The NBA season starts in a couple of months and plans to release its schedule Monday. Major League Baseball beat it to the punch — even though MLB isn’t done with its current season.
MLB released its 2020 schedule on Monday. The most notable news is that Opening Day has been pushed up to March 26. Excluding opening series abroad, it’s the earliest baseball has ever opened the season.
Baseball also announced a return to Puerto Rico. The Mets and Marlins will play a series there April 28-30 in San Juan.
Also of note, though previously announced: the Cubs and Cardinals will play two games in London; the Yankees and White Sox will play Aug. 13 at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa; and the Red Sox and Orioles will play the annual Little League Classic on Aug. 23 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
MLB will return to San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2020 when the @Marlins host the @Mets in a three-game series from April 28th-30th at Hiram Bithorn Stadium.
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) August 12, 2019
Opening day
The March 26 opening day allows schedule makers the flexibility to give teams an increased number of days off and still end the season by the end of September and the playoffs before the end of October. Next year’s season ends on Sept. 27, with the World Series scheduled for Oct. 20-28.
Of course, an early start also means more potential weather problems. Several of the opening day games, including Detroit at Cleveland, Kansas City at the White Sox, the Yankees at Baltimore and Washington at the Mets will have to watch the radar and the thermometer.
The headliner among opening series? That’d be the Giants at the Dodgers, as two longtime rivals get together on the West Coast to open the new season.
All 30 teams are scheduled to play on opening day. That also happened in 2018, but weather wiped out two games. It’s been since 1968 that all 30 teams actually played on Opening Day.
In @SportBusiness, MLB sets 2020 schedule with the earliest domestic start to the season in league history. Regular season play begins March 26 with all 30 teams. https://t.co/ClRUruePph
— Eric Fisher (@EricFisherSBG) August 12, 2019
Other big dates
The All-Star Game is July 14 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Angels and Dodgers play one of their two-game series on Friday-Saturday July 10-11, giving them both a rare Sunday off before the All-Star break.
The Yankees end the season against the Tampa Bay Rays, a series that could be rife with playoff implications. So too for the Astros and Braves in an intriguing interleague season finale and the Cubs and Cardinals in the NL Central.
As for interleague matchups, besides natural rivalry games, the AL East matches up with the NL Central (anyone up for Yankees-Cardinals and Cubs-Red Sox?), the AL Central with the NL West and the AL West with the NL East.
The 2020 @MLB regular season schedule will begin with all 30 Clubs scheduled to play on Thursday, March 26th. Complete schedules can be viewed at https://t.co/7b16TAwzW0 and on the 30 Club sites. Highlights of the 2020 regular season schedule include: pic.twitter.com/wxsGs29thk
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) August 12, 2019
(h/t Associated Press)
