2013 Schedule Released, Includes Doubleheader

Wednesday, Major League Baseball released the entire 2013 schedule for all 30 teams. This gives fans and teams several months to make plans to attend games.

With the switch of the Houston Astros to the American League, there will be 15 teams in each league, and thus at least one interleague series at all times. This means some teams will play interleague games on Opening Day, and some will close the season against the other league.

The season is scheduled to begin Monday, April 1 (although there’s already talk that a game might be switched to Sunday, March 31 for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball) and end on Sunday, September 30 — the first time since 2010 that it will end on a Sunday.

Some highlights:

• Every team will play 20 interleague games -- your team will have a lot of two-game series, with multiple off-days in some weeks -- 76 games within their own division, and 66 against all other teams in their own league.
  
  
• More on the two-game sets: teams denoted as “traditional rivals” will play back-to-back home-and-home two game sets (Dodgers/Angels, Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox and Rays/Marlins are among teams doing this).
  
  
• Interleague opening series: Angels at Reds.
  
  
• Interleague closing series: Tigers at Marlins.
  
  
• There will be a scheduled doubleheader at Arizona on Memorial Day, May 27, with the Diamondbacks hosting the Rangers, the first scheduled twin bill in Phoenix.
  
  
• Among teams making first-ever regular-season interleague visits: Dodgers are heading to Yankee Stadium; Yankees go to Petco Park; Cubs to Oakland Coliseum

And, you will probably not be surprised to learn that the Yankees and Red Sox will be playing a season-opening series (in New York). Given the fortunes of the two clubs this year, that might not be as marquee a match-up as it once was.

2013 MLB Schedule: Back To Sunday End Of Season

It won’t be too long — perhaps another week or two — before Major League Baseball will release the 2013 schedule. This is the most-anticipated schedule in recent years, due to the move of the Astros to the American League, realignment, and year-round interleague play.

After two years of having midweek starts and finishes to the season, MLB is returning to ending on a Sunday. Bill Shaikin:

After a 2009 postseason in which the Angels played nine games in 21 days and the Philadelphia Phillies played nine games in 23 days, MLB condensed the playoff schedule by moving the start and finish of the regular season to midweek. That change, introduced last year and in effect this year, essentially cut three days from the end of the season to the start of the World Series.

The restoration of those days comfortably allows for tiebreakers, the new wild-card playoff game and an extra day in the division series.

They could probably use those extra days for tiebreakers this year, due to the tight wild-card races. That could get real interesting down the stretch in 2012.

2013 MLB Schedule: Hints Of More Interleague Play

Next year's MLB schedule won't be officially released until mid-September, but we've received some published hints about the changes to come.

The Best Of All Possible Schedules

Just how could major league baseball change its schedule for the realigned leagues in 2013 to be both fair and balanced? Here's one proposal that could make almost everyone happy.

Complaining About The Only Schedule That Makes Sense

Major League Baseball teams currently play an "unbalanced" schedule, with more games against divisional opponents than non-divisional opponents. Should we care if the schedule becomes slightly more unbalanced?

2013 MLB Schedule Changes Include Later All-Star Game

Whatever Major League team you root for, that team’s schedule is likely to be quite different in 2013, both in the teams it plays and the number of games played inside and outside its division, once realignment occurs.

Ken Davidoff of Newsday proposes a schedule which would have 72 divisional games (18 vs. each team), 60 outside-the-division games in your own league (10 vs. each team) and 30 interleague games (three each against 10 teams). This would cut the “rivalry” games (Yankees/Mets, Cubs/White Sox, etc.) down to two series every three years, rather than the six games a year those teams play now.

There’s also this:

The announcement of the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field delayed that process because budgetary concerns caused the Midsummer Classic to be switched from Tuesday, July 9 to Tuesday, July 16; the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium also took place a week later than normal. That has forced the teams and players to tear up some of which already had been discussed.

There’s one other rumor about the “rivalry” games, from Chicago Cubs broadcaster Len Kasper:

The latest report has the Cubs and White Sox playing four games in the same week — two at Wrigley Field and two on the South Side. I would be fine with that or just one three-game series at each site in alternating years.

Obviously, this is all still in flux. They’ll have to figure it out by mid-September, when MLB generally releases all teams’ schedules.

Will MLB's Realignment Create Fair Schedules For Everyone?

We're going to have 15 teams in each major league in 2013. That will require schedule adjustments. Will MLB be able to create fair schedules for everyone?

MLB Contemplating 'Significant' Schedule Changes For 2013

Baseball will need to revamp team schedules when the leagues realign to 15 teams each in 2013. But how will they accomplish this?