Kevin Love narratives, kid stuff and more – WFNY Podcast – 2015-03-25
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March 25, 2015On a cold, damp and dreary evening in the middle of April, 2013, Terry Francona stood in front of a high-top table that was perched in the middle of the Cleveland Indians’ room to take in questions from the local contingent. His team was 3-5, having just dropped back-to-back games to the New York Yankees, and would have been staring down the barrel of a four-game sweep if not for Mother Nature intervening with a curveball of her own. The Tribe would be squaring off in a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox, signaling not just their first divisional series of what was his first season with the team, but its only divisional series until the team would travel to Chicago and Kansas City later in the month.
When I asked him of the next few days and what sort of impact they would have, and whether or not preparation was any different, Francona brushed off any inclination that this series, one that could ultimately play a larger role in the final standings, was any more important than any other. I can’t recall his exact words, but there was undoubtedly some “every game is important” coachspeak that focused on the marathon that is an MLB regular season. While schedule losses happen, bullpens collapse, and the dog days of summer provide those games that just get away, every game may in fact be important to Tito, but 2015 will present its own slate of challenges when it comes to the schedule and the potential for long-term consequence.
Where the Indians faced just 16 AL Central games through their first 40 in 2013, 2015 has seen that total balloon to 27.
A year later, the Tribe’s schedule saw the early portion of the schedule include 21 of their first 40 games being played against division rivals. After starting the season out in Oakland, the team sandwiched games against the Twins, White Sox, Royals and Detroit Tigers in between a weird interleague series against the San Diego Padres of all teams, and a trip west to play the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels. They won 19 of their first 40, setting the stage for what was largely a season that saw the team flutter around the .500 mark. The final 20 games were once again loaded with AL Central combatants (14 games), with the team winning—as you may have guessed—11 of them.
Fast forward to 2015 where hopes are high and awards are still being polished. Though the Indians open up the road in Houston against George Springer and the Astros, their next 17 games are a smattering of American League Central teams. Where the Indians faced just 16 AL Central games through their first 40 in 2013, 2015 has seen that total balloon to 27. From Opening Day until May 22, the Indians will have series against the ‘Stros, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers. Outside of those four lots, it’s All AL Central Everything. While the end of the season will still have it’s fair share of Central Division games, there are late-August games against the Milwaukee Brewers and Angels before wrapping the season up with three games against the Boston Red Sox.
Lets one think that this is an Indians-only phenomena, think again. While the Detroit Tigers are facing teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, Cardinals, and Brewers, early on, they too have an AL Central-heavy schedule through April and May. Same can be said for the Royals and Twins. The Chicago White Sox begin their season with the Royals and play their first 18 games against the Central. Perhaps the league is taking a page out of the NFL’s book by having more interesting, rivalry-type games early on instead of just during the season’s close. For those who can’t wait to watch the league promote the Yankees and Red Sox, you’ll get your taste during the first week of the season. A subway series against the Mets and then another series against the Red Sox will be in the books before the fourth of May!
The first few weeks of the MLB season will be like one giant Battle Royal—will it be one where one team rises to the top, or will the stretch end with all five teams pummeling each other into the land of mediocrity before they set off to face the rest of the league? If the Indians wish to make things less stressful during those west coast swings and random home-and-home interleague matchups against the Chicago Cubs, they would be wise to treat those cold, damp, and dreary early April games with additional importance. It may sting for a bit when the ball comes off of that cold bat, but coming out of the first 40 games with a solid record to show would serve to provide a huge tailwind into the summer—just in time for the Cavaliers and the NBA playoffs to hand off the baton. It may just require someone outside of Nick Swisher coming through with the heroics.
13 Comments
heroics from someone other than this guy too…
https://38.media.tumblr.com/f39687eb46ce9772dfbab33e9a39e86b/tumblr_mqr8w48vD21rreivlo1_400.gif
Seriously no arguments can be made against loading the front of your schedule against your own division.
Off the bat (see what i did there) excitement is severely needed for MLB.
Love that pic of Carlos, and remembering his wacky high helmet toss as he approached home plate after last year’s walk-off. Reminds me of Victor Martinez, juxtaposing in-game stoicism with end game little boy joy.
Ok, so expectations AND early pressure to succeed? This will most definitely end well.
http://images.buddytv.com/articles/frownyface.gif
Don’t we already overreact to the early schedule though? I’d rather see more games against your division later in the season, to give that team hovering around .500 a chance to make a run at it.
Depends on who your definition of “we” is.
For the casual fan April, May and even June are continuations of Spring Training and August, September are Football Season.
MLB loses out it’s viewership share to the NBA playoffs during the spring months and then is up against NFL Training Camp by August.
It needs to capture attention right away with that group. If a mid-low market team such as the Indians come out of the gate firing and can make a significant dent in the division it carries them through the all-star break.
Then as you said there needs to be that steady dose of division games at the end to heat up the pennant races.
So I guess the answer is to front and back end load the schedule.
Let inter-league play ruin July while everyone is at the beach anyways.
I’ll look for tv ratings by month, but through July last year, MLB was killing it on TV:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2014/08/05/mlb-telecasts-on-regional-sports-networks-dominate-prime-time-television/
And April 2014 was the highest watched month in MLB Network’s history:
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/mbpt-spotlight-mlb-network-s-sixth-year-charm-viewership-across-board/131201
I’d guess that MLB does capture people’s attention early in the season. I think the biggest trick to keeping viewers is to give them the belief that their team still had a chance to make the postseason. Backloading the schedule seems like a good way to help that out.
No month or game is meaningless unless you have the playoffs locked up, or you are mathematically eliminated
Isn’t this what teams wanted. so in case of rain outs they can make the games up easier later in the season.
This. I think the fact that we will see all these teams plenty of times later in the season is a big part of the scheduling logic. No random trip for the Diamondbacks into Cleveland late in the season because some May interleague game got rained out.
I believe it was the great Casey Coleman (who may have been quoting someone else) who said “You don’t win championships in April, but you sure can lose them.”
The ratings by market would be the thing to look up in my opinion.
I know the Indians are grabbing their fare share of the TV market for sure the last few years but there are factors to that; Cavs not in postseason, weather, etc.
Haven’t been able to find any ratings broken down by month, but, yeah, that’s the most interesting data point here I think.
And it will be very interesting to see how this team does when the Cavs get in the playoffs. I think there’s enough excitement building now to sustain some enthusiasm.