2011 MLB slate packed with exciting matchups
Season starting early so playoffs end in October
Get ready for something new in 2011.
The 2011 Major League Baseball regular season will begin with the Brewers at the Reds, the Angels at the Royals, the Braves at the Nationals, the Tigers at the Yankees, and the Padres at the Cardinals.
The tentative master schedule was announced on Tuesday, and the major change is the season's earlier start and finish, as recommended by the Commissioner's Special Committee for On-Field Matters. Those five games will open the season on March 31 after a shortened Spring Training, followed by 11 April 1 games. The season's final regularly scheduled games will be played on Wednesday, Sept. 28 -- all in the interest of not playing baseball into November.
"The challenges of our scheduling are considerable, but I shared the committee's desire to make the necessary adjustments to assure that postseason baseball does not extend beyond October," Commissioner Bud Selig said.
"I think that any way that we can condense the season a bit [is better for the game], I think there's a real issue with weather," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia, one of four managers on the 14-person committee. "You can get bad weather in October, but you have that buffer because there's still time ahead of you, and the chance of good weather is much better than if you have a cold spell in the first week of November that you can get things done."
Get ready to see the Cubs battling the Red Sox at Fenway Park for the first time since 1918. Get ready for the Cardinals' first visit to Baltimore, the same franchise once known as the St. Louis Browns. Get ready for Atlanta opening at Washington with a new manager.
"I think the integrity of the season is very important," Scioscia said. "I think there are natural pennant races, especially with the Wild Card. There's a Wild Card division, a whole new division that appears the last three weeks of the season. it's a whole new division that just appears to see what that last place can be."
Some clubs already are accepting 2011 season ticket deposits. Check MLB.com's online ticketing headquarters for your club's ticketing updates and see individual schedule stories for each club as well.
The 2011 season will mark the first non-Sunday or Monday start since 1998. The last regular season to start on Thursday was 1976. Previous seasons with Thursday starts: 1901-04, 1907, 1912, 1959, 1973-74 and 1976. The last regular season to end as early as Sept. 28 was 2003, and the last to end on day other than Sunday was 1990.
