Mother Nature Complicates the MLB Playoffs Schedule

If weather reports are to be believed—they’re not—then it looks as though the series opener to the Yankees-Angels ALCS could be put off a whopping five days, thanks to a weather system currently moving up the East Coast, and, at least in Washington D.C., making things completely miserable.

The L.A. Times reports:

If Game 1 can’t be played Friday night, when temperatures are expected to drop to the low 40s with a wind-chill near freezing, the start of the series could be pushed back to Saturday. But the forecast is basically the same. In fact, the forecast doesn’t have the skies clearing until Tuesday.

And this, my friends, could lead to all sorts of problems:

If either Game 1 or 2 is postponed by weather, the teams could play on Sunday, which is currently listed as a travel day. But since the ALCS is being televised on Fox, it’s unlikely the network would agree to a schedule that would include a Sunday afternoon game because it would clash with the network’s NFL schedule.

Game 3 is currently scheduled for Monday afternoon in Anaheim. If the teams have to play Sunday night, it’s unlikely they would be asked to fly across the country and play the next afternoon. The game could be moved to Monday night or could simply be moved to Tuesday by the commissioner’s office, which is in charge of scheduling postseason contests. That would compact the schedule by having the teams play on three consecutive days.

Will this be the year that weather finally pushes baseball’s “fall classic” into November deeper into November, and onto Thanksgiving Day? But if that happens, will Fox be forced to bump the Lions-Packers game? This is so complicated!