This news won't get much love from the "Baseball was so much better when I was a kid!" crowd, epitomized most recently by Nick Cafardo. But should we be anything but thrilled to learn that Major League Baseball will start every game on the regular season's last day at exactly the same time?
"If a game impacts another game, they're all occurring at the same time, so no team would be put into a lame-duck situation because their fate already had been decided by an earlier result," said Tony Petitti, MLB chief operating officer.
"If we do have games coming down to the wire, we want to make sure we maximize that day."
The schedule calls for all games on Oct. 4 to start at noon Pacific time (2 p.m. Central, 3 p.m. Eastern).
--snip--
The impact could extend beyond the teams directly competing for a playoff berth. When the Pittsburgh Pirates lost on the final day of last season, the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League Central. The Cardinals promptly scratched ace Adam Wainwright, who had been warming up in the bullpen for a game in Arizona, and saved him for Game 1 of the division series against the Dodgers.
Which is to say, the conventional staggered schedule hurt the Dodgers, who did have to face Wainwright in Game 1.
Rather, it might have hurt the Dodgers. But didn't really, as Wainwright didn't survive the fifth inning. The Dodgers did lose that game, but not because of Wainwright.
One can't really worry much about what happens in the postseason. Because you never know. What's important here is the integrity of the regular season, and the fans' enjoyment of said regular season (or what's still officially called the championship season).
The best thing in all of baseball is a pennant or wild-card race that goes down to the wire. Which is why this is tremendous news. Nice job, MLB.
