With a couple of months in advance, MLB has officially announced the 2022 postseason schedule.
This time, however, it didn’t come without controversy.
Game 1 of the World Series will be on Friday, October 28, with Game 7 (if necessary) on November 5.
The four Wild Card series will be on three consecutive days, October 7-9.
The Division Series will start on October 11; with the NLCS beginning on October 18 and the ALCS on October 19.
The problem, this time, is that the calendar is extremely tight, and the absence of off days in specific moments are an issue.
“After expanding the postseason to 12 teams and the lockout-induced late start, MLB wanted to shorten the calendar. It did so by getting rid of some travel days. So no off-days between Games 4/5 in DS and Games 5/6 in LCS. Could affect strategy. And geography could be a nightmare,” ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweeted.
After expanding the postseason to 12 teams and the lockout-induced late start, MLB wanted to shorten the calendar. It did so by getting rid of some travel days. So no off-days between Games 4/5 in DS and Games 5/6 in LCS. Could affect strategy. And geography could be a nightmare.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 15, 2022
The Traveling Schedule Could Get Ugly
To provide a perfect example of the traveling nightmare that this could be, we go to Passan again:
“Examples: M’s-Yankees ALDS. Seattle hosts Game 4 on Oct. 16, wins to force Game 5. Both teams fly from Seattle to New York and play Game 5 the next day, Oct. 17. Similar in NLCS with Mets and Dodgers. Games 3-7 are on five consecutive days — including a cross-country flight,” he tweeted.
The Wild Card series being played on three consecutive days is not as problematic as the potential long cross-country trips at later instances.
Everybody knows traveling, especially long flights, takes a toll on the body, so having the teams play immediately after a long day of planes is less than ideal.
This is, in large part, a consequence of the expanded playoffs and the lost time during the lockout.
Those who have to deal with the consequences now are the players, and that’s not fair.
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