Some Common Sense...Please?

     This week I thought I would write about the MLB scheduling nightmare created by this Spring's unusually harsh start.  ESPN covered that in a piece which noted the pros and cons of a 162 game format or returning to a 154 game schedule.

     The bottom line drives both the MLBPA and the owners. The players also want more time to rest their weary bodies. There may be additional playoffs heading our way, further complicating the problems inherent within a 162 game schedule which now begins in late March and concludes with a World Series that ends in November--many times with frigid temperatures for those night games in cold weather cities.

     Being the wuss that I have become with my advancing age, I try to limit how many cold weather football games I attend. I don't like to go to NFL games after mid-November, as the ritual of wearing thermals and layers and heating pads all over is more than I want to bear when I am locked into the Lehigh-Lafayette game the weekend before Thanksgiving. Sometimes I am invited to a late season Rutgers game, which also involves wearing the entire repertoire of clothing and devices to ward off the chill (which is only somewhat effective at best).

     The Jets schedule came out this week. Of course, there are a number of November and December games, many involving good teams like the Patriots, Texans and Packers. The Texans game is either going to start at 4:30 or 8:20 on Saturday, December 15, to accommodate network TV and the playoff chase. That sounds very frigid to me.

     I have scarring memories of a cold, windy day at RFK Stadium in 1971 when I was given a free ticket to the Philadelphia Eagles-Washington Redskins game. That was when I painfully learned about wearing layers and thermals. A few years later, I sat through a Dallas Cowboys-Jets game at Shea Stadium where the fierce wind coming off of Flushing Bay whipped up the hot dog wrappers and other debris into a mini-tornadic frenzy. It was unbearable. Yet the worst game was a Rams-Jets game at the Meadowlands with a stiff wind and temperatures hovering in the teens. I don't think I  ever recovered from that misadventure, no matter how many layers and heating pads I used.

     The Jets, Giants and Sheldon Silver did me no favors in reducing cold weather games. Silver, now imprisoned for his outright greed while a powerful New York politician, nixed a beautiful retractable roof West Side stadium which the Jets would have been primary tenants, because he could not make enough illegal gains from the project. The Giants, more than the Jets, could not agree on a roof for Met Life Stadium, citing the competitive advantage in a cold weather ballpark. Which is no big deal to intoxicated fans who feel no pain with the cold, but reduces me to a TV spectator.

     Moreover, there is the threat of a cold rain, or worse, freezing rain or snow. Try sitting through 3 plus hours in those conditions. I have been lucky enough to have escaped most of the rotten weather. But not the cold.

     Not that the Jets make the playoffs very much, but the prospect of a home January playoff game sends chills throughout my body now--sitting in a heated home on a mid-Spring morning. In my now 42 year history with the franchise, the team has not hosted an AFC Championship game. As much as I would like to add that to my resume, the prospect of spending top dollar for a late January contest is less than enthralling.

     I harken back to a game that San Diego and Cincinnati played in the old Riverfront Stadium were the wind chill was near minus 50 degrees. Why, now in my later years, would I want to subject myself to frostbite if similar conditions were to happen in New Jersey? My loyalty and rabid level of fan worship only goes so far.

     The NFL was lucky with its only cold weather Super Bowl at Met Life Stadium in February. The next day, it snowed heavily. I have seen treacherous conditions evolve in Philadelphia, Atlanta and Dallas, the latter two being warmer weather sites with domed stadiums, because the fans had tremendous difficulties reaching the parking lots and entering the arena.

     Football is a cold weather sport even if the season begins right after Labor Day. It is expected that cold temperatures and precipitation are the norm as the games head into winter. Expanding the season to 16 games doesn't help either, bringing about more untenable contests in January.

     I am not saying I wouldn't go to a late season football game. But there would be a lot of trepidation and checking and re-checking The Weather Channel forecasts and comparing them to the local TV meteorologists. Plus some good old praying that the conditions break right for the game.  Simply put, it would have to be an important game with the most favorable weather given the time of year. Otherwise, I'm not inclined to go. Somebody else can have my ticket.

     Which brings me back to baseball. I realize that there are contractual obligations which extended the season to a 187 day span.

     However, that does not preclude the parties from being creative. There are enough warmer cites and enclosed parks which can be utilized to reduce the number of cold and snowy postponements we have seen thus far this season. Recently, there was a day which had 6 games not played due to inclement weather.

     Put the cold weather teams on the road for the first 9 games--so what if the Mets and Yankees have games played simultaneously a few more times during the course of the rest of the year--they have different fan bases. For instance, Boston and New York could start out with a West Coast swing--the competitive advantage would not be diminished. Both could play some games in St. Petersburg and Toronto, where there are domes. Divisional rivals could have doubleheaders, so that if there is a mid-April game that falls to the weather, there is a greater chance that an off day in that time frame might avoid the use of a necessary off day in September to make it up. More inter-league games could also help, if held in places like Anaheim, San Diego or Arlington, Texas.

     The past 2 years, I have gone to April games in Phoenix and Miami, places with domed stadiums. While the weather was warm in both cities, they had the ability to play the games if bad weather threatened. I would not venture to Yankee Stadium in April or early May unless it was a Senior Citizen Day afternoon contest with temperatures above 70 degrees.

     I begrudgingly freeze my body for a couple of times a year. There is no necessity to see the Yankees when it is cold outside. I look at the number of empty seats at Yankee Stadium to confirm my belief that a lot of other people share my sentiments about cold weather games.

     F&M played at Drew on Thursday. The open playing area in Madison was a perfect place for a howling wind to significantly drop the temperatures after some intermittent showers. Those in attendance were dressed like it was an Arctic expedition. I lasted one whole inning. I immediately had thoughts of those games I froze while playing for F&M in the late '60's.

     My mind then wandered to warmer July Yankees and Orioles games when I sweated for 9 innings. Same thing on Friday night when I watched the Blue Jays and the Yanks shiver through a forgettable contest.

     Come on MLB and the MLBPA!! Get your thinking caps on and schedule better. If you think the younger generation is unhappy with the pace of the game no matter how you seek to speed things up, be more concerned by the generations of fans who are turned off by games in cold weather areas in March and April.  That way, maybe we can avoid cold nights in Minnesota, Cleveland or Chicago for a World Series ending in November.

     That, as I have said previously, is football season. Where the onset of cold weather is the norm.  I can live with being indoors for 4 to 5 months in the Northeast. I only have to drive a short distance when it is cold or snowy to see a basketball game--which is in a warm, comfy arena.

     Call me that wuss that I am. I value comfort. I don't think that MLB nor the NFL shares my opinion. Maybe they should. It can't hurt like frostbite. Especially when it affects the bottom line.