World Series Schedule Modified This Year

The 2010 World Series schedule is now set and it contains some interesting nuances.

The San Francisco Giants have upset the Philadelphia Phillies and will move on to face the team that upset the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers in the World Series. The nation now turns its attention to the Fall Classic and, particularly in Dallas and San Francisco, people are planning their schedules for the upcoming week around it. For the first time in history, Dallas is, at least temporarily, a baseball town.

Major League Baseball has changed the World Series schedule in two important ways. First, there is only one Saturday game. Saturday nights generally return very poor ratings and as a result, baseball would like to avoid it to the extent possible.

The World Series will start on Wednesday night, October 27th. Game Two will be played the following night, on Thursday, October 28th. Friday is an off day before Game Three is played on Saturday, October 30. Games Four and Five (if necessary) will be played on October 31 and November 1, respectively.

The other interesting aspect is that baseball is finally listening to its critics and doing what it can to start the games earlier. While last year's World Series had games starting at 8:20 PM Eastern Time, the 2010 World Series will have a first pitch start time at 7:57 for Games One, Two, Five, Six and Seven (Five, Six and Seven if necessary). Interestingly, the lone Saturday game, which is Game Three, will start at 6:57, and there will still be some daylight at that time in Arlington, Texas for the first home World Series game in Rangers history.

Many believe that baseball has lost a generation of fans because of the fact that the sport, due to network demands, has started playoff and World Series games at a late hour, particularly for the East Coast, in order to maximize ratings. While ratings do in fact rise the later the games are played, school aged children often cannot stay up to watch the games, making it hard for the sport to develop a following. While moving the start times up by about twenty five minutes won't completely solve the problem, it is a start.

Even better for the younger fan, the lone Sunday game, which will be Game Four on Halloween night, actually has an uncertain start time as it will immediately follow Fox's football games.

As the National League won the All Star game this year, it will have home field advantage in the World Series. Games One and Two will be played at San Francisco's AT&T Park. Games Three, Four and Five will be played back at the Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. If necessary, the World Series would then go back to San Francisco for Games Six and Seven.

All games in the 2010 World Series schedule will be shown on Fox.

Source:

MLB.com