New York (AFP) - Major League Baseball's 2023 schedule will see each club play every other team for the first time in a modern-era campaign, an altered format slashing American and National league barriers.
All teams will still play 162 games in the regular season, with opening day on March 30 and the playoffs in October culminating with the World Series.
Prior schedules for AL and NL squads have been skewed toward games with divisional foes and same-league rivals but the 2023 schedule allows more cities to see stars from the opposite league.
"This new format creates more consistent opponent matchups as clubs compete for post-season berths," MLB chief operations and strategy officer Chris Marinak said.
"Additionally, this fan-friendly format provides fans with the opportunity to see more opponent matchups, with a particular focus on dramatically expanding our most exciting interleague matchups and offers more national exposure to the star players throughout our game."
Each team will play 52 games against its four division opponents, decreased from 76 under the current schedule structure, with 13 games against each divisional rival.
Each club will play same league rivals from different divisions a total of 64 times, down from 66.
That enables clubs to increase the number of games they plan in the season against foes from the opposite league from 20 for 46.
Teams will still play their natural inter-league rival twice and home and twice on the road, meaning no change for such derbys as the New York Yankees and Mets, Chicago Cubs and White Sox and Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers.
But the changes allow for teams to play three-game home or road series against seven other opposite-league clubs during the season.
The schedule format being used now was established in 2001.
Teams will have more common foes under the new format, although rescheduling rainouts might be trickier.
Next year's MLB All-Star Game will be on July 11 in Seattle.
Every team will play on opening day, weather permitting, for the first time since 1968.
The Cubs and St.Louis Cardinals will play on June 24-25 in London as part of the MLB World Tour.
