TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Monday, May 30, 2005

MLB Forgetful on Memorial Day

The Great American Summer is marked by three national holidays: Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day, marking the beginning and halfway and end points of summer, more or less. Once upon a time, these were great baseball holidays. A fan could count on working a ballgame into his picnic, patriotic celebrations, family get together, swim down at the lake, and so forth. In my family, tickets to the day game on Memorial day were a great celebration, a sign school was soon to be out and the freedoms of the season were upon us.

Somewhere along the line, the schedulers for our great National Pastime's highest level seem to have lost track of the national holidays when scheduling games. Today you'll see that fully a third of the teams have the day off. Had the Nationals not moved to Wahington in mid-off-season, the schedule would have again had a home team being played indoors in Canada at night on Memorial Day.

At least there's a nearly full slate of games on the Fourth of July this year (Oakland and Toronto have the day off -- at least it's the Canadian team off this year, unlike in previous years), which falls on a Monday. But all but four of those games are scheduled at night.

On Labor Day, again, ten teams have the day off and half the games are at night.

I'm not a baseball traditionalist to the point of being inflexible. I lament the passing of the scheduled single-admission double-header, but understand why it's an artifact of the past. I didn't scream when they put up lights at Wrigley Field. I understand why the "Game of the Week" is now on Sunday nights.

But why can't we just have day baseball on all our summer holidays, and put baseball back in the minds of the general public to be synonymous with summer celebrations? Or for pity's sake, at least don't blow the opportunity of a holiday from work and school to at least put on a full schedule for all three days.

I, for one, will be heading out to a Pony league tournament this afternoon and catching a couple of games with a gathering of families, a barbecue pit, and some group singing of the national anthem.

posted by The Crank 9:19 AM