not a rule that I favor, but given a truncated schedule in a compressed timeframe, it might be something worth doing for this season only.  And if THAT does occur, people who still can't handle a Designated Hitter fifty years after the fact will probably just hurl themselves off of the highest bridges that they can find rather than see such an abomination.  The anguished posts and rants on social media platforms and sports talk radio will be positively delicious.

And let's not even begin to think about post season games being played in warm weather, neutral sites during Thanksgiving Week.  Hey, even I can only take so much change.

Anyway, it's good that MLB is even thinking about such contingencies in the hopes that some form of a baseball season can be played in 2020.  We can all only hope that it comes to pass.