Good morning, all. I hope your week is off to a great start.
Memorial Day is in six days and I believe Major League Baseball is missing the boat. Eight big league clubs will not play baseball this season on Memorial Day and most of minor league baseball parks will also be empty. No doubleheaders are scheduled on that day either.
When I was growing up, Memorial Day meant going to the parade in the morning to honor those who died for our freedom and a family gathering - usually a picnic - in the afternoon with a radio nearby to listen to the ballgame. Now some MLB teams have the day off. It has been that way for sometime on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.
I can remember attending a Yankees-Tigers doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Memorial Day 1972. The Yankees won both games against Billy Martin’s Tigers, and I remember walking through the second deck of the grand old ballpark and meeting my uncle, who also made the trip to watch the twin bill.
The next season on July 4th, I was back at the Stadium to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox in a doubleheader. First place New York lost both games to their rivals, each by one run.
It was in between games of a doubleheader between the Yankees and Washington Senators on July 4, 1939 that Lou Gehrig gave his famous speech.
Teams no longer schedule doubleheaders, reluctant to sacrifice a date on the schedule because of the many season ticket packages that are sold. That is too bad. Granted, even with rules changes to shorten the time of games, doubleheaders can still take too much time, while straining already thin pitching staffs.
Baseball needs to return to the seven inning per game doubleheaders that were employed during COVID and are still used in the minor leagues. Use that change as the impetus to schedule doubleheaders on the aforementioned holidays. Make the events a big deal, something to remember the day by, as I remembered those games of my youth. There is a good chance the ballparks would be sold out. With the numerous revenue streams these clubs now have, sacrificing some home dates should not be too big a revenue loss for ownership. The memories made might also make more fans of the game.
Over the past half century the NBA has made it a practice of playing conference final playoff games on Memorial Day. In my youth the NBA season was long gone by the last Monday in May. I get why seasons have been extended as owners of all sports attempt to milk the cash cow, but why should MLB cede the summer game to a sport played principally in the winter?
Bring back doubleheaders and make each game last seven innings. The memories made by going back to the future would last a lifetime.
NFL predictions are clickbait
The NFL does a superb job of making itself relevant year round and so do the numerous websites that cover the sport. These websites want clicks. The more the merrier. Now that the NFL has released its 2024 schedule - a show in itself - the said websites are having a field day, predicting what the records will be for each team. Come January, we will all forget what these website prognostications were and for good reason. How can anyone really predict the outcome of a team’s season in May?
So many variables make up a season in all sports, injuries being the biggest culprit. How a player performs or a team performs as a unit makes predicting games in May for a season that does not start until September an inexact science. New York Jets fans, whose team was predicted to go to the Super Bowl last season, only to have that outlook go up in flames four plays into the season, when quarterback Aaron Rodgers went down with a season-ending injury, can attest to that. So enjoy the clickbait. I’ll pass.
That is going to do it for this week’s newsletter. Have a terrific week. Please remember next Monday those who died to preserve our freedom. There will be no newsletter next week, but I will return with the next edition on June 4. As always, thank you for your support.
DAN LOVALLO