MLB will return to its new season-opening format next season, with three games to be played Sunday, April 2, followed by four more the following day, all broadcast nationally on either ESPN or ESPN2. The featured game of that seven-game set will be a Cubs-Cardinals “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast. The schedule continues a new league practice in which the World Series winner starts the season on “SNB.” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday said, “We think that is a really important tradition to continue.” Five other playoff teams, plus the Yankees, are also involved in that season-opening package. ESPN on April 10 will exclusively televise the Cubs’ home opener against the Dodgers and will feature all aspects of the World Series celebration (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer). In Dallas, Gerry Fraley reports the Rangers' season-opener against the Indians on April 3 will be one of ESPN's broadcasts that day, and it also will mark the club's "first home opener at night since 1995." The game "had been scheduled" for a 3:05pm CT start, but it was moved to 6:05pm "to accommodate ESPN." This will be the Rangers' "first scheduled night home opener" since '93, the team's last season at Arlington Stadium (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 11/18).
