Cubs Schedule

It's the most exciting thing to happen in Cubdom all month...the 2013 schedule release!!! They actually have the entire thing up at cubs.com already, but here are some of the highlights.

The season begins at Pittsburgh on Monday, April 1st followed by a trip to Atlanta. The home schedule begins the following Monday, April 8th versus the Brewers. We'll get an immediate feel for the new interleague schedule with a 3-game series versus the Rangers during that same homestand (April 16-18). The customary city rivalry versus the White Sox has been reduced to 4 games and will be back-to-back 2-game series at each home park (May 27-May 30) starting at Comiskey. Then in a horrific bit of traveling, the Cubs head to Anaheim against the Angels for a 2-game set on June 3rd and 4th. They have an off day before and after, but it's sandwiched between two homestands and that "away" series at Comiskey.

They're next interleague match-up will be versus the Astros at Wrigley from June 21-June 23. That's sandwiched between 2 road trips of 7 and 10 games culminating at Oakland to start off July. Then they come home for a 9-game homestand versus the Pirates, Angels and Cardinals before the All-Star break. The 2nd half starts with a 10-game roadtrip to Colorado, Arizona and San Francisco. Their Southern California trip through San Diego and then Los Angeles will be from August 23-August 28th. By September, they could be playing the role of spoiler with a 11-game roadtrip versus Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. They end the season at St. Louis on Septemeber 29th.

As for 2012, Anthony Rizzo is out after a nasty collision with Brett Wallace yesterday and Brett Jackson misses his 5th straight game. That means folks will witness this: Mather CF, Barney 2B, Castro SS, Soriano LF, Castillo C, Vitters 3B, Sappelt RF, Recker 1B, Wood P

Sunday night will mark the unofficial end of the Cubs' early-season Cupcake Schedule, which included games against:

• Atlanta (3 away)
• Cincy (6 away)
• Brewers (3 home, 3 away)
• Houston (3 home)
• Metropolitans (4 away)
• Washington (3 home)
• Arizona (4 home)
• Pirates (3 away)

I had been kind of curious when the Cubs would ever make up those 5 games on the Cardinals, considering the Cubs are still up in the loss column, yet a half game behind. And I figured if I'm curious, someone else out there is as well. So mark the dates on your calendar, if the Cubs can win all 5, they'll pick up 2.5 games on the Cardinals.

August 3rd - Cubs @ Cincinnati

August 13th - Cubs vs. Philadelphia

August 31st - Cubs vs. Houston

September 17th - Cubs vs. Milwaukee

September 24th - Cubs @ San Francisco

Assuming Aramis Ramirez is out of the Cub lineup for exactly 8 weeks from this past Friday night, he'll be back for the July 4th game between the Cubs and Brewers at Wrigley Field, the third game of a four-game series.

In the interim, the Cubs will play 48 games, including all 15 of their interleague games against AL Central teams. Ramirez will also miss 20 games against NL Central opponents and the one and only visit by the Dodgers to Wrigley Field, which, owing to other, non-injury events, will now be completely Ramirez-free.

Here is what the next 8 weeks hold for the Cubs and their two leading division rivals:

It's available at cubs.com, and the Cubs will open the season on the road at Houston on April 6th and open up Miller Park that Friday. They start the home season on Monday, April 13th versus the Colorado Rockies.

June looks pretty tough, with just one nine-game homestand and 17 on the road. They'll play their interleague schedule that month versus the AL Central, including home games versus the Twins, White Sox and Indians and then three on the road versus both Detroit and the White Sox. For the first time that I can recall, they play a series versus the White Sox in the middle of the week, although the second match-up at Comiskey (still Comiskey to me) is on the weekend.

They make up those home games in July with 16 at home and nine on the road. They finish the season with six at home versus Pittsburgh and Arizona. That will be right after a 10-game road trip to St. Louis, Milwaukee and San Francisco. They also travel to San Diego twice next season, April and August.

UPDATE #2: Game on. Sunday at 7pm CST in Milwaukee and Monday at 1pm. The third game will be made up on Monday, September 29th only if necessary.

UPDATE: Paul Sullivan says the Cubs have decided that no matter what MLB decides, they won't be traveling tonight. So take that MLB and Astros.

It looks like Astros owner Drayton McLane's attempt to keep the games in Houston this weekend were all for naught. An article on MLB.com posted around 9pm CST, says the plan to move to series to Milwaukee is back in play (just like the Cubs originally suggested). If it happens, details will be announced tomorrow.

Some "connected" Brewers fan posted that everything is already in place and there will be games Sunday and Monday at Miller Park. Hopefully he's more connected than those Orioles fans from the offseason.

A Houston Chronicle story posted just a bit earlier paints a still defiant McLane.

“This could be the biggest series in the history of this season,”
McLane said via phone from his home in Temple. “And the fans would be a
tremendously inspirational force for our players. And I didn’t want our
players to be away from their families.

“We’re standing up for our fans and for our players. It’s just
not right to have them leave their families to play at another site
like Atlanta or Cincinnati. I said that to (Selig) several times
(Thursday) and I said it again (Friday).”

McLane said there are three main considerations as the club
consults with Selig and the Office of Emergency Management while
considering whether they can play a doubleheader Sunday against the
Cubs at Minute Maid Park and another game Monday.

One is the feasibility of the Cubs’ charter to land at Bush
Intercontinental Airport on Saturday; the second is to make sure
there’s no flooding near the ballpark downtown; the third is making
sure there is electricity, according to McLane.

The fourth consideration is that McLane would have to refund the ticket money and then where is he suppose to swim?

The Cubs will get at least a two game rest after tonight thanks to Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Texas coast. There were thoughts of moving Friday's night game up to a day game and then likely a doubleheader on Sunday. Now it seems like they'll try and get a doubleheader on either Sunday or Monday and one game in on the other day with both teams having a scheduled off day Monday.

So barring any more rainouts, it looks like Saturday will be the last Cubs off day of the regular season. I'm sure Lou will tweak his rotation accordingly and it will likely mean another Sean Marshall start.