# MLB (Baseball) Return July 23. 60 game season in 66 days **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** baseball-mlb\ **Created:** [June 24, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771 "2020-06-24T16:23:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/161 "2020-07-29T01:30:49Z")
Where do the Blue Jays play? Last I heard it was supposed to be Buffalo. Will anyone miss the Marlins if they don’t play again this year? Or next year, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/162 "2020-07-29T03:23:50Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Where do the Blue Jays play? Last I heard it was supposed to be Buffalo. That is still the current primary plan, though they’re planning to play some in other cities, too (see @dalej42 's note upthread.) They’re currently in the midst of a four-game series against the Nationals in Washington; the first two games (yesterday and today) are home games for the Nats, but tomorrow’s and Thursday’s games are to be “home” games for the Jays. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/163 "2020-07-29T03:28:56Z")
Dang! Shit Joe Kelly, ends a bad inning with a tease. Bench clearer! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/164 "2020-07-29T03:58:53Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Right here: [Baseball Standings | MLB.com](https://www.mlb.com/standings) I get a blank screen. Trying for 3 days. Laptop, Win-10, Firefox. All other tabs work. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/165 "2020-07-29T04:34:28Z")
ETA. With Chrome, now, I get a panel asking to accept cookies, apparently not supported by Firefox. Special cookies required only for viewing Standings. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/166 "2020-07-29T05:34:53Z")
Well, hope they’re ready for tests every four hours. 😀. I’m with Kelly. The whimpering lip thingy was hilarious. And it’s hard to speculate if his pitches near the heads of other batters were intentional. He sucks, then great, then sucks… ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/167 "2020-07-29T14:53:13Z")
> [@ThatCanadianGuy](#): > > Don’t feel bad Mike. Us Canadians have been blacked out on [MLB.TV](http://MLB.TV) for ALL Blue Jays games, “home” and away. WHY?? Because you are in their home TV market. It’s the same rules as all the other clubs. Presumably, you have a cable or other TV channel that shows Blue Jays games, both home and away, in Canada. The idea of the MLBtv blackout is to force you to watch Blue Jays games on that provider, because they have paid for the privilege of being the official team broadcaster. It sucks, but it’s no different than all the other teams. At least you only miss one team; I live within the blackout region of three teams, two in the AL and one in the NL. ---
**Author:** ![ThatCanadianGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@ThatCanadianGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThatCanadianGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/168 "2020-07-29T16:22:30Z")
If the Jays play in TB or NY or Philly, they are not playing in my home market. They won’t be all year in fact but I’ll give MLB a pass when they play in Buffalo. That wasn’t the case in previous years, I could watch their road games. I don’t have cable and haven’t for nearly 20 years, that’s why I subscribe to [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv) I’ll watch other teams but Blue Jays are my team and I won’t be able to watch ANY of their games. I could watch after the game on replay but it’s not quite the same. Nate Pearson is making his debut tonight against Scherzer. Pondering whether to control urge to listen the radio broadcast and watch the game tomorrow or even very late tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/169 "2020-07-29T16:58:29Z")
> [@ThatCanadianGuy](#): > > If the Jays play in TB or NY or Philly, they are not playing in my home market. That’s true, but the game is broadcast in your home market. And is, therefore, blacked out for you on [mlb.tv](http://mlb.tv). > [@](#): > > I don’t have cable and haven’t for nearly 20 years… And that’s why you can’t watch the Blue Jays. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/170 "2020-07-29T19:17:51Z")
I’ve always liked the idea of re-aligning to five divisions of six teams. These divisions are reasonably natural except for the “Southeast” one, and that’s at least contiguous - i.e., you could draw a perimeter around the teams in it without overlapping any other division’s territory: Northeast: Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Phillies, Orioles, Nationals Southeast: Pirates, Indians, Reds, Braves, Rays, Marlins Great Lakes: Blue Jays, Tigers, Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Twins Midwest-Mountain: Cardinals, Orioles, Astros, Rangers, Rockies, Diamondbacks Pacific: Mariners, Athletics, Giants, Dodgers, Angels, Padres ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/171 "2020-07-29T19:37:10Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Midwest-Mountain: Cardinals, Orioles, Astros, Rangers, Rockies, Diamondbacks I think you mean Royals instead of Orioles there, since you have them in the Northeast already. Seems really weird to break up Cubs/Cardinals and Mets/Braves, as well as putting same-city teams in the same division. Also, what do you do with the playoffs? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/173 "2020-07-29T20:06:53Z")
D’oh! Of course…and my favorite team, no less! I could consider swapping the Cardinals with the Twins, but despite the historical Cards-Cubs rivalry, it seems more natural to "rival-pair the Cards with the Royals and the Twins with the Brewers, since the re-alignment I propose is mainly geographical. And by the same token, with geography as the main consideration, it makes no sense to split up the same-city pairs. As for the playoffs, the five division winners plus the three best non-division-winning teams as wild cards make a field of eight playoff teams. Seed according to win-loss record, division winners as seeds 1-5 and the wild cards as seeds 6-8, even if a wild card’s record is better than a division winner’s. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2020, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/174 "2020-07-29T22:24:43Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > And the first Cub home run of the season belongs to Ian Happ. For the second consecutive year. Last year, he homered on the very first pitch of the season. Sorry I’m late, but Happ was the first Cub to homer in 2018 and 2020. In 2019 he started the season playing for AAA Iowa. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/175 "2020-07-30T15:52:20Z")
Orel Hershiser got off a good one at Altuve last night after Altuve struck out looking with a runner on in the fifth. Hershiser: “Guessing is harder than knowing.” ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/176 "2020-07-30T16:12:35Z")
> [@ThatCanadianGuy](#): > > If the Jays play in TB or NY or Philly, they are not playing in my home market. But as **Mr.Greenjeans** noted, the game is still broadcast in your home market. When the Orioles play in Seatlle, they are about 2500 miles from their home market, but those games are still blocked to Baltimore-area viewers on [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv) because a local Baltimore TV channel is broadcasting the game in Baltimore. > [@ThatCanadianGuy](#): > > I don’t have cable and haven’t for nearly 20 years, that’s why I subscribe to [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv). Right, but the cable companies and TV stations know this, and it’s why they pressure [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv) to maintain its blackout rules. They’re trying to make sure that you do, in fact, sign up for cable if you want to watch the Blue Jays. It sucks, but they have the financial clout to get their way. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/177 "2020-07-30T17:11:00Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > Right, but the cable companies and TV stations know this, and it’s why they pressure [MLB.tv](http://MLB.tv) to maintain its blackout rules. They’re trying to make sure that you do, in fact, sign up for cable if you want to watch the Blue Jays. It sucks, but they have the financial clout to get their way. Well, of course, if you could buy non-blackout viewing rights on MLB tv, then why would ESPN or local sports networks pay anything close to what they pay for MLB rights? MLB would have to jack up MLB tv costs significantly to make up the money on that. For instance, NFL Sunday Ticket is $400 if you want out of market games and RedZone channel. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/178 "2020-07-30T19:50:28Z")
This weekend’s Blue Jays / Phillies series in Philadelphia is a casualty to COVID; three Phillies staffers (but no players, at this point) have tested positive for the virus. [https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/07/30/phillies-staff-members-test-positive-coronavirus-workouts-canceled](https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/07/30/phillies-staff-members-test-positive-coronavirus-workouts-canceled) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/179 "2020-07-30T20:01:31Z")
For God’s sake. Cancel the season. The Canadian government’s refusal to let the Jays play at home looks smarter every day. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/180 "2020-07-30T22:10:01Z")
Rumors that the Blue Jays and Nats will play over the weekend. May as well, they’re both there and the games need to played anyway. It’ll make the make up games mess easier ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/181 "2020-07-30T22:23:38Z")
We all know the standard post-season formula in every sport is some form of elimination tournament. 16 teams compete to reduce to 8, to 4, to 2, to 1 champion. This year we’ll do the same thing, just using COVID tests rather than on-field performance to do the winnowing. Right now there’s 32(-ish) teams. Within a few weeks there’ll be a lot fewer. maybe even zero. Last team standing wins the pennant. Maybe they can make a special trophy for this year with lots of spiky things sticking out of it. For darn sure the record books on 2020 are going to be full of spiky \*'s next to most (all) of the data. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771.md?page=10)