You may have noticed that the Braves have a scheduled day off Sunday and thought that seemed unusual.
If you wondered how long it’s been since that happened, the answer is 85 years.
The Braves haven’t had a regularly scheduled Sunday off since May 21, 1933. That year, the Boston Braves had a weekend series at the Pirates, but it was a time when Pennsylvania laws mandated that no games could be played on Sundays, so the Braves knew entering the season that they couldn’t play that day. The law was repealed later that year. (Thanks to the Braves’ media-relations staff for their research.)
There have been rainouts that cost teams Sunday games. There was the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks in New York when all major league games were cancelled Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001. But excluding seasons when a few teams opened on a Sunday and the Braves didn’t open till a day or two later, in no year since 1933 have the Braves looked at their schedule before a season began and seen a Sunday off.
Here are some other tidbits about the Braves’ schedule this season:
Potential trouble awaits at the start
The Braves essentially come out of the gate facing a run of 2017 postseason teams. After the season-opening three-game series against the Phillies, the last-place team in the National League East last season, the next 12 games are against teams that made the NL playoffs in 2017. Nine of those games come on the road.
The first three in that 12-game stretch are at home against the Nationals, then the Braves take a trip to Colorado (3 games), Washington (3) and the Cubs (3). Each of those teams should contend for the postseason again, with the Nationals and Cubs expected to make strong bids to advance to the World Series. After that comes a bit of break. The Braves won’t face another 2017 postseason team until May 15 at home against the Cubs.
Phillies early and Phillies late
The youthful, rebuilding Phillies will bear watching this season as they try to progress toward the .500 mark after winning 66 games last season.
Young teams sometimes can look radically different from the first half of the season to the second, and the Braves will get a taste of the early-season Phillies and the late-season Phillies.
The Braves play the Phillies nine times among their first 29 games, all by the end of April. That means they will have played the Phillies nine times before they play 13 of the other 18 teams on the schedule. The Phillies will have played six games at SunTrust Park by April 18.
After that date, the teams don’t meet again until Sept. 20. Then the Braves will play the Phillies in two of their final series – seven of their final 10 games. They meet on the final weekend of the season for a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park that ends Sept. 30.
Traditional ‘holidays’
With no game on Easter, fans have one less chance to attend a “holiday” game this season, but the Braves play at SunTrust Park on Memorial Day (1:35 p.m. May 28 against the Mets), Father’s Day (1:35 p.m. June 17 against the Padres) and Labor Day (1:35 p.m. Sept. 3 against the Red Sox). The Braves are on the road for Mother’s Day (1:10 p.m. May 13 at the Marlins) and July 4 (1:05 p.m. at the Yankees).
Miscellaneous
*The Braves play 20 interleague games, all against American League East teams Tampa Bay, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore and New York.
*After playing their first six games at home, 25 of the Braves’ next 35 are on the road. They play 15 of 28 games in September at home, but the final six are on the road.
*For the people who follow the adage that you try to win more series than you lose, the Braves play 52 series this season. Six of the series are for only two games. 12 are four-game series.
*As in recent years, the Braves open and close their season with a cluster of games within the NL East. They play 16 of their first 22 games and 22 of their first 32 within the division. They also play 13 of their final 16 against division rivals. The first three games are at home against the Phillies, and the final three are on the road against the Phillies.
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