Commissioner’s Comments on 2021 Game Schedule
On Sunday night November 8 the first official movement towards 2021 was taken as the GLL Major League game schedule was drawn. I’ll give you a little background on this year’s schedule. The second half of this year’s schedule is modeled after what we have done the past several years. There are doubleheaders at Elm Street and four games a week on each Perkins field. For the 2021 season we have changed the first half of the season so that we may utilize Elm Street more. The twenty 5:30, Monday-Thursday games scheduled for the VFW Field have been moved to Elm Street as 7:30 starts. By doing this we utilize Stallings Stadium at Elm Street Park to just about its fullest potential (118 regular season games).
Schedules are not created equally. Each team has different nuances which in the view of some makes one schedule better than another one. For instance, when my Detroit Tigers finish a home stand on a Thursday and have to travel to say Oakland for instance to start a 3 game series on Friday I know the Tigers will likely be lethargic on Friday and probably not play well. The Yankees for instance may not have any disadvantage such as that in their schedule. Then the next year the Yankees may have a disadvantage like that and the Tigers may not. Once again all schedules are not created equally.
The numbers, which we try to keep relatively even, go like this:
Each team plays:
…between 64% and 74% of their games at Elm Street.
…between 28% and 36% of their games at night.
…between 9% and 18% of their games on Saturdays.
Each team plays the teams in the league opposite them 1 time and the teams in their own league twice.
Now for some of the schedule highlights:
-Defending City Champion opens their 2021 campaign with an Opening Night matchup against Optimist.
-Opening Day has all Tar Heel teams as the home teams. Eastern Plumbing hosts C&C Stoneworks followed by Brown & Wood and Physicians East on the Kiwanis Field. On VFW Pepsi takes on Overton’s while Coke and Carolina Windows & Doors rounds out the day’s action there. EC Auto opens their season against Ross in a green vs. green matchup at Elm Street. The evening session doubleheader on Opening Day at Elm Street opens with a BB&T vs. Kiwanis matchup followed by Lions and Jarman Auto Sales.
-The first league game of the season is on May 5 as Jarman takes on Pepsi at 7:30 at Elm Street. North State league play begins on May 6. From May 6 on, all games will be league games.
-The City Championship rematch between Kiwanis and RE/MAX takes place on May 1 at Elm Street.
-Virtually everyday game play starts on the VFW Field on May 17 with Jarman hosting Brown & Wood.
-Same color matchups occur when a program has 16 teams and several sponsors that share some of the same colors. I hate to see them but I understand why we have to have them. Here are the ones for 2021:
EC Auto vs. Ross on Opening day, Pepsi vs. Eastern Plumbing (Mother’s Laundry Nightmare Game) on May 13 and on the last day of the season, Overton’s vs. PE on May 10 and May 25, C&C vs. Brown & Wood on April 20, and RE/MAX vs. Kiwanis on May 1.
-The “Cola War” between Pepsi and Coke is scheduled to be at Elm Street on April 26.
-The “Reciprocal Game” between Eastern Plumbing and Physicians East is set for April 22 at Elm Street.
-Physicians East and Coke are scheduled for game 176 (final game) on June 15 at Elm Street.
There is lots of interest and excitement building for 2021. There is not anybody I know who isn’t hoping for a return to normalcy. Drawing the schedule was the easy part. Let’s hope that playing our season, on time and with all interested spectators in attendance, is just as easy.