Proposed 2011 MLB Season Starts and Ends a Week Earlier

The MLB is doing what they can to wrap up the 2011 MLB season before November, when inclement weather causes a huge number of delays and/or postponed games.

The 2011 MLB season will start on a Friday, with April 1 as the official start date for majority of the teams, and the season will end on a Wednesday, reportedly September 28.  Therefore, the playoffs will begin around September 30 or October 1 making the World Series debut be sometime around October 19 on a Wednesday, which is ultimately an entire week sooner than the past two MLB seasons.

In other words, the MLB would get exactly what they wanted – no World Series in November.  In addition to the MLB getting what they want, the players will be able to start their offseason an entire week earlier than usual.  For the most part, it seems that the majority of the players are all for this change.

This entire new game and season setup is primarily based upon complaints of those teams that partake in the World Series.  The weather seems to always be an issue when they play in November so ending a month sooner helps to avoid that inclement weather.  With the schedule that has been created right now, Game 7 of next year will end on October 28 – this year’s Game 7 is November 4.

According to a few sources, the Giants and Diamondbacks have a two-game series that takes place in Taiwan and the season is likely to start on March 25 or 26 when the series begins.  This hasn’t been approved by the MLB just yet but it is expected to be.

What do you think about the proposed 2011 MLB season schedule?  Do you think it’s a positive step or a step backwards?