Curve second baseman Keiner Delgado tags out Richmond's Scott Bandura during a rundown. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

It goes without saying that the schedule for a professional baseball player is an unusual one.

In the Eastern League, teams play 138 games in 165 days. There are an equal number of 69 games at home and on the road.

But there are certain quirks around all of Minor League Baseball that you just don’t see in the major leagues. If you ask those around the Altoona Curve, they are in favor of many of them that have only been around for about five years.

Major League Baseball took over the minor leagues after the 2020 season from the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL). The Professional Baseball Agreement, which was signed into existence in 1901, allowed the NAPBL to govern Minor League Baseball, but MLB allowed the agreement to expire after the 2020 season. Minor League Baseball did not play in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the agreement expired, it also brought positive changes such as higher wages for players, more off days and less travel.

Prior to MLB taking over the minors, there were more games to be played in a shorter amount of time. It made for a day off to be rare throughout a five-month season that ended on Labor Day. The season now is completed on the second Sunday of September.

The six-game series

Rather than a traditional three- or four-game series like Major League Baseball features, Minor League Baseball plays a six-game series from Tuesday through Sunday across all levels and leagues. That would give everyone a common day off on Mondays.

It’s a benefit when it comes to workload management, according to Curve manager Andy Fox.

“You have a day game on Sunday typically and Monday off, and you don’t play until Tuesday night. You really get two days off a week,” Fox said. If you have an 11 (a.m.) game during the week, you really have another whole day off. There’s really three days off in a week.

“It does help guys get accustomed to playing every day. You can maybe play guys six times a week with a built-in day off. They still get their reps.”

Curve relief pitcher Jarod Bayless, who was promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis on Friday, is 29 years old and the only Curve player to have experience in the old minor leagues, having made his professional debut in 2019. He was drafted in the 33rd round by the Seattle Mariners that year.

However, Bayless only had about a week and a half of that schedule. He played in rookie ball in Arizona after being drafted before going to the Everett AquaSox, a short-season A ball team in Everett, Washington.

Bayless said he will take the current format as it is.

“It’s a much better quality of life,” Bayless said.

Easier travel

The downside of the six-game series is seeing the same team for six days in a row. The bright side is there isn’t nearly as much travel involved.

Studies have shown that Eastern League travel was cut by nearly half to what it was before 2021.

“You get to be in one place for a little bit,” Bayless said. “My wife comes with me to the games. It makes traveling a little easier. You’re not driving through the night sleeping on a bus. There’s been a ton of improvement since then on the players’ side.”

It certainly helps even more when the Curve can possibly travel to as far as Portland, Maine to play baseball. Rather than stay in Maine for a three-game series, they are there for a whole week.

What if they did play a traditional three-game series like they do in the majors?

“It would be more like a vacation all summer,” Bayless said with a laugh. “It is interesting to see the same team six times in a row. But I’m so used to it now. It’s hard for me to imagine doing something else.”

Morning games

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for players. They are usually accustomed to playing night games during the week, and maybe an early afternoon game on Sunday.

In the first two months of the season before school lets out for the summer, the 11 a.m. game is very popular with stadiums filled with school students on field trips.

But as for the players who play in a lot of night games, it isn’t their favorite.

“I think they like it when it’s over,” Fox said.

Most players aren’t much for mornings in the first place, but it isn’t fun for their eating schedules either. Players are provided two meals a day, so breakfast is served in the clubhouse when they get there for 11 a.m. games, but they don’t get to eat again until after the game is over around 2 p.m.

“We’re showing up at the clubhouse at 8 a.m., and you have to be on the field at 9,” Bayless said. “You get an hour to eat and you play.

“We eat at 8, game is at 11, and you’re not eating again until 2 or 3 p.m. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it’s not the best.”

Fox might be the lone person in the clubhouse that is in favor of the 11 a.m. game.

I like it because it breaks up the week,” he said. “It breaks up the monotony of 6 (p.m.) games. That can be a grind, especially on the road.”