For 80 years of their existence, the MLB played a 154 Game Schedule. By going back to this number of games it would ensure that no World Series may be played in November, and would give the league an alternative or two in changing the playoff format if need be. You could also revert the record book back to a 154 Games – and have Babe Ruth being the single season leader all time for HRs at 60. You can effectively rub out the steroid era.

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TV Contracts aside, this will never happen.  But baseball should really grandfather in the schedule to be peeled back to 154 Games from the end of the contract of the last year on a deal with a network right now.

So why go to 154 Games?

Gone are the days when clubs sell out every single game.  Fenway Park and Citizens Bank Park both went through huge consecutive sellout steaks in recent vintage.  But recently there are not any clubs that sellout every game for a given year.

Each MLB club could easily withdraw 4 home dates on the calendar each.  I am of the opinion that most teams would not suffer many losses at the gate either.

Philadelphia held a massive consecutive sellout streak from the time CBP was in its first year until the latter parts of their team starting to decline in 2012. There are no teams that sold out every single game in the 2015 year, and it is likely happen in future seasons. Maybe by scaling back to 77 Game home schedule eventually, the team wont see much of a difference at the turnstiles as demand would be greater.

Say a team draws 2 Million fans for 81 games.  Will they really lose much if the team goes down to 77 games.  Particularly if they are siphoned off September contests?

Team Fatigue:

We saw three teams in the National League Central make the playoffs, yet this is a phenomenal occurrence when you realize each club played 38 games versus the other two clubs.   Their record versus the rest of the league was incredible.

With two playoff teams being implemented for each league, it simply doesn’t fly that teams play so many games within their Division. It could provide an advantage or disadvantage based on what Division.

I can foresee the Nats and Mets crushing the rest of the NL East next year – en route to a playoff position, while a team like the Pirates might win in the low 90’s next season, and miss the postseason since the Cubs and Cards reside in the NL Central too.

I would love to see more Interleague and more Inter Division games.  I am not as steadfast on my stance on Interleague because the American League pounces on the National League.

For now, we will keep each team at a minimum of 20 games in Interleague.

162 Game Schedule breakdown

20 Interleague

13 X 4 in your own division = 52 (72)

9 X 10 in your own league but other Divisions =90 (162)

154 Game Schedule breakdown

20 Interleague

11 X 4 in your own division = 44 (64)

9 X 10 in your own league but other division (154)

Single Season Leaders ALL – Time if it were a 154 Game Schedule

Only Ichiro Suzuki (Hits) and Barry Bonds (HRs, BB, OBP and SLG) hold records for the single season marks

HRs:  Babe Ruth. NYY (1927): 60 and XBH – 119 (1921)

RBI:  Hack Wilson, CHC (1930): 191

Hits:  George Sisler, STL (1920):  257

BA:  Hugh Duffy, BOS (1894): .440

2B:  Earl Webb, BOS (1931):  67

3B:  Chief Wilson, PIT (1912):  36

R:  Billy Hamilton, PHI (1894): 191

SB:  Hugh Nicol, CIN (1887): 138

SF:  Gil Hodgers, BRO (1954): 19

Barry Bonds holds onto several season single records including HRs, BB, OBP, SLG and OPS. Only Ichiro Suzuki has the other distinction of holding the single season record for hits. All the other main categories are held by players who played before the schedule was bumped from 154 Games to 162 in the early 60’s.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

A Big thanks goes out to our chief writer Hunter Stokes for preparing today’s feature post.

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