This year’s Cubs schedule begins with a six-game homestand at Wrigley Field. Opening Day is Thursday, March 26, so that’s five games in March, concluding on April 1.
The rest of the Cubs’ April schedule is pretty reasonable. They head out for a six-game road trip after that, bookended by off days, so after April 1 they don’t return to Wrigley until April 10, and then just for a three-game series against the Pirates. That’s followed by a quick one-city trip to Philadelphia and another off day before
a seven-game homestand starting April 17.
The latter 10 dates are reasonable. The first six… are not, especially because they are against two teams that come to Wrigley only once, the Nationals and Angels.
This is not smart scheduling, Major League Baseball messed this up, especially with the Angels, a West Coast team, coming to town for its only visit during this first homestand. Postponements during that series are problematic, as they could involve significant travel disruptions. The Nats and Angels do come back to Chicago to play the White Sox… at the end of April.
Look, I understand that the warm-weather and dome teams don’t want these early April games either. Kids are in school, people aren’t on vacation, etc. But if MLB is insistent on playing nearly a week of games at the end of March, those teams really need to suck it up and host those games, in my view.
Let’s look at what MLB has done with the rest of the early-season schedule. The following teams are home for the first weekend of games, in addition to the Cubs:
Giants
Cardinals
Blue Jays
Orioles
Phillies
Reds
Mets
Marlins
Astros
Brewers
Braves
Padres
Dodgers
Mariners
That’s five dome teams, four warm-weather teams, three cities where the weather can be at least decent at that time of year (St. Louis, Cincinnati, Baltimore) and two places where it could be as cold as Chicago (New York, Philadelphia).
That’s … not terrible, though I will note that the Athletics are at Toronto, the Rangers are at Philadelphia, the Angels are at Houston and the Diamondbacks visit the Dodgers. That’s four other teams that really should be hosting games this early in the season.
I am of two minds here regarding that six-game homestand at Wrigley Field beginning March 26. On the one hand — maybe we’ll get some unseasonable warmth and they’ll be able to play baseball in decent conditions. It can, occasionally, be freakishly warm in Chicago in March. In March 2012 Chicago had nine straight days with highs of 78 or above, eight of them over 80. At Cubs Spring Training games, PA announcer Tim Sheridan always gives the temp in Mesa and the temp in Chicago after the first inning. One day during that spell, he said, “In sunny Mesa, it’s 81 degrees and in Chicago… (pause)… it’s 85.” There was an audible gasp from the crowd.
But as I said, that’s a freak. And if it happens, the lesson MLB will learn is, “Hey, we can do this!” And of course, the next time they try it, the weather will be awful.
Which is the more likely outcome here. The average high temperature in Chicago on March 26 is 50. Which wouldn’t be terrible baseball weather, but that’s an average — the record low for that date is 7. For the last 10 years, the high temperatures on March 26 have been 54, 58, 48, 36, 42, 52, 46, 55, 62 and 55.
So about half the time, it appears, the temp is above 50 on that date, about half below. And that doesn’t take into account the possibility of rain delaying, interrupting, or postponing a game. Or snow — as you surely know, it’s snowed in Chicago that late in the spring, and in fact, April 2018 was just horrifically cold and snowy in Chicago, causing multiple postponements that could have been a cause of the Cubs collapsing down the stretch that year when they had to play 42 games in 43 days.
So the other part of me says, “Bring on rain and snow and multiple postponements against the Nats and Angels,” because the logistical issues that would cause maybe, just maybe would teach MLB the lesson, “Hey, maybe we shouldn’t do this anymore.”
Be prepared to dress warm in multiple layers if you’re going to the home opener at Wrigley Field this year. It’s only 50 days away.
