When Does the Regular Baseball Season Start?

The Major League Baseball regular season starts on Thursday, April 2nd.

When is Opening Day?

For baseball fans, the regular season cannot come soon enough. Many are anxious to find out when their team will be playing and when they can start making their game-day plans. So, when is Opening Day?

Why is Opening Day on a Thursday this year?

Opening Day for the 2019 Major League Baseball season is scheduled for Thursday, March 28.

In previous years, Opening Day was on a Monday, which allowed teams to play a four-game series over the long weekend. However, this year there are several factors that have led MLB to schedule Opening Day for a Thursday.

First, by starting the season on a Thursday, MLB can avoid having any games on Good Friday. In addition, with a Thursday start, there is the potential for more weekend series throughout the season.

Finally, scheduling Opening Day for a Thursday maximizes the number of days off for teams during the season. This is important because it helps prevent players from getting tired and injured during the long season.

So while it may be unusual to have Opening Day on a Thursday, there are some good reasons behind MLB’s decision.

How has the date of Opening Day changed over time?

baseball season has always begun in the spring, but the date has varied almost from year to year. Prior to 1903, the National League scheduled Opening Day for April 10th on a regular basis. That changed in 1903, when the Boston Americans (now the Red Sox) and Pittsburgh Pirates opened the season on April 22nd. It was the first time that two Major League teams had started the season on a Sunday. In 1918, Opening Day was pushed back even further to April 29th due to World War I.

The date of Opening Day continued to change in subsequent years, moving back and forth across the calendar before finally settling on April 1st in 1934. Major League Baseball has opened the regular season on that date ever since, with a few exceptions. In 1968, when MLB shifted to a 162-game schedule, it became impractical to begin the season on April 1st because many of the league’s stadiums were still cold and snowy at that time of year. As a result, Opening Day was moved back to Monday, April 8th that year and has remained on that day ever since — with one exception.

In 1981, a players’ strike forced MLB to shorten the regular season from 162 games to 144 games. As a result, Opening Day was pushed back almost three weeks to Monday, April 26th. The following year, when play resumed after the strike, Opening Day returned to Monday, April 12th — where it has remained ever since.

How long is the regular season?

The regular baseball season starts in late March and lasts until early October. There are 162 games in a season. However, the length of the season can vary depending on factors such as weather conditions and the number of teams in the league.

What is the schedule for the 2019 season?

The season starts on March 28 with all 30 teams in action. That includes the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics, who will be playing in Japan.

Why are there 162 games in a season?

A Major League Baseball season consists of 162 games for each of the 30 teams in the American League (AL) and National League (NL), played over approximately six months—a total of 2,430 games, plus the postseason.

The length of the season has varied throughout MLB history, but it settled at 162 games in 1961. Before that, the regular season was 154 games long from 1892 to 1960 (with the exception of 1918, when it was cut to 140 because of World War I). From 1884 to 1891, it was only 140 games long.

The longest regular season in MLB history was 187 days long (from April 12 to October 3), set in 183 days in 1879. The shortest regular season was 138 days long (from April 17 to September 2), set during 1945 due to player shortages caused by World War II.

The question of why there are 162 games in an MLB season is a complicated one with no easy answer. There are a number of theories—some logical, some more far-fetched—but the most likely explanation is that it’s simply a combination of factors that have come together over time.

One theory is that 162 games is the optimal number for determining the best team. This may have been true at one time, but with advances in statistical analysis, we now know that a small sample size like a baseball season can be highly misleading. In fact, some sabermetricians have argued that as few as 40 or 50 games might be enough to accurately predict which team is better.

Another theory is that 162 games is necessary to ensure that every team plays every other team an equal number of times. But this doesn’t seem to hold up either, since there have been seasons where teams have played each other an unequal number of times and the schedule has varied widely over MLB history.

So if there’s no clear reason why there are 162 games in an MLB season, why has the schedule stayed this way for so long? Part of the reason may be simply because it’s become tradition—the way things have always been done. Baseball is a sport with a rich history dating back over a century, and tradition often carries a lot of weight in decisions about how the game is played.

Another factor could be financial. With more games comes more ticket sales and more revenue for teams and MLB as a whole. More TV broadcasts mean more advertising dollars as well. So even if there’s no clear reason why there needs to be162 games in a season, there’s certainly an incentive for things to stay this way from a business standpoint.

In recent years, there has been some talk about shortening the MLB season—both from fans who are tired of baseball dragging on through autumn and from players who would like fewer grueling months on the road away from their families. But any change would likely be met with resistance from owners and broadcasters who are happy with the status quo and reluctant to give up any potential income. So for now at least, it seems we’re stuck with a162-game regular season schedule.

What happens if a game is rained out?

The regular baseball season usually starts in April and ends in September. If a game is rained out, it is rescheduled for another day.

How are rainouts made up?

If a game is rained out, it is typically made up on a mutual day off between the two teams. If there is no mutual day off, the game may be made up as part of a double header (two games played back-to-back on the same day).

What is the league’s policy on postponing games?

In the event that a game is postponed, the league has a number of options for making up the game. The league may choose to reschedule the game for a later date, or they may choose to cancel the game entirely. If the game is rescheduled, tickets for the original date will be honored on the new date. If the game is cancelled, ticket holders will be refunded.