MICROSCHEDULING

MLB announced that the last games of the season will all start at the same time.

Looking to add even more excitement to the race for the postseason, Major League Baseball has announced a scheduling change they hope will do just that.

Every game on the regular season's final day will start at the same time. The 2015 season ends Sunday, Oct. 4, and first pitch is set for 3 p.m. ET in all 15 games across MLB.

Here's what the league's COO, Tony Pettiti told the LA Times about the decision:

"If a game impacts another game, they're all occurring at the same time, so no team would be put into a lame-duck situation because their fate already had been decided by an earlier result. If we do have games coming down to the wire, we want to make sure we maximize that day. We're hopeful that the races will come down to the last day of the season. We want to make sure we celebrate the end of the season properly."

The reason is that if one team knows the outcome of an earlier contest, it could affect the playoffs (such as resting players or a starting pitcher for the play-in wild card game).

On the positive side, uniformity at the end of season evens the playing field in regard to making teams play the game like a playoff contest. However, if it is a meaningless contest between also-rans the start time of the contest really does not matter. In fact, an early start could hurt the home team's attendance (which could be lagging if they are not in the playoff picture).

It used to be the domain of the home club to schedule the times of their home games. The league creates the schedules, and the teams put in the times, with the exception of getaway days where an afternoon game is held (but not always, as I recall the White Sox having to play a night game on the West Coast then come home to play a day game, which I think was a holiday to get the family crowd) The Sox were upset with their opponent about how they had to play, then fly home for an early game but there was no recourse.

Now, the only other national game changer is the networks who have the right to flex or change telecast times to meet their schedules. They often only give the teams a week's notice or less if there is change. I recall a network moving up a Cub game time by an hour, so the game started with a nearly empty Wrigley until the third inning when fans started to show up at the printed start time on their tickets.

Perhaps the league is slowly trying to micromanage everything. It has its own on-line streaming and network to push content to subscribers.