MLB Scheduling

[dalgreen]

Does MLB do the scheduling of games or have they hired a company to do it for them? I've looked at schedules of several teams and it just makes little sense, and it's made little sense to me for the last few years. Is it really necessary that the Cubs have three off days in the first week of the season? Is it really necessary for them to come off of the All-Star break then play a weekend series only to have the Monday after off? Seems to me the MLBPA would be scoffing at the number of 18-21 consecutive days they have to play partially due to poor scheduling. It's just hard for me to believe that inter-league games (which, to me, have run their course) and the unbalanced schedule are the root causes. I'm just curious who does the schedules.

[CheeseHead Cubs Fan]

Does MLB do the scheduling of games or have they hired a company to do it for them? I've looked at schedules of several teams and it just makes little sense, and it's made little sense to me for the last few years. Is it really necessary that the Cubs have three off days in the first week of the season? Is it really necessary for them to come off of the All-Star break then play a weekend series only to have the Monday after off? Seems to me the MLBPA would be scoffing at the number of 18-21 consecutive days they have to play partially due to poor scheduling. It's just hard for me to believe that inter-league games (which, to me, have run their course) and the unbalanced schedule are the root causes. I'm just curious who does the schedules.

 

I think a couple did them awhile back, honestly I thought I read some mom and pop orginazation created them.

[Jon]

A couple used to do them, but this is the second or third year that a company is doing it for MLB. I think it coincided with the switch to the unbalanced schedule, but I'm not positive.

 

EDIT: Kinda right. It's only been one year. From December 1st, 2004:

ESPN.com[/url]"]PITTSBURGH -- One of baseball's longest streaks comes to an end in January when next season's schedule for all 30 major league teams is released.

 

A small company outside Pittsburgh, the Sports Scheduling Group, has been selected by Major League Baseball to draw up the 2005 schedule, unseating the husband-and-wife team of Henry and Holly Stephenson, who have been doing it for 24 years.

 

Each year, Major League Baseball accepts competing scheduling proposals from outside groups. The Sports Scheduling Group won the contract in part because it did a better job of avoiding "semi-repeaters," in which the same teams play in back-to-back series at home and then away, said Katy Feeney, MLB senior vice president of scheduling.

 

Baseball has been outsourcing the job for decades.

 

Harry Simmons, who at one time worked in the commissioner's office, used to make the schedules each year, mostly by hand. It became such an extensive task that Simmons eventually left the office and devoted himself almost entirely to scheduling.

[dalgreen]

Thanks for the info.