It’s the new darling of baseball. Players love it.
Posted at 7:45 a.m.
A shoe to run faster?
A stick to hit further?
An effect ball that mystifies hitters?
No. Rather the series of six games. The formula is so popular that in just one year, every major league minor league affiliate has adopted it.
What exactly is a six-game series?
It is a concept developed out of necessity, in the spring of 2021. Minor league clubs wanted to restart their activities, after an enforced 18-month break. The problem was that COVID-19 was still hyperactive. In all sports, teams were caught up in outbreaks and forced to cancel games.
To reduce the risk of contagion, the minor leagues have changed the schedules. No more new opponents every four days – the norm since Babe Ruth’s infancy.
From now on, each team would face only one opponent per week, in a series of six games. A revolution.
The reaction of the players?
A big, big crush.
“It’s really better [qu’avant] “replied Quebecer Charles Leblanc, who shines in the Miami Marlins AAA school club. “It’s much easier on the body and on sleep. [La réaction chez les joueurs] is pretty much unanimous. That’s why they kept the concept this year. »
These long series have made it possible to substantially reduce travel. By almost half, for some teams. It is enormous. The less time players spend sitting on the bus, the better their quality of life. Plus, owners save tens of thousands of dollars in shipping costs.
The players are happy. Their bosses save money.
It’s a win-win, right?
Oh. Wait. I see a hand raised in the back of the room…
Michel Laplante played in the minor leagues for a dozen years. Augusta. Welland. Salem. Lynchburg. Madison. Richmond. Greenville. Quebec. He’s probably done more bus mileage than I will drive in my entire life.
“As a gamer, who took long bus trips, I certainly wouldn’t have hated the concept,” he laughs.
PHOTO YAN DOUBLET, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Michel Laplante, President of the Capitals of Quebec
But the president of the Capitals of Quebec that he is critical today with aplomb this new formula. “Fortunately,” he says, the Frontier League – which the Capitals play in – hasn’t adopted the six-game series.
“Sport is still a business. As a player, you want a big salary. A big bonus. Except that you have to realize that it’s nice to play in a park, there still have to be people who come to see you to be paid well. »
And selling fans tickets for six consecutive games against the same opponent is more difficult than selling a box of three-color popsicles in the desert. “I can’t see fans watching six games in a row at home against the same team right now. Himself, one of the greatest baseball fans I know, admits that fatigue would set in.
The individual match, I hate it. The series of two games too, because it does not show which team is the best. The series of three or four games is the best balance. Six games? It is too long.
Michel Laplante, President of the Capitals of Quebec
“Also, what do you do, in a long series, if a batter is hit in game three? Where is it going in the fourth game? On the fifth ? In the sixth? »
It is a legitimate concern, which was also shared by the head coaches of the QMJHL, in 2020-21, when the League ruled that the regional rivals would face each other more often, to reduce travel and the risk of contagion. . We were treated to 19 duels between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Charlottetown Islanders – without too many overflows, it must be recognized.
And even financially, Michel Laplante is not convinced that the concept is worth it. He agreed to reveal the figures of an organization similar to his.
“A team in the strong A or the AA which plays 150 games, it is a budget of 4 to 5 million. It’s a little higher than for a major junior hockey club. If you subtract 14 bus trips, you can save about $80,000. That’s about 2% of your budget. If you need that to justify to your fans to play six times in a row against the same team, your business is not good. Your creativity is in bad shape.
— But 2% of the budget is significant, isn’t it?
– Hold on. Afterwards, you have to convince people to come and see the same team six times. If you lose 100 spectators per night, at $15 each, for 75 games, you end up with $112,000 in unsold tickets…”
Does the future of minor league baseball go through the six-game series?
We will have a better idea, at the end of the summer, of the impact on ticket sales. But the trend towards longer series seems inevitable to me. For the welfare of the players. For their health. For ecological reasons, too. Sooner than later, sports organizations may come under pressure from sponsors and militant supporters to reduce their carbon footprint.
Now, I agree with Michel Laplante: six or even seven games against the same opponent in one week is too much. My favorite solution? Five matches in five days, from Wednesday to Sunday.
Yes, revenues would decrease. Salaries, too. But not as much as you might think, because the spectators are already not jostling at the counters on Mondays and Tuesdays. As for the players, their quality of life would certainly be improved.
Sounds like a home run, right?