Baseball Schedule Woes Grow

Looked at the standings for Major League Baseball this fine, clear Wednesday morning.

Oh my.

Toronto, banned from playing in Canada because of Covid-19, just opened their "home" season in Buffalo. The Blue Jays are 6-8, just 3 1/2 games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees.

Go over to the National League, where a 7-4 Miami Marlins team leads the NL East over an 11-8 Atlanta team.

And in the NL Central, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, the Chicago Cubs are tops with a 11-3 mark. Milwaukee, scuffling at home with just two wins in seven tries, is in third at 7-8.

Now the amazing stat: the St. Louis Cardinals are right behind the Brewers with a stellar 2-3 mark. That's not a typo, folks. They have won two games in five tries! Every other team in the NL East has played at least 15 games. But St. Louis has been Covid central and has missed series after series after series.

MLB is still clinging to a 16-team playoff picture that will be based on winning percentage. Think maybe that ought to be reconsidered, based on the Cardinals. It's just not fair to the rest of the teams to force them to schedule multiple doubleheaders. Milwaukee is already facing a tentative three after having it's home opening series with St. Louis shelved due to Covid.

We have reached a point, MLB, in which time is running out and Commissioner Rob Manfred needs to say to the Cardinals "Thanks for attempting to play; we have lovely parting gifts. You birds just stay home now..."

DOES THE HOME FIELD crowd make that much difference to professional players? It seems to be the case with the Brewers. Over the last two seasons, both playoff-caliber seasons, Milwaukee has gone 100-62 at home, a winning percentage of 61.73% Clearly, the lads have fed off that home crowd atmosphere.

Those in the know figure that if you win 60% of the time at home, and 50% on the road, you're golden. Milwaukee is now 62.5% on the road, but only 28.57% AT HOME.

Gonna have to turn that round, fellas, and do so with just cardboard cutouts and canned crowd noise.