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

This weekend’s Chicago Cubs-Washington Nationals debacle is just the latest evidence that MLB needs to make critical, badly-needed changes to the schedule.

In the midst of another great Chicago Cubs season with the hopes of October dancing in my head, my soul was crushed this weekend. (okay, so Kyle Fuller’s butterfingers didn’t help either) Not only did we get “meatloafed” in the three games we actually were able to play in our nation’s capitol, but the team was forced to endure hours upon hours of delays and postponements. Of course, eventually that culminated with Sunday’s non-game debacle.

While I could go on and on about the way MLB and the Nationals handled the awful weather this weekend (and maybe even the Cubs’ player reps as well), I think it’s time to take a look at the bigger picture in terms of scheduling and policies regarding rainouts dictated by the league and player’s association. Because, frankly, they don’t work. For anyone. So, we need to get to the root of the problem and propose some fixes.

Let’s just ask this question and go from there: Did anyone leave Nationals Park happy on Sunday?

The answer, of course, is no.

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.

Chicago Cubs: Safeguarding potential issues with doubleheaders

One way to ameliorate issues with doubleheaders and players is to extend the roster to 26 or 27 active players all the time. Sure, this would give every manager an extra LOOGY and/or bench guy to slow things down some nights, but the MLBPA would surely like the idea of adding an extra 30 to 60 active MLB members. The teams and staff would certainly like the idea of having flexibility while retaining or even expanding their current revenue stream.

Another option is one my brother had which plays off the weekend doubleheader but goes a bit further to appease the league and their ventures: have a planned doubleheader on a weekday, making that day game the MLB Game of the Day on MLB.TV.

You could market the game as a “Kid’s Day,” “Women’s Day,” “Charity Day,” “Jayson Werth Day,” (gross) etc. and rotate the game through every team on different weekdays throughout the season. It would be fair, would give different team’s exposure for free out of market games on TV, and would again look to showcase the game for kids or other groups, something the MLB has sorely needed and wanted for a decade now. That team would then play a regularly scheduled night game that would be split from the day game so as to keep the ownership of each team happy. Teams could even make these weekday/weekend doubleheader days a big giveaway day or market for specific causes to attract more/different fans.

Or on the day portion of these split doubleheader days, each team could give away or reduce the price on 10,000 tickets to children under 12 and the league could subsidize each team from the added TV revenue they’d make showcasing these games every day. Or even add this featured day game to an ESPN/TBS/Fox contract) The kids would be buying food, merchandise and become lifelong fans – a long-term investment over a today’s bottom line, if you will.

Chicago Cubs: Not a fan of twin bills? Let’s shorten the season

The ultimate goal with these doubleheaders throughout the season would, of course, be to give teams more flexibility to officially postpone these debacles like Sunday earlier, in essence giving teams the ability to travel home or to their next destination with a full off day.

Sure, you might still have some weather issues, but the hope is that you alleviate some of the waiting, guessing, and frustration felt by everyone when you have a weekend like this one.

If you don’t like the doubleheader idea as a fan, player, or ownership, there are a couple other options out there for you. You just may not like them a whole lot and they might take a while to implement.

MLB could shorten the season. They could play 154 or 150 games, giving an extra eight to 12 off days throughout the season or finagling the start/end dates to ensure we aren’t playing in snow! That’s not a popular option with purists, but baseball has not always had 162 games and it was still a great game. Owners certainly won’t like that because it’s four to six fewer games to generate revenue. That would trickle down to staff and players as well if revenue is lost.