Chicago Cubs: The Major League Baseball schedule has to be fixed

Chicago Cubs: Adding extra off-days into the schedule

Before I go any further, I’d just like to get one point out of the way: we can’t control Mother Nature. I’m well aware of this, and I know rain happens. I know bad weather happens and it’s tough to deal with it. I don’t think MLB did a very good job this weekend, but I do acknowledge that they’re trying to do the best they can (I hope) for everyone to be safe, play competitive baseball, and most importantly for the teams, make money. The problem is, no one did any of those things on Sunday. So, the question has to be – how do we fix this? How can we fix this issue to benefit the players, fans, and owners?

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Here are some suggestions, not that anyone will be knocking down my door asking for my opinion:

Build in more off days throughout the season for increased flexibility. Duh.

Sure, we’ve done this, added them, and still have this issue. We’ve started earlier and we’ve ended later in various seasons, attempting to help this problem. We need to add some more. How do we accomplish this? Play more doubleheaders. I know the owners think this means lost revenue, but hear me out. You can play planned split doubleheaders on Saturdays from June to August, during what should be your best weather and biggest selling days.

Fans will still buy beer, because they don’t have to work tomorrow, and maybe even bring more kids (a supposed point of emphasis for MLB) for Saturday day games. You also always have Sunday as a backup in case of bad weather on Saturday, and then possibly even a scheduled off-day on Monday for extreme or dire weather situations.

While playing a doubleheader would be rough for the day, taxing everyday players and the bullpen alike, the players would have an extra scheduled off day either every week through the summer, or after every series in September, giving all the teams makeup options down the stretch.