Sports Then and Now

Crosstown rivalries like the White Sox and the Cubs won’t be the only imbalanced part of the 2013 MLB schedule.

The Balanced Schedule

The 2013 MLB season will be like none other in history. For the first time there will not be an even number of teams in each league. At least one inter-league series will take place all season long. All divisions will have teams playing inter-divisional rivals 19 games each.

There will be twenty inter-league games that will be divided rather unevenly by playing six teams; four teams three games each, and two teams four games each.

The sixty-six games remaining will be divided up with some teams six games (four teams) and others seven (six teams).

This 2013 schedule is not balanced at all.

If baseball is going to have twenty inter-league games, why don’t they divide up the games by playing one complete division four games each?

The first year the American League East would play the National League East, and the next NL Central, followed by NL West.

Every three years every team would play in every park.

The proper way to divide up twenty games is to play four games with five teams.

The 142 games that remain should be divided up with 72 divisional games, or 18 games each and 70 same league games would then be divided up seven games each.

Here is the complete balanced schedule for 2014.

72 Interdivisional – four teams 18 games each
70 same league- ten teams seven games each
20 interleague- one complete five team division four games each

Here is the unbalanced one MLB will use in 2013

76 Interdivisional – four teams 19 games each
66 same league- ten teams six teams seven games, four teams six games
20 interleague- six teams, four teams three games, two teams four games

If you compare the 2013 schedule to this 2014 model which one would you prefer to play?

Now if we could change the Wild Card one game playoff to a three game Wild Card Series, use instant replay, and get rid of the DH, baseball would be the perfect sport.

World Series TV Ratings

The 2012 World Series created a new low in the number of people that were watching.World Series TV Ratings show that 2012 World Series was the lowest rated in history as a mere 7.6 share or 12.6 million people watched the Tigers and Giants

The only good thing about it, was that it ended before Sandy arrived.

Could you imagine Game Five and Sandy hitting Manhattan at the same time?

The World Series rating are dropping because of these numbers 11:34, 11:12, 11:33, and 11:41.

Those are the times that each game ended in Eastern Daylight Time.

World Series TV Ratings show that 2012 World Series was the lowest rated in nearly 30 years.

Baseball will continue to have poor numbers when all the World Series games end past 11:00 for half the country

Another factor is the climate that the games are being played in. Those fans in Detroit were bundled up for winter, with a cold wind all game long.

Baseball would be better off playing all games in the sunlight, whenever the temperature at night is going to be lower than 45 degrees.

Game Three of the 2012 World Series drew a total of 10.8 million people watching.

The only game in the history of the World Series to draw less, was Game Three 2008, between Philadelphia and Tampa.

That game started late because of bad weather, 10:06 EDT, and ended at 1:47 in the morning.

World Series TV Ratings show that 2012 World Series was the lowest rated in television baseball history.

TV ratings for the World Series can’t get much worse than they are right now.

Why not just play them all during the day?

Fans will be warmer, and those watching at home will not fall asleep.

You can bet there will always be more people watching during the daytime, than they were for the last out of Game Three in 2008.