I've often assumed that making up MLB's schedule was a difficult, thankless job.
Daniel Brown at the Merc confirms these assumptions via an enlightening conversation with one Katy Feeney, MLB's senior vice president in charge of scheduling. In addition to all of the uncertainty over the weather, not to mention the politics of keeping owners in two-team markets happy (they hate to both be in town at the same time), there are several built-in scheduling restrictions as well:
The players union has negotiated that the schedule can be no longer than 183 days, can include no more than two day-night doubleheaders for any team and cannot have any team play more than 20 consecutive days without a day off. Teams traveling from Pacific to Eastern time zones must have a day off in between, among other specifications. The list goes on and on.
There. That should put an end to Alyssa's backseat driving.
