Mike Mussina Doesn't Like MLB Scheduling

Mike Mussina can be cantankerous at times, but he was right to be upset last night at playing a night game in the finale of the Yankees-Pirates series. Travel wasn't a big deal for the Bombers, going from Pittsburgh to New York, but having their game rained out was.

Most teams would have played a road day game on "getaway day", but the Yankees are usually playing those games at night so that the home team can get the most bang for the buck. The weather was fine in Pittsburgh all afternoon, but storms raged last night, forcing a postponement after 2 innings had been played.

Mark Feinsand of the NY Daily News reports,

"I'm just pleased that we didn't play at one o'clock today," Mussina said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "We had a beautiful day and we could have played all day long. It's frustrating. Now we have to come back, lose another off day and play another game. It's frustrating when we lose off days, because we don't have that many as it is."

"We always get the night game because television wants the best ratings and they can charge the most for advertising," Mussina said. "We would have had a full house whether we played at 1 or 7, so that's not a factor. There isn't anything you can do about it. It's just part of playing for the Yankees, so you just have to deal with it."

The weather also affected this afternoon's starter Dan Giese. He was to fly out prior to the start of last night's game, but his flight left without him after he was told it would be delayed at least an hour. The later flight was canceled due to the weather. Had last night's game been continued, he would have replaced Mussina in the 3rd inning and the Yankees would have made other arrangements for today's games.