Mike Matheny says late-night games on get-away days ‘isn’t right’
St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had a legitimate complaint Thursday with the schedule put together by Major League Baseball.
The Cardinals were on the road at Arizona for the finale of a four-game series and the last game in a seven-game road trip, but the game didn’t start until 8:40 p.m. in the Central Time Zone back home in St. Louis.
The Cardinals lost 3-0 and by the time they boarded the team bus to head for the airport, it was nearly midnight St. Louis time and the team was assured of flying through the night and arriving home in the early morning hours with a 7:15 p.m. start time Friday night against the Washington Nationals.
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“I think it’s ridiculous,” Matheny told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “This isn’t right. This is a shame. It’s going to be a long night. Most of us will watch the sun come up on the way home on the drive back from the airport.”
MLB generally tries to schedule earlier start times on ‘get-away’ days to help road teams handle the travel demands and early start times are mandated when the road team must travel three time zones following the game. The Cardinals had to travel two time zones following Thursday’s game.
The newspaper reported that one of the Cardinals who serves as a representative with the players’ union planned to look into the reasoning for the late start time. The issue is enough of a concern across baseball that it figures to be a point that is addressed in the next collective bargaining agreement.
These are the best players in the world playing the game at its highest level and being paid a lot of money to do so. There are some who won’t have any sympathy for those players and coaches having to handle the rigors of the major league schedule. It’s a valid point.
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But baseball fans everywhere want to see players at their best to the fullest extent possible and depriving those players of sleep in the name of selling more tickets because of a later start isn’t going to lead to players being at their best in the following day’s game.
It’s a situation that can be avoided and should be in the future, even if that means a few more day games on the schedule and a little less money in the pockets of ownership over the long haul.
These scheduling issues don’t happen a lot these days, but they probably shouldn’t happen at all.
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
