As snow flurries swirl around PNC Ballpark with the St. Louis Cardinals preparing to face the Pittsburgh Pirates on Opening Day, it begs the question–why is baseball being played here this early in the season?
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Better yet, with the abundance of warm weather climates and stadiums with retractable roofing–why is any team playing in cold weather to start the season?
Simple answer–there’s not enough teams in warm climates or with covered stadiums to accommodate a full schedule of games. Only 13 of the 30 teams play in such facilities or regions where warmer temperatures are the norm for this time of year. Four teams literally will be left out in the cold.
And so while the Cardinals and Pirates go head-to-head under sunny skies with an expected high of 45-degrees, the Cubs will be in Los Angeles to take on the Angels with a forecast of 80-degrees.
The Twins will be in Baltimore expecting a balmy 54-degrees and the Red Sox are at the Indians where it could reach 47-degrees.
To their credit, Major League Baseball almost got it right this year as Tampa, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Texas, Atlanta, San Diego, Arizona, Miami, and Oakland are all hosting series.
That said, Toronto–which plays in the Rogers Centre which has a retractable roof, is at Tampa. And the Yankees are hosting Houston, which again wastes a covered stadium. The Dodgers at the Padres is another series that could’ve been split to allow for warmer weather for two additional teams.
MLB and teams balk at overloading the beginning of the schedule to account for possible weather conditions. School still being in session and other attendance issues are usually cited as the main reason. So teams bundle up and play. Last year it was 44-degrees as the Cardinals opened the season in Chicago.
But perhaps as the new collective bargaining agreement is negotiated and talks of shortened season could come up, perhaps a later start could be part of that. The return of some double-headers would also help alleviate some traffic in the middle of the season to help shore up an earlier finish so there won’t be the situation of the World Series being played in November.
In the meantime, put on your gloves–and coats. It’s time for baseball.
photo credit: Ron Chenoy, Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports
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