Yesterday we took note of 2022 spring-training and Triple-A schedules, deeming them necessary steps toward normalcy. We now have Double-A schedules: more normalcy in the works.
Here’s a link to yesterday’s story.
The Tennessee Smokies (Double-A South) released their 2022 schedule today, and it looks pretty much like a traditional MiLB schedule: 138 games (including 69 home games), starting April 8 and ending Sept. 18. The six-game tenures will return, along with Mondays off. (Except, importantly, for July 4, which falls on a Monday in 2022. Teams will love having those fireworks promos on July 4.) There was no break for an all-star game in 2021; in 2022 there will be a July 18-21 break to coincide with the MLB All-Star Game break. And, like Triple-A, teams will face a wider array of opponents: in eight-team Double-A South, teams will play every other team in the circuit.
If you don’t work inside the baseball industry, it may seem like a schedule release at the end of August is no big deal. But for teams, it is. Traditionally, a late-August schedule release is out of the norm; back in the old days, MiLB would have schedules issued to teams by early July, giving them plenty of time for planning. Releasing a schedule now means teams can plan for next season, both for game days and non-game days. Promotional schedules and fireworks nights can be planned, as well as group-sales offerings. And the business of selling ballpark events on non-game days can also begin: as more and more ballparks offer high-end events like weddings and receptions, the more time they’ll welcome to sell them. Knowing your team is the road during a prime June or July wedding-weekend weekend is useful knowledge as well.
We expect the High-A and Low-A schedules to appear any day now, organized the same way as the Double-A schedules.
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