As alluded to in my previous post last night, there is a complaint about the 2007 Shorebirds schedule provided to them by the South Atlantic League. Last year a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth occurred regarding the sheer number of times we play certain opponents while we don’t even see other teams in the league come to Perdue Stadium whatsoever. While the SAL has 16 teams including the Shorebirds, only 9 paid a visit to our humble abode last season. Missing from last year’s home schedule were Asheville, Charleston (SC), Columbus, Kannapolis, Rome, and Savannah. (In fact, we did not even play Charleston or the Georgia teams at all except for Augusta.)
Obviously this is a product of having a relatively far-flung league and single-A travel budget. While it’s not so bad for Delmarva, a Georgia trip for the Lake County Captains would be like the Bataan Death March for them. Though the 8-9 hour bus ride to Delmarva is still not a bargain for the Ohioans, their other two common destinations (Lakewood and Hagerstown) aren’t such a bad trip from the shore of Lake Erie. So we ended up seeing the Lakewood BlueClaws, Hagerstown Suns, and Lake County Captains a combined 46 times in 70 home dates. Lakewood was our most frequent guest with 18 contests over 5 separate visits.
So what does the 2007 schedule hold for the Delmarva nine? Well, the bad news is that we once again see Lake County (18 times), Lakewood (16 games), and Hagerstown (12 dates) 46 times in 70 home games. The REALLY bad news is that we have a stretch of 67 games overall from May 4 to July 16 when those three teams are the extent of our opponents. And the REALLY, REALLY bad news is that Perdue Stadium is dark from June 10 all the way through June 27 as the Shorebirds have back-to-back roadtrips to Lake County and Lakewood (in that order) sandwiched around the league All-Star break. Lakewood is our last home game prior to that stretch and the BlueClaws are the opponent upon Delmarva’s return.
The league did improve a little on 2006 though. There were three occasions where the team we finished a homestand with was the very first opponent on the next one (Lakewood once, Lake County twice.) This year, the situation only occurs for the aforementioned Lakewood games surrounding the long June road trip.
So having the first 12 games of the season at Lexington, at Hickory, and home to West Virginia will be somewhat of an anamoly for the Shorebirds. The other long stretch without our three oh-so-common opponents will be about a month from mid-July to mid-August when we’ll host Hickory, Kannapolis, Asheville, and Lexington while roadtrips take the Shorebirds to West Virginia/Greensboro and Greenville/Columbus.
Of course, the final 11 games will be with our big three, although for the first time in the three seasons I’ve lived here the Shorebirds will finish the season at home on Labor Day (hosting Lake County.)
There are a couple benefits to the unbalanced schedule though. Fans of the Phillies and Nationals will have a lot of chances to see their future talent as Lakewood is a Philadelphia affiliate and Hagerstown just switched affiliation over the winter to become a Nationals farm club. So the Maryland rivalry becomes more intense. With Lake County here so often I can keep tabs on what talent the archrival (to my Tigers) Cleveland Indians may have in the future.
However, because of this stacked schedule, if you like the Giants, Yankees, Devil Rays, Braves, Red Sox, or Mets and want to see their SAL affiliates, you’re out of luck. If you’d like to see what minor league talent the Brewers, Marlins, Pirates, White Sox, Rockies, or Astros have to offer, you only have a brief chance to see that when they come to Delmarva. Blink and you might miss them.
