Updated 2020 Baseball Game Stats
Well, this won't take long.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, baseball its fullest short season on record, with no fans in the stands until the latest rounds of the playoffs, when a very few were allowed in with extensive distancing protocols. The playoffs themselves were expanded so half the teams made it in. One of my most despised teams, the Dodgers won the World Series.
My favored Oakland A's won their division and a three game wild card round, but since literally every one of their playoff games was in the middle of work, I didn't actually get to watch them play on television even once. Such as the perils of rooting for a west coast team from the eastern time zone.
As for the Cleveland Indians, they would have won the wild card in a normal season, which was more than good enough for the playoffs in this extended year. Alas, they were swept in the first round.
On a stadium tour note, if attending a game in person safely was an option I absolutely would have gone to Buffalo, where the Blue Jays played their home games in their AAA park because of the border lock down. It was the first MLB in Buffalo since the Federal League in 1915!
In general, I rarely watch games on television except at bars. I made an exception for the Indians home opener, but otherwise confined myself to radio. This marks the first season since (I think) 1997 that I did not attend a baseball game in person. This is particularly disappointing because during the off-season I had expanded my season ticket package from ten to fifteen games when someone dropped out of our group. I also purchased a separate home opener ticket and was scheduled to attend a seventeenth game with my friend Jazzbo on some tickets he won. On top of that, the brand new Globe Life Field opened up for the Texas Rangers, and M even has friends in that area we would likely have visited as part of a stadium tour weekend. Obviously none of that happened. My lifetime totals remain at 165 regular season and 5 playoff games, plus assorted exhibitions like spring training and the All-Star game.
Because the Commissioner of Baseball consistently thinks pace of play is a problem (he's wrong), there have been all sorts of minor league experiments. One of those is the "put a runner on second to start out extra innings" which I saw at the All-Star Futures Game last year. That got used in the regular season so that they could limit extra innings in a very tight schedule. I still don't care for it all that much and hope that it doesn't get widely adopted. I say that with full acknowledgement that back in 1972 I would have been complaining about the Designated Hitter, and now I think that the AL game with the DH is more entertaining than the NL game without it. If they bring it back, maybe I'll get used to it. On the plus side, I now understand how to score it. In a pre-pandemic announcement, they also made it so that each pitcher has to pitch to at least three batters (or the end of the inning), which benefits the A's when they won their playoff series as a White Sox relief pitcher came in and effectively walked the game away. I'm a little more comfortable with that rule.
I do have one funny anecdote. My buddy Ed handles the season ticket package, so I didn't have to deal with anything there, but I bought my home opener ticket from the Indians via a deal at work, so the ticket rep for my office contacted me to lay out options early in the year when nothing had been set for the new schedule. I almost deleted her email unread, because it turns out her name is Ashley Madison. Really. She had the same name as the notorious dating site for adulterers. There's someone whose life was made more complicated by an internet company! I'm actually a little surprised that she didn't use an alternate name for work. Or maybe she doesn't care, like the other Michael Bolton.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, baseball its fullest short season on record, with no fans in the stands until the latest rounds of the playoffs, when a very few were allowed in with extensive distancing protocols. The playoffs themselves were expanded so half the teams made it in. One of my most despised teams, the Dodgers won the World Series.
My favored Oakland A's won their division and a three game wild card round, but since literally every one of their playoff games was in the middle of work, I didn't actually get to watch them play on television even once. Such as the perils of rooting for a west coast team from the eastern time zone.
As for the Cleveland Indians, they would have won the wild card in a normal season, which was more than good enough for the playoffs in this extended year. Alas, they were swept in the first round.
On a stadium tour note, if attending a game in person safely was an option I absolutely would have gone to Buffalo, where the Blue Jays played their home games in their AAA park because of the border lock down. It was the first MLB in Buffalo since the Federal League in 1915!
In general, I rarely watch games on television except at bars. I made an exception for the Indians home opener, but otherwise confined myself to radio. This marks the first season since (I think) 1997 that I did not attend a baseball game in person. This is particularly disappointing because during the off-season I had expanded my season ticket package from ten to fifteen games when someone dropped out of our group. I also purchased a separate home opener ticket and was scheduled to attend a seventeenth game with my friend Jazzbo on some tickets he won. On top of that, the brand new Globe Life Field opened up for the Texas Rangers, and M even has friends in that area we would likely have visited as part of a stadium tour weekend. Obviously none of that happened. My lifetime totals remain at 165 regular season and 5 playoff games, plus assorted exhibitions like spring training and the All-Star game.
Because the Commissioner of Baseball consistently thinks pace of play is a problem (he's wrong), there have been all sorts of minor league experiments. One of those is the "put a runner on second to start out extra innings" which I saw at the All-Star Futures Game last year. That got used in the regular season so that they could limit extra innings in a very tight schedule. I still don't care for it all that much and hope that it doesn't get widely adopted. I say that with full acknowledgement that back in 1972 I would have been complaining about the Designated Hitter, and now I think that the AL game with the DH is more entertaining than the NL game without it. If they bring it back, maybe I'll get used to it. On the plus side, I now understand how to score it. In a pre-pandemic announcement, they also made it so that each pitcher has to pitch to at least three batters (or the end of the inning), which benefits the A's when they won their playoff series as a White Sox relief pitcher came in and effectively walked the game away. I'm a little more comfortable with that rule.
I do have one funny anecdote. My buddy Ed handles the season ticket package, so I didn't have to deal with anything there, but I bought my home opener ticket from the Indians via a deal at work, so the ticket rep for my office contacted me to lay out options early in the year when nothing had been set for the new schedule. I almost deleted her email unread, because it turns out her name is Ashley Madison. Really. She had the same name as the notorious dating site for adulterers. There's someone whose life was made more complicated by an internet company! I'm actually a little surprised that she didn't use an alternate name for work. Or maybe she doesn't care, like the other Michael Bolton.