MLB has released the 2022 season schedule for all teams. If you want to travel and see the team, this schedule has mostly terrible road trips that prohibit visiting more than one stadium – the cities are just too far apart to travel for leisure (a different story when you are getting paid for it). The four exceptions are:
•Pacific Coast Road Trip – Oakland/Seattle (quick, easy flights) March 31- April 5 and also Seattle/Oakland August 5-10
•Yeehaw Road Trip – Four at the Rangers followed by three with the Astros (the Dallas-Houston flight often spends more time on the tarmac than in the air) April 14-20
•East Coast Six Pack – Three games at Yankee Stadium followed by three interleague games against the Phillies in Philadelphia.
This is a dream scheduling as Philly is MUCH closer to New York than Boston, easiest travel perhaps in all of baseball save for the three metro areas with two teams. Frankly it is probably the best advertising that the Yankees could hope for. Why? Well if there is one fanbase more disgusting than theirs it is Philly’s. May 31-June 5
Since the coming two months are a warmup for next season, let’s take a look at what the Angels face in 2022:
MARCH / APRIL 2022 ANGELS SCHEDULE
The Angels open the 2022 season on the road in Oakland – for the fifth time in the past six seasons. After a six game road trip we open with the Astros and then a rare visit from the NL Marlins – this is the season we face the NL East teams in interleague play, along with four games against the local rival Dodgers. 17 of our first 19 games are against divisional opponents! One big highlight of April occurs in the final homestand – the historic first-ever visit to the Big A by the Cleveland Guardians on April 25!
MAY 2022 ANGELS SCHEDULE
The Angels have a tough road trip (at least based on the current standings as of this writing in August of 2021) with the two laundry teams: the White Sox and the Red Sox. Another rare visit to Anaheim occurs with three games against the Washington Nationals – remember in 2005 when ex-Angel and Scioscia-nemesis Jose Guillen got his former teammate Brendan Donnelly booted from the game for using pine tar on his glove… that was against the Nationals! Our tenth game against the Athletics and our ninth against the Rangers will happen before the month’s end. Note a stupid scheduling gaffe: No game scheduled for Memorial Day. WTF?!?!
JUNE 2022 ANGELS SCHEDULE
After six games against the Yankees and Phillies on the road the Angels play sixteen games at home in June plus two up the freeway and four on the road in the Pacific time zone. If this turns out to be a team that likes its home cooking, June should be a month for the Angels to feast! For you ticket scalpers, that four game series with the Boston Red Sox and a weekend series with the New York Mets should bring in a little scratch to the project! One time the Mets played in Anaheim and fired their then-manager Willie Randolph mid-series, wonder what will happen during this visit! Our ninth game against the Mariners comes right before the season’s half-way point: Game 81 is a Tuesday affair against the Chicago White Sox.
JULY 2022 ANGELS SCHEDULE
July sees the Angels in Anaheim for only nine games in a month that gives them seven off-days, five in a row over the All Star break! And the game is at Chavez Ravine so travel will be easy on all Halos. The break comes after 96 games… closer to the 2/3 point than to the halfway mark! A rare visit to play the Atlanta Braves starts the “Second-Half/Final-Third” stretch. The team flies to the east coast twice in July of 2022, so any rest they get is balanced with a wonky travel schedule. But stupidest of all: No game on the Fourth of July. WTF?!?!
AUGUST 2022 ANGELS SCHEDULE
August 2022 is the month that could make or break the 2022 Angels. While they go from July 28 to August 17 without leaving the Pacific Time Zone a brutal road trip awaits them mid-month: three games in Detroit, followed by four in Tampa Bay and then three in Toronto. To add insult to misery – and a visit thru customs upon returning to the USA – the team returns to face the Yankees and their scalper-enriching transplant fans in Anaheim. Of note is the August 10 game on the road against the A’s – if the dominoes fall and the Athletics move to Las Vegas, this could be the final regular season game for the Halos at the Oakland Alameda (insert corporate names here) Coliseum.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022 ANGELS SCHEDULE
Ponder if you care, the status of the 2022 Houston Astros… the Angels will play their final regular season game against them on the Sunday before Labor Day! Making up distance in the schedule is always easier with head to head games but September gives the Halos only three against the A’s and Astros, four versus the M’s and six against the Rangers, including the final game of the season on Sunday, October 2. Nine games against the AL Central make one scratch their heads but perhaps the Angels can feast on those cornstalk pitching staffs! But do look carefully above, perhaps one of the little squares there is the date we will all remember as the one the team clinched the division on their way to go deep into October. We can always dream about next year, that is pretty much what the sport is designed to make us do.
At least they were smart enough not to schedule a game on a nonexistent date.
Wow no Memorial Day or 4th of July game and Father’s Day is on the road. Easter is on the road but we get Mother’s Day at home (might as well get the mrs a vacuum cleaner while I’m at it). Plus the usual starting on a road trip. Maybe it will all be worth it if we are just in the race come the last week of September.
5 out of 6 years opening on the road in Oakland. MLB is obviously just f***ing with us because they can.
Has anyone else opened on the road 5 out of the last 6 (and 4 years running at one point)?
You mean I’m not the only one who doesn’t like our owner?
Clipper fans probably didn’t like DTS either.
Question to people smarter than me – I’m sitting on a credit from all the April/May games and was planning to retry my spring training trip that Covid took out in 2020. I also think a strike/lockout next year is highly likely but for some reason was just thinking of reg season games. Do you think spring training is also at risk and maybe I should push back a year if I don’t want to keep loaning money to Arte by paying for games upfront that get canceled?
Can you delay your decision until Dec. 2, 2021? We’ll know by then if they came up with a new agreement or extended the old one.
Probably. They usually just send out notification when we can buy spring training games but since last was 2019 i dont remember timing. I would think all i lose is possible game and seat selection options by waiting. Hotel is always easy to cancel.
angel fans. always looking toward the future.
Gonna have to see the Marlins next April. Only MLB team I have never seen in person.
They’ve got some good young talent that should be fun to watch. I like Jazz Chisholm, the way he plays reminds me of the Latin teams in the World Baseball Classic. Out there to have fun and put on a show for the fans.
That August road trip is criminal. Detroit and Toronto are close, so let’s break it up with a 4-game trip to the other half (north/south) of the country, and then instead of giving them a day off on Monday, let’s make them play immediately upon returning home.
Between that and the constant openings in Oakland, it’s pretty clear the Angels get the leftovers after the other teams get their schedules filled out.
Like I said earlier. MLB is f***ing with the Halos… because they can.
IF there is a 2022 season…..
Rev: The New York/Philly road trip is a good one.
My brother lives in Connecticut and several years back we made that drive to Philadelphia to catch two games of the Angels series there. That was 2008, I believe. The Angels swept the series so it was fun.
You are right about the drive coming from New York area — it is not long at all. I want to say about 90 minutes, maybe two hours. I like the stadium but the downside is that the surrounding area is pretty barren. Not much in terms of restaurants or night life if you are staying right there. It is not at all like San Diego/Petco or so many other teams/cities where the environs are fun.
So its kinda like Angels Stadium?