Alleviating Any "Scheduling Conflicts" for International Play in the Future

[Rice Cube]

There have been complaints about MLB international series being too disruptive or unusual, in a way that affects play in games that matter. What solutions can we come up with to reduce these objections?

Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The Tokyo Series is in the books, with the Cubs doing their best to be competitive but ultimately unable to overcome the reigning World Series champions—who appeared to be favored by the crowd in Japan, despite these technically being Cubs home games. It's still only two games, with 160 remaining once they're back in the U.S., but I do like that everyone seemed to have a great time, Matt Shaw got his first taste of being a major-leaguer, and nobody got maimed in the field. 

In my travels around the Cubs blogosphere, it seems that the common complaints are that:

1. The games are on at a time that is not very conducive to our sleep and work or school schedules;
2. These games are "fake" because they require faster preparation due to the scheduling, which makes it more difficult to get as ready as you might for a more "regular" Opening Day in multiple ways: hitters not having their timing completely tuned in, pitchers not being completely stretched out, and so on.

To the first point, I would say that these games aren't for us Americans (or Canadians, or other North/South Americans), but for the local fans who are being directly served by seeing Major League Baseball in their backyards. I would say that the games aren't "fake" because they would be managed differently than later in the season, since (in many instances) managers in today's game would want to slow-roll their pitchers, anyway—to start the season slowly and pace them so they can survive the marathon of 162 games. That said, it is true that the week of travel, exhibitions, and actual games before returning to readjust to U.S. time zones and trying to maintain the state of readiness while awaiting the "true" Opening Day is objectively disruptive, and perhaps something can be done to level the playing field.

We already discussed the importance of routine for baseball players, and if we assume that MLB can find economically viable locales, then perhaps there are solutions we can consider to level the playing field so it's not just two teams getting their bodies pressed through the wringer for a global exhibition series, whether or not the games matter in the standings.

Everyone Takes a Field Trip
Taking into account that the Cubs have lost two home games (although they'll be repaid the lost revenue from those contests) and that they and the Dodgers are going to be the only two teams to get disrupted this season, it does seem a tad unfair that the rest of the league doesn't have to deal with this quirk in the schedule. So the primary proposal here is that all 30 teams (or 32, when they finally expand in a decade or so) participate in MLB Global. I think the 162-game schedule can accommodate every pairing to do a home-and-home series in a non-US/Canada locale, such that each team only loses one home date, and they can plug the remainder of their annual matchups into the rest of the schedule. I guess if they prefer to do all games in a series as the primary home team, you can do a couple of two-game series throughout the year, which leads us to...

When Can We Fit It In?
Because we aren't doing phrasing anymore, the other challenge is making sure the travel and adjustment periods are built into the schedule—which is also disruptive to club revenue streams, in a way, since you basically have to shut down play for a few days surrounding the global series. Since we already established above that everyone shuts down at the same time, that isn't really a consideration. You just have to find a way to not start the season too early or end it too late, when more extreme fall/winter weather would affect play and player comfort.

A Modest Proposal
Since everyone thinks spring training goes on a bit too long anyway, it makes some sense to keep the global series at its regularly scheduled days in mid-March. If full squads have already reported by Valentine's Day, after most players have already been doing their offseason work for at least a month or so, that gives you a full month to prepare rosters for that first group of 31 players (as the Dodgers and Cubs did this year_ and then another week to trim down to the final group of 26. It's like September call-ups, but in March. I think that might be agreeable, although Arizona- and Florida-based businesses would have to prepare differently to try to max out their intake from the new schedule. So I'd keep a two-game series at this same spot in the year.

The final two-game series would need to fit elsewhere in the schedule that does not impact preparations for postseason-bound teams. For that, I have a set of ideas that could affect the All-Star Game...

Track One: Global Series 2 Adjacent to the All-Star Break
In this proposal, the clubs take approximately 10-14 days off, and the All-Star Game happens just after the globetrotting and games. Unlike in the spring, teams can't play a set of exhibitions against teams in the host countries, but they should be able to accommodate the day of travel, some adjustment time, the two games, and then travel home. The idea behind this is that the players would then slide into the traditional All-Star break, where they hold the Home Run Derby just a day later, then the All-Star Game itself after that, when everyone's had a chance to readjust to being back in the States. There are usually two or three days after that to further recover before the regular season resumes.

Track Two: All-Star Game Becomes Like the Pro Bowl
In this case, the midsummer All-Star Break is ceded to MLB Global, where you get the same time off (with maybe one or two adjustment days to buffer it) but now the All-Star Game is at the end of the season. Based on what I understand of the Pro Bowl in the NFL, they schedule the game in the bye week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, and only players who aren't playing in the Super Bowl are playing their version of the All-Star Game. In this scenario, MLB would have to adjust the earlier playoff rounds, up to the League Championship Series, a bit earlier to accommodate this new All-Star break, which you assume would also have the Home Run Derby, Futures Game, and so forth. Fans can vote for full-season All-Stars at the end of the regular season, giving the league at least two weeks to tabulate all the votes before assigning All-Stars and alternates. The new All-Star break also gives a buffer of at least three or four days for the two World Series participants to rest and reset their rotations. I feel like this could work. Besides, tons of players already beg out of participating in the All-Star Game, can't play because they pitched on Sunday, and so on, so I don't think this will matter too much in the long run.

If spring training technically ends early anyway (no matter where they're sticking the All-Star break), the season can start earlier, they can figure out how to start as many series as possible in domes to reduce rainouts, and start the postseason early enough to make sure the World Series doesn't leak into Thanksgiving. I have other thoughts about adjusting the postseason, but I'll save that for another day.

I recognize that there are multiple hurdles to making any of this happen, but I also think my proposal is way more practical than eating the young. As the modern world becomes more connected, this is the logical next step in globalizing the MLB brand. Since we have a few days to kill until the Cubs resume Cactus League play, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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