I was just wondering Why we play 5 Games in 9 days. The game they put in for this Saturday was on the bottom of Schedule TBA. You should have pick a better week to put this game, not in a week we already play 3 games. I know Sunday was a make-up, if it was because of field time I told the league I could get a field for make ups. I can see 2 games a week three for rainouts but 5 in 9 days is alittle to much.
The season started for the Pirates on May 1st. Forty-four days later we've played a total of six games. Now we've got four in six days! It's not ideal. However, as a team we CHOSE to schedule a makeup game for this Sunday -- the league didn't do that to us. Otherwise it would have been just three games in six days, and to me that's a welcome prospect. Still, from the outset we were scheduled for one game a week for four consecutive weeks. We had a rainout last week (on the 5th) and haven't played in fifteen days; tonight we face the meat-grinder that is the Orioles and it's not like we're on top of our game. Maybe they'll go easy on us.
There are no easy answers.
Part of the problem is field availability in the early part of the season. Another aspect is the difficulty in scheduling makeups when so many guys play in multiple divisions. That said, it is important to make up games as soon as possible, or else teams face a backlog at the end of the season when we usually find these compacted schedules. Often teams lose games entirely, and that sucks.
One thing we could look into is our schedule at Elm Avenue in Bethlehem. For years we've contracted two days a week, every week, right through the season. Perhaps we could try to adjust it differently, with three games a week during the first six weeks of the schedule, then tapering off when other fields become more readily available (after June 20th or so).
Another thing is that every year the teams are polled and always vote against scheduling any weekend games. Maybe this needs to be revisited for the early weeks. More Sunday night or weekend games. While for some teams that might be an impossibility due to players in the 28-up division, for other teams it's a viable option.
Again, I'm grateful to Kevin Jackson and the board members for doing so much work behind-the-scenes to make this league possible. This isn't a knock on anybody. Making the schedulie is a thankless task. I hope it's understood that the spirit of this post is to help sort out possible solutions, not to blame and complain. It just feels like we may have missed an opportunity these past six weeks, during a stretch of relatively fantastic weather.
That said: I'm thrilled to be playing four games in six days.
I just wish they'd get the hellout of the league, so we could go back to playing baseball.
Jonny Martin ( no soccer in this family)
Nice. Real nice. Perhaps people who feel this way should "get the hellout of the league."
Personally, I voted for the shorter schedule because the notion of a 20 game schedule lasting 5 months seems incomprehensible to me. Why shouldn't the league do its best to make sure the finals are played before Thanksgiving? The season opens in late April and lasts until early October and (if you're lucky enough to get to the championship) you play less than 30 games.
My feelings have nothing to do with getting permission from my wife and certainly has nothing to do with football. It has to do with a belief that baseball is a sport that needs to be played more than once a week (or once every two weeks since we get Mother's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Arbor Day, Flag Day, Bastille Day, D-Day, May Day and Groundhog Day off when nobody can be bothered to show up).
I'll admit that 5 games in 9 days is steep for a league where some of the best teams often have but only 2 starting pitchers who can last long enough to play a game. But the original poster did say that 1 of the 5 was a rain-out make-up game and another was originally a TBD. Granted, perhaps the TBD game could've been scheduled differently, but the folks who schedule these games do the best they can with what they have.
The league should do it's best to schedule the games for each division independently. Those players who play in ALL 3 DIVISIONS should make a choice which games they will play in and on which team. The league should not be responsible for catering to the players who play in multiple divisions, it's the players' responsibility to make the scheduled games. Every once in a while things gets dicey; players only show up here when the little problems arise and complain.
