You Want a 70-Game MLB Schedule? The Calendar Says it's not a Problem

While Major League Baseball owners are pushing for a 60-game schedule that would run from July 19/20 through Sept. 27 to get baseball back up and running, when you look at last season, no team in either league played fewer than the Oakland Athletics' 62 games. Getting to 65 or 70 games as the players would prefer is no problem - if owners actually want to do it.

In this summer of no sports, Major League Baseball is caught between the owners wanting to lock in a 60-game season and the players proposing a 70-game slate to get baseball back on the field, if not put fans in the stands.

The owners’ proposal calls for a July 19 or July 20 start to the season with a Sept. 27 end date before the playoffs start. The owners are trying to stand firm on it, but it’s difficult to take their position seriously unless their position is that they simply don’t want to have a baseball season.

If you look back to last season, the 70-day period from July 19 to Sept. 27 called for the Oakland A’s to play 62 games. The A’s were one of three teams to play 62 games in that span. Everybody else played more. A dozen teams played 63 games, a dozen more played 64 and three played 65 games.

So, getting to 65 games is absolutely doable, even if nothing else happens.

Adding in doubleheaders – remember them? – could get you to 70. And since July 19 this year is a Sunday, if you push the season’s start to July 17, a Friday, you could add in a few more days off.

These negotiations are the baseball equal of fingernails on the chalkboard (look it up). They are making everybody more than a little nutso.

Negotiations are about compromise. Maybe the owners need to save a little face so the players would have to come off 70. The two sides could settle on a 68-game schedule without breaking a sweat.

They just have to want to.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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