You Can’t Predict the Sports Weather

You Can’t Predict the Weather in sports they say.
So the Mets are gone, but it’s still snowing in Minnesota and Colorado. I guess it wasn’t the Mets making it snow after all! Couple that with the Yankees having two games rained out in Cleveland and you’ve got a pair of New York baseball teams unhappy about April weather. But the schedule-maker’s not to blame. Especially this year.

April weather is predictably unpredictable, which is why a lot of the criticism being directed towards MLB is unfair. (Does anyone else remember the “Snow Game” at Yankee Stadium in 1996?) One of the biggest issues Joe Girardi had with the rainouts in Cleveland was that it was the Yankees’ only trip in, so now they have to make a separate trip to Cleveland on a off day to play a doubleheader. But that just as easily could’ve happened in June. Or September. It can rain anytime. The fact that it can still snow in certain places in the country in April is irrelevant.

And the fact that it happened in April might actually be a bit of a blessing. They’ve got a whole season to make them up. If this was late August and they didn’t have a common off day, the games would likely either be scrapped entirely or made up at the end of the season, which no one wants.

Besides, the weather in April is similar to the weather in October in these cities. Nobody has a problem with it in October. In fact, they love it. It’s home field advantage. So, if it’s OK in October, why is it such an issue in April?

MLB’s new schedule format that went into effect this season was bound to have these sorts of problems. Now teams only visit their non-division teams once a season, while still playing three series at home and three series on the road against each of their four division opponents. Since each division has five teams, it’s not possible to do what the NFL does in Week 17 and have only division games. In fact, part of the point of moving the Astros to the American League was to have a 15-15 split, which means there needs to be one interleague series all the time. There’s no way around it.

With the schedule set up this way, weather issues were bound to be more of a problem than ever. But that doesn’t mean they have to start doing things differently. Even if they wanted to, they can’t. Besides, how fair would it be to all the cold-weather teams that they can’t play any home games in April? And I’m not just talking about the Rockies and Twins here. I’m talking about both Chicago teams. And Detroit. And Pittsburgh. And Boston. And Philadelphia. And both New York teams. You can’t make them all spend the entire month of April on the road.

I don’t entirely disagree with Girardi, though. I think most April and September series should be division matchups. That has nothing to do with weather. It’s because I think it’s completely ridiculous that the Yankees don’t play in Fenway Park until after the All-Star Break, even though they go there three times. Meanwhile, their first road trip of the year featured their only trips to Detroit and Cleveland. If you’re going to play 24 of your 52 series against the same four teams, they should be spread out a little better.

You still have to have your interdivision and interleague series every time, but you can limit those to two (maybe three) total per team in April and September. Again, that has nothing to do with the weather. I simply believe that you should begin and end the season against the teams you’ll be directly battling for a division title.

This could be the solution for teams like the Twins and Rockies, the ones that have been most impacted by the weather. Give them home division games in April. That way, it they have weather-related postponements, it’d be much easier to make up the games. Same thing goes for anyone else who might have issues with April weather. Meanwhile, you’ve got domes in Seattle, Milwaukee, Houston and a handful of other cities, plus warm-weather cities like Atlanta and San Diego and Los Angeles for the April interleague matchups.

I’m not saying this has to be a solution. (Again, I have no issues with the way the schedule is currently set up.) I’m just presenting it as an option. Here’s another: As a part of the new CBA, every team gets four days off for the All-Star Break instead of three. So why not use that Thursday, which is a common off day for everyone, as a designated make-up date? Obviously not all teams would need it, but it would be available to them should they want. That would also provide the added bonus of not losing an off day just to play a makeup game.

The MLB schedule is never going to be “perfect.” And the April weather in cold-weather cities with outdoor stadiums doesn’t help. But they play football in December in those same cities and nobody has a problem with it. That’s why April baseball in Minneapolis and Denver shouldn’t be an issue, either.

Check out more articles by Joe Brackets right here on askhoffa.com!