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I've ranted about this before, but I think it deserves a topic to itself: the current American League schedule is not fair to the Blue Jays.

There have been three major problems with this year's schedule:

1. Too many tough games early on
2. Poor holiday scheduling
3. Too many easy games in September

As we all remember, the Jays opened this season with April's Tough Twenty: they played Minnesota six times, Boston seven times, and the Yankees seven times. All three of these teams have gone on to the postseason. The Jays did about as well as could be expected in these 20 games, going 7-13.

It's all well and good to say that things eventually even out, but stacking the schedule hurt the Jays. On the field, the confidence of the Jays' younger players was affected by being beaten up regularly early in the season. And, off the field, casual fans would have taken a look at the standings and written off the club, which undoubtedly cost the club some badly-needed revenue.

Poor holiday scheduling is another problem, and one that is easy to fix. This year, the Jays played away on Victoria Day, away on Canada Day, away on the August Civic Holiday, and at home on Memorial Day. Why is that? That decision alone cost the Jays and/or SkyDome at least several hundred thousand dollars in revenue: for example, the Jays drew 37,354 for their June 29th date against Montreal, and only drew 15,448 in Detroit on July 1st. It would cost the other owners nothing to rearrange the schedule so that the Jays played at home on Canadian holidays - heck, to make it fair, the Jays could always be on the road on Labour Day. (They were at home on Labour Day this year.)

The final problem is the Jays' soft September schedule. Once the Yankees left town on September 4th, the Jays were scheduled to play nothing but cruddy teams the rest of the way (though they did play a makeup game with the Yanks on the 8th). And, sure enough, the Jays are 16-6 this month. But weak September opponents make it difficult for the Jays to use September callups to evaluate their minor-league talent. Virtually anybody can look good pitching against the Tigers or the Orioles, so J.P. Ricciardi can't really tell whether Josh Towers, for example, is going to be useful next year. Is Towers going to be a valuable rotation starter, or is he going to become the next Brandon Lyon? Your guess is as good as mine - and examining sabermetric indicators such as K/IP isn't useful, as these ratios will be better against bad teams.

To conclude: if I were a Jays front office executive, I would be lobbying the Powers That Be for a schedule overhaul. A revised schedule would benefit the Jays enormously, and would bring more revenue into baseball's coffers - which, as we all know, is the only reason baseball owners do anything.

(Aside: when I think of a baseball owner, I picture a desiccated old man spending his days sitting in a vault, sifting gold coins through his fingers and chuckling quietly to himself.)

Comments?
Somebody's got to do something about the schedule | 16 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
_A - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 02:30 PM EDT (#89638) #
A nice balance of the April/September games would be nice but if the Jays were in serious contention come September 1st we'd have started a party already because of the mediocraty consistantly shown by the same opponents you would prefer them not face in September. I'm not happy that we got thrown into the fire in April but the chance to balance that out was also there to take (and the collapse that took us out for good was the one in July).

I agree with you completely on the holiday scheduling, I remember going to those dates as a child and getting some great fireworks displays before/after the game. Good times.

FYI: That "August Civic Holiday" is Labour Day, which irks me because it is a totally arbitrary date that was picked up when a "smart" conservative politician (if I could recall the name I would) decided that having the workers of the world all getting the day off and enjoying solidarity marches simultaneously might produce too much in the way of worker morale and it could lead to *gasp* revolution. The real workers' day is May Day. Rant complete.
_A - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 02:34 PM EDT (#89639) #
It took 7 months for Da Box to reach 100,000 hits but it looks like it'll be 3 months to the date (June 25-September 25) to go from 100,000-200,000. Congrats Kent et al, let the countdown begin.
Dave Till - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 02:39 PM EDT (#89640) #
FYI: That "August Civic Holiday" is Labour Day

No, it isn't: the Civic Holiday is in August, and Labour Day is in September.

I seem to recall that the August holiday was formerly called Simcoe Day.
_Matthew Elmslie - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 02:45 PM EDT (#89641) #
It's only been called Simcoe Day in the last few years. I think.

The other thing about the holiday scheduling is that it'd also help the owners to have the Jays (and Expos) always playing on the road on American-only holidays. If July Fourth is on a Saturday, what good does it do Kansas City fans to have the Royals up in Toronto?
_A - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 03:16 PM EDT (#89642) #
haha, touche, point made and taken...same still applies to labour day, however.
_Ryan Day - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 03:29 PM EDT (#89643) #
I don't know if you could really say that the tough April schedule affected the Jays' confidence. They bounced back pretty well in May, after all. Only Phelps and Hinske were really slumping, and Hinske has the excuse of a broken hand. And of course, I don't think anyone would be complaining about a soft September schedule if the Jays were fighting for a playoff spot.

The one thing that really has to go is the interleague matchups. The Blue Jays play 6 against the Expos while the Yankees play 6 against the Mets; meanwhile, the White Sox may have only themselves to blame for missing the playoffs after playing 6 against the Cubs, while the Twins got to beat up on the Brewers. Admittedly, this is the owners shooting themselves in the foot, but it's still terrible for the fans.

There's just no reason for the Jays to be out of town on Canada Day, Victoria Day, Civic Holiday. IIRC, in 2002 the Jays played away on Canada Day and then at home on July 4th.
Joe - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 03:35 PM EDT (#89644) #
"Civic Holiday" has always been my favourite holiday. I usually read it as "Insert-holiday-here Holiday."
robertdudek - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 03:40 PM EDT (#89645) #
I think it affects fan perception, but beyond that the weak sked September/difficult April doesn't bother me too much.

As far as evaluating Towers based on weak competition, we could compare his performance against what the league did against Tampa/Balt/Detroit etc. and so on until we get a weighted average by innings pitched.
_jason - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 04:03 PM EDT (#89646) #
I'm with Mr. Day.
These interleague games are unjust. Almost every team could make a case that their schedule was more difficult and their competitions schedule was easier. It just aint right. Why this slould affect "the powers that be" is another matter of course.
Pistol - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 04:14 PM EDT (#89647) #
The early season schedule of the Jays didn't hurt them that much. They were on fire for a month or two shortly thereafter.

Who you play when is not an issue for me either.

However, an unbalanced schedule in a league with a wild card is unfair, and as already mentioned interleague matchups can cause further disparities in teams' schedules.
_perlhack - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 04:49 PM EDT (#89648) #
I won't say much about the unbalanced schedule, or interleague games etc. What bothers me most about the schedules is the laziness of those who create it. For example:

Week 1: @NYY, @BOS
Week 2: NYY, BOS

Now, I realize that the difficulty of creating schedules increases exponentially if you remove the above symmetry, but I find this symmetry rather annoying. There are more creative ways to schedule matchups so that you don't face the same opposition repeatedly.

And perhaps it would also resolve another problem; playing all games against one team early in the season (eg - BOS) and against another team later in the season (eg - BAL).

But I obviously lack the insight of MLB powers-that-be.
_Spicol - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 05:02 PM EDT (#89649) #
Well, I'm visitor 200,001. Who was the big number?
Craig B - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 05:09 PM EDT (#89650) #
Spicol, I got 199,997 and 200,003.
Named For Hank - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 06:00 PM EDT (#89651) #
Might've been me...I never check.

Momentary hijack: anyone coming to games tonight or tomorrow, drop me a line if you want to meet up.

As for the sked, I was annoyed as anything that the Jays skipped a bunch of Canuck holidays, but I don't imagine anyone at MLB even owns a calendar that lists Canuck holidays. Remember, we're a second rate nation.
_Elijah - Thursday, September 25 2003 @ 06:28 PM EDT (#89652) #
I don't like the interleague setup either. But there are teams that would rather have the local rivalry (well, there's Chicago and New York - I don't think anyone else really cares that much).

But if you're going to make it unfair, at least get away from the apparent arbitrariness of the interleague scheduling. They can have one series against the regional/local rival and then do the rest similar to what the NFL does for interconference scheduling - so the Yankees, as the AL East champ, would play the top four teams in the NL West (if that's what I hear is happening in 2004) and the D-Rays, can play the bottom four teams.

Or even better, forget the AL division against the same NL division and do something like the Yankees play the Braves and Giants next year and the D-Rays play the Padres and Reds or something. If the schedule is going to be unfair, let's go for parity! Hehe. Unfair? definitely.
_George Tsuji - Friday, September 26 2003 @ 02:46 PM EDT (#89653) #
Has anyone seen the 2004 Blue Jay schedule posted anywhere? I've heard reference made, on the broadcast, to the team opening 2004 against the Tigers.

Today's KC Star has the Royals' schedule for next year... surely the Jays' schedule can be made public somewhere, no?
Somebody's got to do something about the schedule | 16 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.