Schedule This!

The Cubs’ schedule is out and, frankly, it sucks. Why are the Cubs playing the AL East again? It’s AL Central time. And why do the Cubs host the Red Sox and have to Go to Yankee Stadium? Why can’t it be like the White Sox series and be a home and home affair? It’s time for the Cubs to play the Twins and Indians. We just did the Yanks a year ago.

The MLB schedulers need to pull their heads out of their rectums and make schedules that are not only balanced between divisional opponents, but fair to the fans as well. It’s very simple. There are 30 teams in the major leages. That yields six divisions of 5 teams. Each team plays the other 4 teams in their division in 3 home-and-home series (18 games) per year. The other 10 teams in the league get played in one home-and-home series (6 games) per year. That leaves interleague. You play one home-and-home series (6 games) per year against all the teams from a single division (5 teams). Do the math. 162 games.

MLB was the last league to allow fans in every town to see the players from all the other towns. But they do it half-assed.

Get rid of the “rivalry” games, which are already getting old. Playing the White Sox 6 times per year is now a novelty. Playing the White Sox 6 times every THIRD year would be an event. Same with the Red Sox, Mariners and Angels.

And don’t give me any crap about the lousy matchups created when Pittsburgh plays Kansas City. All that does is replace some of the games Pitt plays against Washington.

Betting Line

The new chart below ties into one of the web-based futures markets. Once I get it exactly figured out, I'll incorporate somce of the sports futures as well. Keep an eye on the "Bush" line. He was north of 65 last week.