Red Sox Schedule

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
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Jul 15, 2005
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6 4 4 3 3 for NL play is kinda bullshit.
Agreed, but the unbalanced home/road in the division games is worse, 7 games for BOS in NY and only 3 in BOS (NY plays 7 of 10 in TOR and 6 of 10 in BAL, 4 of 10 in TB and 3 of 10 in BOS).
 

DeadlySplitter

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Oct 20, 2015
33,260
so instead of evening out 5/5 home/away within the division (too much travel), they did one team you get 7/10 at home, one 6/10, one 4/10, one 3/10, and of course vice versa.

home field crowds likely won't exist, but batting last is a thing and we got shortchanged against the good teams on that front.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
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home field crowds likely won't exist, but batting last is a thing and we got shortchanged against the good teams on that front.
At the very least they could have had Boston be the home team as far as batting in 2 of the games in NY.
 

SoxFanInPdx

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Jul 15, 2005
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I have a question and not sure where to really put it. What happens if they actually don't finish the season due to the pandemic? Does the luxury tax reset just get carried over into next season?
 

scottyno

late Bloomer
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Dec 7, 2008
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Why didn't they just do 2 5 game series? Limit the travel part as much as you can, and having it be 5 games would also be the "fairest" in terms of you'd likely face each starter once.
 

Rough Carrigan

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Red(s)HawksFan

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At the very least they could have had Boston be the home team as far as batting in 2 of the games in NY.
Are we certain that they aren't doing that? If there are no fans and therefore no gate receipts, stadium shouldn't matter. Might as well keep things even on the last-at-bats front.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Jan 2, 2006
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Why didn't they just do 2 5 game series? Limit the travel part as much as you can, and having it be 5 games would also be the "fairest" in terms of you'd likely face each starter once.
Because that would have taken common sense, of which they appear to have none
 

E5 Yaz

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It's not as though this schedule is going to be completed.
 

staz

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The cradle of the game.
At the very least they could have had Boston be the home team as far as batting in 2 of the games in NY.
Yeah, this has to happen.

And if they're going to limit series to 4 games, then why only teams from East divisions? With the exact same number of flights and a little more time in the air, they could skip the NL entirely and play every team in the AL, albeit slightly unbalanced:

East: 2 opponents x 8 games: (2) 4-game road series, (2) 4-game home series = 16 games
East: 2 opponents x 7 games: (2) 4-game road series, (2) 3-game home series (or vice versa) = 14 games
Central & West: 10 opponents x 3 games: (5) 3-game road series, (5) 3-game home series = 30 games
 

scottyno

late Bloomer
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Dec 7, 2008
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The absolute least they could have done, if for some reason they're against 5 game series, the team only getting 1 series should get the 4 instead of a 3, no reason it should be 7-3 instead of 6-4
 

Ale Xander

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Oct 31, 2013
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The future of the sport depends on youth conversion. Why in the world would they have the games even later, when they're asleep at the end.
 

SoxInTheMist

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Jul 18, 2005
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This entire thing is a farce. Just cancel it already. It doesn't resemble a "season" at all and it's going to unnecessarily put a lot of people in harms way.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Jan 23, 2009
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The future of the sport depends on youth conversion. Why in the world would they have the games even later, when they're asleep at the end.
They're starting games at 7:30 for television. I can't say I blame them since they're not making anything on gate receipts, and it's not as though they need to get fans out of the park and home at a decent hour. If pushing back a half-hour enables them to charge a touch more for ads and generate a bit more revenue, so be it. I get that it's not cool to be concerned about billionaires ability to make money, but even they can't keep the game afloat forever operating in the red. It's a temporary thing brought on by (hopefully) temporary circumstances.

Night games routinely started at 7:30 in the 80s and 90s. If that was such a detriment to attracting youthful fans, I imagine a whole bunch of us wouldn't be here on this site right now. This isn't the end of the world. Besides, who doesn't have DVR at this point? If kids are watching the start of games but can't stay up to watch the end, record it and let them watch in the morning. Then that half hour doesn't really make a difference. My parents were doing that for me 30 years ago with a VCR.
 

Merkle's Boner

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Apr 24, 2011
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If my teens are any indication, very few young people watch games live anyway. It is entirely about highlights on IG and the other apps. The way to attract young fans is to make the game exciting, not show it a half hour earlier. I really hope they will have players miked up so the fans can get a feeling about what awesome guys they are.
 

EdRalphRomero

wooderson
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Oct 3, 2007
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Speaking purely as a Red Sox fan*, the only thing I need to see is enough games played that they reset the luxury tax. Let Mookie play for 50 or 60 games in LA and then use the reset to bring him back home. If that doesn't happen and next year's season is about getting under the tax again, that is going to suck.

*From a broader perspective, I am not sure these games are a good idea.
 

DJnVa

Dorito Dawg
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Dec 16, 2010
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This entire thing is a farce. Just cancel it already. It doesn't resemble a "season" at all and it's going to unnecessarily put a lot of people in harms way.
What about the people/players, etc. that voted to play? They've assessed the risks and decided they wanted to play. Do you not trust them to assess the risks for themselves?
 

Norm Siebern

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May 12, 2003
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Speaking purely as a Red Sox fan*, the only thing I need to see is enough games played that they reset the luxury tax. Let Mookie play for 50 or 60 games in LA and then use the reset to bring him back home. If that doesn't happen and next year's season is about getting under the tax again, that is going to suck.

*From a broader perspective, I am not sure these games are a good idea.
X1000. This is exactly how I am viewing this season. There is no other reason to play it other than this.
 

amRadio

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Feb 7, 2019
798
The 25 minute push-back doesn't mean anything to me personally. I will still watch exactly the same amount of innings I was going to before. I agree with Merkel's Boner in that the way to bring the game to younger people is to create more easily digestible ancillary content. I've always thought MLB doesn't utilize Youtube enough. Mic'd up players would be a great idea in that department, as would making condensed games available on youtube or other platforms. Circulating top ten "web gem" type segments wouldn't hurt. They could heighten the platform and visibility of the most talented players in the game and showcase exciting highlights. Make more money and new fans at the same time. The starting time really doesn't matter when it comes to opening up the game to younger generations. It certainly wouldn't hurt to start games a little earlier because a 6PM baseball game is likely to ride right through prime time hours anyway, but this isn't going to kill the game for younger fans either.
 

Captaincoop

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Jul 16, 2005
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With no more commuting for the time being, all this means is a longer wait for the game to start. Why does the 8pm-11pm primetime even mean anything in this environment?

The new "primetime" could effectively start at 6PM for most people, maybe even earlier. Pricing and sales paradigms have been changing in every economic space, very quickly. That can't happen in television advertising?
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Dec 4, 2005
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Portsmouth, NH
Yeah, this has to happen.

And if they're going to limit series to 4 games, then why only teams from East divisions? With the exact same number of flights and a little more time in the air, they could skip the NL entirely and play every team in the AL, albeit slightly unbalanced:

East: 2 opponents x 8 games: (2) 4-game road series, (2) 4-game home series = 16 games
East: 2 opponents x 7 games: (2) 4-game road series, (2) 3-game home series (or vice versa) = 14 games
Central & West: 10 opponents x 3 games: (5) 3-game road series, (5) 3-game home series = 30 games
How would they do this with an odd number of teams in each league? You'd have one in each league taking a 3-4 day break at all times.
 

The Talented Allen Ripley

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With no more commuting for the time being, all this means is a longer wait for the game to start. Why does the 8pm-11pm primetime even mean anything in this environment?

The new "primetime" could effectively start at 6PM for most people, maybe even earlier. Pricing and sales paradigms have been changing in every economic space, very quickly. That can't happen in television advertising?
What about dinner? I'm as big a Sox fan as they come, and I no longer have a commute, but I'm not going to have the game on while I'm sitting at the dinner table with my family.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Dec 4, 2005
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What about the people/players, etc. that voted to play? They've assessed the risks and decided they wanted to play. Do you not trust them to assess the risks for themselves?
Honest question, who voted besides the players?

And to your follow up, personally, I don't. Certainly not with so much money at risk. Beyond that, I know plenty of people that I know are smart, that I know are educated, that I know are considerate and open minded people, but for whatever reason, they won't even wear a mask to the supermarket. So no, I don't really trust 1800 ball players to be able to grasp it in it's entirety and not think they're too young and healthy to worry about it. In fairness I don't have a lot of trust in the average person right now, so take that fwiw.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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May 25, 2008
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The intrasquad game on Thursday will not be televised. The exhibition game schedule is being finalized and wouldn’t be towards the end of camp.

Also, NESN sucks.
 
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