So very cold

Piggybacking on this week's Opening Day in Japan is this link from my dad, wondering if the University of Chicago's games would be televised here in the United States.

My guess is maybe, but probably before the 5 a.m. starts for the live games and most likely a week or two after the games were actually played. I'll be sure to update the public access schedules when they're updated.

I was listening to sports talk in the car yesterday and heard the call for someone in baseball's front office to get a better handle on weather in Chicago, Detroit and New York in late March and early April, which rolls in nicely with the outcry for fairness after the Japanese series.

These are really no-win situations - save for axing the far, far away games outright, which isn't a bad idea - for the schedulers. If you shy away from the cold-weather towns to start the season and schedule for warm weather or domed stadiums, you make it harder on the Cubs, Mets, etc. to get out of the gate.

On the back end, teams like Los Angeles, San Diego and Florida are punished at the end of the season when the home games start to dry up.

Short of cutting down the season from 162 games, I can't see how any of this works out well for people who enjoy complaining about schedules. The simplest answer is to shut up and play your games, but what fun is that?

On second thought, ask me again when I'm sitting at Wrigley for Monday's opener in what is expected to be 35- to 40-degree freezing rain.

Yeah! Outdoor baseball!

(Image from: UChicago.edu)