KANSAS CITY, MO. — Change arrives at a glacial pace in baseball, so I’m not holding my breath for a quick solution to one of the game’s most critical problems.
Still, I’m going to vent.
The World Series began Tuesday night in the chilly rain at Kauffman Stadium. Should the series between the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals go seven games, the series would be scheduled to end Nov. 4, which would match 2009 for the latest date a World Series game has been played.
The NBA season opened Tuesday night, just as baseball’s Fall Classic was getting started.
Ridiculous.
Even former commissioner Bud Selig understands the hazard. At the 2014 All-Star Game, Selig was asked whether the wild-card round could be expanded to a best-of-three series.
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“We start running into November, and you are asking for trouble,” Selig said.
Amen.
For the record, since 1990, the coldest temperature at the start of a postseason game was 35 degrees, when the Rockies hosted the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of a 2009 National League division series. But it’s not just the chance of terrible weather that is concerning. Major League Baseball, always concerned about TV ratings and its image, struggles for the spotlight when its showcase event competes for attention in dreary weather going head to head against the NBA, NHL, the meat of the college football season and the omnipotent NFL.
Plain and simple, the season is too long. Players report to spring training in mid-February, and the regular season runs into October, pushing the postseason to November.
The solution is to revert from a 162-game schedule to a 154-game season, throw in a few scheduled doubleheaders, begin the season in late March and have the World Series end no later than mid-October.
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It has been discussed.
During this year’s All-Star Game in Cincinnati, new commissioner Rob Manfred and Tony Clark, director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said a 154-game schedule would be a topic of negotiations for the next collective bargaining agreement, which expires in December 2016.
“In looking back from the time I played to now that I’m watching what these guys are doing, I don’t know how they do it,” Clark said. “What these guys are being asked to do with respect to games’ start times, with respect to the travel distances themselves, with respect to performing at an elite level with three days off a month, is a challenge.
“I think that’s why as we continue to move forward here, and guys continue to be asked to do more and more, it’s something that we have to look at.”
There is, of course, an overriding issue. It’s spelled m-o-n-e-y.
Reducing the season by eight games means dollars lost at the gate and via TV revenue. A USA Today story this summer estimated that clubs could lose 5 percent of their revenue by cutting the schedule eight games. Owners are going to resist changing to a shortened season.
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Some would argue that a 154-game season would skew baseball’s precious records. But remember, the American League switched from 154 to 162 games in 1961, and the game survived. Plus, the steroid era has already scrambled the stats for all time.
Since teams have already tied up ticket deals, sponsorships and TV deals years into the future, I doubt such a seismic change will come within the next five years.
But, for the good of the players and fans — for the love of the game — change needs to happen.
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@ or @psaundersdp
