Baseball and the Winter That Won't End.....

It is now Baseball season. It's the annual Rite of Spring. That time when baseball signals the daffodils are blooming, the grass turns green, and the time to put away your winter clothes. But not this year. Baseball is being played. But winter won't go away.

It's not unusual to have a game or two played in harsh conditions at the start of the season. But usually there is a period of extended mild weather, sometimes even before the season starts. But not this year.

Let me be clear. Baseball is a summer game. It's made to be played, and watched, outside on a bright summer day. Many of the players come from Latin America where the tropical breezes last all year. All players have just spent 2 months in Florida or Arizona in spring training games. But then the teams travel north to the harsh weather. Yesterdays high temperature was 36 degrees. My team lost 1-0.

Indians Michael Brantley?

You can blame climate change or whatever you want for playing baseball in miserable weather. Fans pay the same prices that they will pay in July. The difference is that the team should pay you to be miserable for 3 hours watching the game. I'm going to blame something simple - greed.

Before 1961 the baseball season consisted of 154 games. Opening day in 1960 was April 19th. Then Major League Baseball expanded teams, and expanded the season to 162 games. That is how it remains to this day. A few years ago MLB expanded the playoff format. In order to avoid having these important playoff games played in the snow, the regular season was moved up and started earlier.

Does MLB really need 162 games to decide division champions. I think not. If 154 games was good enough for players like Ted Williams, I'm sure it would be good enough for the players of today. There's only one catch. Money.

Play Ball!

The owners don't want to give up the extra income from those 8 extra games. The players wouldn't want their salaries reduced by 5%. But there are ways around that. If ticket prices were raised by 5% the income would be about the same as a 162 game season. I don't think those freezing fans in early April would complain.

But MLB has so many additional streams of revenue now than they did in the past. I'm sure they want to maximize their revenue. But at the expense of freezing their ticket holders?

I woke up today to a fresh coating of snow. The high temperature will be 36 degrees. Game time is 1:10 pm. Tickets still available.