Baltimore Orioles: Scheduling quirk

The Baltimore Orioles will add up their frequent flyer miles in 2016.

I’m starting to get the itch, Baltimore Orioles fans. I opened up the schedule this morning to take a look at a few scheduling quirks for 2016, and I realized that we’re only weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting. We’re getting close to that time, as we move into Super Bowl week.

In looking at the schedule, first off I noticed that the first month of the season isn’t loaded exclusively with AL East games. The O’s play division games, just not exclusively. That hasn’t been the case the past few years.

However in further examining the schedule, the Orioles will have to endure three different stints on the west coast. May 20th they head to Anaheim for three games, but their largest stint on the west coast starts June 28th. They’ll be in San Diego for two games, Seattle for four, and Los Angeles for three. Then August 8th they head back out to the west coast for four games in Oakland and three in San Francisco.

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In general, the league tends to try to have east and west coast teams visit the opposite coast in one fatal swoop. Granted this is probably easier for east coast teams going west, because there are fewer teams in California/Washington to visit. Teams like Oakland might end up coming to the east coast (or the eastern time zone at least) several times.

Furthermore, this year the AL East matches up against the NL West for interleague play. So as I said above, the Orioles will be visiting teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. This gives the likes of Adam Jones the chance to play in his hometown, and it gives Orioles fans who like to travel the opportunity to visit a park like Dodger Stadium.

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Players will tell you that at the end of the day they’re just supposed to show up at the ballpark wherever they’re supposed to play that day – home or road. But make no mistake about the fact that road trips to the west coast are trying on teams. So the O’s will head out there three times this coming season, and while it does seem like a lot the players will deal with it and not make excuses at the end of the day.

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The one saving grace incidentally is that following the Orioles’ four-game set in Oakland in August, they’ll remain in the same hotel and in the same area. They’ll head to San Francisco to play the Giants after that. Two years ago the O’s had a similar road trip encompassing the ChiSox and Cubs, and last season they did it with the Yankees and Mets. So while still a long distance, that certainly helps.