Baseball is Back! Excited to Watch and Attend Games Plus Fantasy Baseball to Return

 

Spring is right around the corner. In a typical year, spring training would have started with catchers and picthers reporting. This year though, a MLB strike was in effect since December 2021. On Thursday, March 10 while at home for a snow day and between meetings that were scheduled, I read where the MLB lockout had ended. Suddenly, every social media outlet as well as news outlet was talking about baseball season starting. After feeling the past few weeks that baseball was not going to happen, or be severly delayed, it is good to have it back and know that opening day is set for April 7. Basically, the whole season is pushed back a week, but expect to get in all the games that were planned.

 

Of course, we are gearing up for the end of college basketball with March Madness in full swing and NCAA tournament happening next week, it is good to once again have MLB back in our sites. The day after the announcement sparked conversations with fantasy baseball leagues talking about who is playing this year, when we will draft, etc., so a lot to work out for fantasy baseball leagues as the start of the season is announced. 

 

Anthony Castrovince from MLB.com outlines when Spring Training begins as well as the changes for the season in his article MLB 2022 season FAQ. To quote/reference a few items from his article, Spring Training will tentatively start on March 18. As mentioned earlier, opening day is scheduled for April 7 with the games that were scheduled March 31 through April 6 to be played following the regular season.

 

Castrovince shares that doubleheaders will “revert back to the pre-pandemic era” where we will once again see doubleheaders be nine innings and “there will not be an automatic running at second base at the start of extra innings” (MLB 2022 season FAQ). For those of us that are fans in the American League, a change was made to no longer have a spot in the batting order for the pitcher. Often a debate between fans of American or National League’s, at least for 2022 the DH will be in both leagues. I am sure the debate and conversation will continue througout this year between the two fan bases.

 

Changes also took place in regard to playoffs on how many teams play as well as no longer re-seeding for division series. Plus there will there will no longer be play-in games to decide the playoff spots as noted by Castrovince in the MLB 2022 season FAQ article.

 

A few changes, and some being major changes, the MLB season begins. Not exactly how we thought it would be starting, but it is good to have Spring Training starting and the regular season to start in early April… I cannot wait! Hoping to make it to at least one Royals game this year as I did not make it to any last year. Enjoy the season!