In my view, it’s still too many “rivalry” games - I have long thought one Cubs/White Sox series per year, alternating parks, would be enough - but four is better than six. (Current total: four or six games, depending on the season) INTERLEAGUE SCHEDULE (46): Here’s how this works: Every team plays its interleague “rival” (Mets-Yankees, Cubs-White Sox, you know the deal) four times - two at home, two on the road. OTHER 10 LEAGUE OPPONENTS (60): Those non-division teams within your league? You’ll play them six times apiece - three at home, three on the road. (Current total: 19) So that means one three-game series and one four-game series each, both home and road. While there will be fewer divisional games in total, teams will still play their divisional rivals more than any other single team, as follows, per Stark:ĭIVISION GAMES (56): Clubs play all four teams in their division 14 times. all teams in your division, six or seven against other teams in a club’s league, and 20 interleague games. The setup used from then through this year (except, obviously, 2020): 19 games vs. That’s more or less how it stayed until 2013, when the Astros were moved to the American League and all six divisions thus had five teams. And in 2004, the intraleague out-of-division matchups were reduced to six, with divisional games increased to 17, 18 or 19 depending on the division - remember, the Cubs were in the six-team NL Central at the time, with the two other NL divisions at five. In 2001, divisional games were increased to 16 or 17, with some intraleague matchups staying at nine with others reduced to six.
In 1999, divisional games were set at 12 per team, with the rest of the team’s league at nine each, with some interleague games added. When interleague was added in 1997, 12 games were stripped out of the league schedule for interleague and 11 or 12 games were played against everyone in a team’s league. In 1996, the last year before interleague play, teams played 12 or 13 games against everyone in their league. Here’s how it worked for several seasons after that. Or, at least that was the plan before the strike blew up the 19 schedules. The new 162-game schedule was first described as “balanced.” In a way, it is, but one of the reasons I was initially against a “balanced” schedule is that’s what MLB used from the beginning of the three-division setup in 1994 through 1998. My first instinct was to say, “Ugh, no,” because who really wants fewer Cubs/Cardinals games and more random series against (say) the Royals, Rangers or Padres? (No offense intended to players or fans of those teams.)įriday, Jayson Stark posted a long article at The Athletic with further details about the upcoming schedule changes and I have to say that some of my concerns have been assuaged and I’m not as against this as I was when I first heard the news. When details of the new MLB/MLBPA collective bargaining agreement began to leak out Thursday afternoon, one of the things that was quickly noted was that teams’ 162-game schedules would change beginning in 2023 and would involve less divisional play and games against all 29 other teams.
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