MLB's Climate Scheduling Pickle
Hurricane Hilary is stress-testing the climate resilience of MLB's rigid schedule
Yesterday, Southern California was hit by Hurricane Hilary, the region’s first tropical storm in almost a century, bringing record amounts of rain and significant flooding to the area. On Saturday, Major League Baseball proactively rescheduled three Sunday games originally slated to be played in Los Angeles, Anaheim, and San Diego, aiming to avoid a scheduling headache by playing three doubleheaders on Saturday before the storm arrived. The hope was that by avoiding games on Sunday, the two Southern California teams scheduled to host games this week, the Los Angeles Angels and the San Diego Padres, would be able to have their fields ready for the start of their Monday series.
Unfortunately, the Angels announced at 10am P.T. that tonight’s game versus the Cincinnati Reds would be postponed and played as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday. Angel Stadium’s drainage system was unable to properly drain the 2 inches of rain that Orange County received during the storm. This means that in a five day span, the Angels will have played two doubleheaders, an incredibly grueling gauntlet this late in the season, particularly for a team with dwindling playoff aspirations.
The team has little choice, however. At this point in the season, scheduling disruptions are difficult to deal with, and limited off-days leave doubleheaders one of the only ways for the league to squeeze in make-up games. A further wrinkle complicating things is that this is the only time the Reds and the Angels play each other all season, meaning there’s no flexibility to tack an extra game onto a series later in the season. The Angels need to find a way to drain Angel Stadium’s field and get it prepared for games on Tuesday and Wednesday, or else MLB will have to get creative to fit the series into the two teams’ schedules.
This is not the first time the league has dealt with hurricanes and flooding affecting the ability to play games. Almost exactly six years ago, Houston was hit by Hurricane Harvey, triggering widespread and fatal flooding. While the Houston Astros were scheduled to return home from a road trip, the flooding made the team unable to do so, and MLB moved three games between the Astros and the Texas Rangers from Houston to Tampa Bay in order to fit the games in.
Thankfully, Southern California’s situation isn’t as extreme Houston’s six years ago and the Angels will likely be able to drain the field prior to Tuesday’s game. This storm, however, is giving MLB’s rigid scheduling procedures a climate-resiliency stress-test. With extreme weather events happening more often and in increasingly unusual locations, this summer’s string of scorching heat waves, devastating wildfires, and record-breaking tropical storms is the new normal rather than an extreme outlier. Future planning in all sectors, including sports, must grapple with this reality.
MLB’s current schedule leaves little room for flexibility. MLB teams only have 25 off-days per season, including the All-Star Break. So, on average, MLB teams have 21 regularly scheduled days off throughout a 162 game season. Many teams also need to make-up a rainout or two in April, further cramping scheduling flexibility as the season reaches the late summer. A new layer further straining MLB’s scheduling flexibility is the new “balanced schedule.” Beginning this season, every team plays all 29 other teams at least once, an increase from the old system where teams would only face 20 different opponents. This new schedule means teams must add several additional cities to their travel itineraries, increasing scheduling complexity and reducing flexibility.
As MLB’s scheduling rigidity has increased, events that could cancel games have also increased. Hurricanes are worsening and becoming more frequent and wildfires are choking more cities with smoke, with no indications of slowing down. MLB has already faced criticism from players and coaches about the league’s smoke safety protocols, and could hear grumblings out of the Angels clubhouse about two doubleheaders in five days.
The most obvious solution the league could adopt is a return to a 154 game schedule. After professional baseball in the US consolidated into MLB in 1903, teams played 154 game seasons until the league expanded in 1961. In fact, the proposal to reduce games is already under consideration by the league. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred expressed his openness to the schedule returning to 154 games earlier this season, albeit to ease the burden of a potential increase of international travel rather than enhance the schedule’s climate resiliency. Manfred’s openness to shortening the schedule does demonstrate, however, that if Hurricane Hilary and other climate events continue to put an increased strain on a 162 game schedule, MLB might look at increasing its scheduling flexibility in order to build its climate resiliency. After a flurry of double-headers and postponements in the wake of Hurricane Hilary, the league should act sooner rather than later.