Sorting through the AL scheduling

Thursday, April 2, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

Ten notables from the American League schedule:

1. The Indians are looking at a meat grinder early in the year: In the first two months and one day of the season, through June 1, Cleveland will play Boston, the Yankees and the Rays 21 times. From June to September, the Indians will play the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays a total of zero times.

2. The Angels are going to be without their best starting pitchers at the outset of the season -- fortunately for them, this is a time when they will mostly face the weaker teams in the AL, and mostly play at home. Eleven of the Angels' first 17 games are against the Mariners, Tigers and Orioles, with 13 of their first 21 games at home.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

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