The 2009 World Series: Frost on the Baseball?
For the First Time, MLB's Championship Series May Last Into November
Oct 28, 2009
New Era, the official manufacturer of Major League Baseball headgear, is stocking three extra types of cold-weather caps for participants in the 2009 Fall Classic.
There's the regular baseball cap with a sewn-in downflap, which some players have dubbed the "Elmer Fudd" for its resemblance to the hunter's hat preferred by Bugs Bunny's mortal foe; a knit cap (in case the players might want to go skiing after games), and a balaclava, a ski mask that leaves only the eyes or face uncovered, a garment previously reserved for race car drivers and pro wrestling villains.
It's possible the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees may use every variety of headwear before a a victor is decided in their best-of-seven clash beginning Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, in palatial new Yankee Stadium. In the storied history of Major League Baseball (MLB), no Game One of the World Series ever has been played this late in the year.
Bone-chilling nights and the threat of miserable weather are virtually a certainty for every game in the 2009 Series, which will be concentrated along the Eastern Seaboard. Game One began with temperatures in the low 50s in the Bronx, N.Y., but under a steady rain shower. If the Series goes the full seven games, Game Seven won't be played until Thursday, Nov. 5.
Fall "Classic," indeed.
Moving World Series Games Earlier Not As Easy As It Seems
Since the end of the regular season Oct. 4, both the American and National Leagues have staged two best-of-five Division Series and one best-of-seven League Championship Series (LCS) to determine their World Series representatives. Although three of the five division playoffs ended in three-game sweeps, MLB has to account for the possibility that every series might go the full five games.
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and other baseball officials repeatedly have said they do not like playing championship games in November. However, unlike the regular season, where teams play virtually every day with limited days off, the LCS, which began Oct. 15-16, allowed 13 days to play a maximum of seven games in each league. The Phillies had a full week off in late October to prepare for the World Series after clinching the NL pennant Oct. 21.
Why so many days to play so few games? There are travel days built into the schedule, but the main reason may be the FOX and TBS television networks, which pay millions to MLB for broadcast rights to the contests and have considerable influence on when they will be played to provide the most competitive ratings advantage.
FOX, Calendar Played Roles in 2009 World Series Schedule
For example, FOX and MLB want to avoid playing World Series games on Fridays and minimize the number of games on Saturdays in hopes of generating the highest ratings possible. After the 2006 St. Louis-Detroit World Series, a low-rated affair that ended on a Friday due to a rainout, baseball built a few extra days into the first two playoff rounds to ensure Game One of the World Series will begin on a Wednesday.
There were other, unusual factors at play this season as well. For instance:
• The calendar. Except for the now-traditional Sunday night opener, the MLB schedule always begins on a Monday. The first Monday of April in 2009 didn't fall until the 6th. Teams don't want to start the season with a weekend series because most draw well on weekends already. Opening on Mondays allows teams to sell out an early spring weekday game that otherwise would be a tough sell.
• The World Baseball Classic. The international tournament was held in March of this year, and the players wanted two weeks of spring training after the event to get ready for their professional teams. Moving the Classic later would have delayed the start of the regular season, and the players would not have been prepared to play had the tournament began sooner.
No Simple Solution In Sight
The idea of shortening the regular season from its present 162 games will never happen, because teams will not give away moneymaking home dates. The oft-mentioned suggestion of starting the regular season in March and playing early games only in domes and warm-weather cities is equally unrealistic: having both teams in New York and Chicago on the road early would cause scheduling nightmares later in the season, and the warm-weather cities conceivably could lose revenue by not having more home dates in the "baseball season" of summer.
Long before the division series layer of games was added in 1995, baseball always has been faced with postseason weather problems. The first game of the 1979 World Series was snowed out in Baltimore, and six straight days of rain delayed Game 4 of the 1911 World Series between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia A's. Just last Oct. 27, 2008, Game 5 of the World Series was suspended two days because of heavy rains in Philadelphia.
Baseball will be forever subject to the weather, but obviously the later in the year World Series games are played, particularly in the East Coast, the greater the likelihood of inclement conditions. And since there seems to be no simple way to begin the regular season earlier or radically tighten the networks' broadcast schedules in postseason, everybody better keep those "Elmer Fudd" caps handy.
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