A’s 2013 Schedule is Released

Today, MLB and the A’s released their 2013 regular season schedule.  A few questions immediately became apparent:

·         The season starts on a Monday?

·         The season starts on April Fools’ Day?  (Insert Bud Selig joke here)

·         Why does MLB continue to release the following year’s schedule in the middle of the chase to the playoffs?  You would think they would learn from the NFL & NBA and take a day where there is limited to no news for your sport and celebrate the release of the upcoming season during the long and boring offseason. 

Now that we have cleared that up, here are a few dates that caught my attention:

4/5 – 4/7 – The A’s play at Houston, our new division rivals.  The A’s play the Astros 19 times in 2013.  Side note: I love this division realignment and this should have happened years ago to even out the six divisions.  Then again, see questions 2 and 3 above for your answer as to why it has taken so long.    

5/3 – 5/5 – The A’s lone trip to this area for a three game series against the NY Yankees.  I have to miss the series coming up later this month so I’m hoping that part of my Cinco de Mayo celebrations include a trip to Yankee Stadium. 

5/27 – 5/30 – The scheduling gods managed to split a four game series between the A’s and Giants, giving each team two home games apiece.  This makes sense to anyone else?  (The A’s also have a split series vs. Cincinnati with games in late June and early August?!)

7/15 – 7/17 – The All Star break … oh wait, no one cares about this whatsoever. 

September baseball – The A’s play the Rangers in early September and again in the middle of the month.  However, after this the team has two series (home & away) with the Angels that is broken up by a four game, home series against Minnesota.  The A’s close the regular season (see what I’m doing here?) with three games in Seattle. 

I have a hard time even thinking about the 2013 schedule when the A’s are in the middle of a playoff race, further enhancing the earlier thought of – why does baseball continue to shoot itself in the foot and release the schedule in September when you can use a quiet day in the offseason to create some buzz for your league?! 

In any case - Let’s go Oakland!