Major League Baseball broke new ground when it released its 2023 schedule on Aug. 24. All 30 teams will meet one another for the first time in the sport’s modern history, an arrangement made possible because of a reduction in division games.
Headed in the opposite direction is the Double-A Eastern League, to which the Richmond Flying Squirrels belong.
MLB formulates the EL schedule and the Flying Squirrels in 2023 will face a steady diet of the same opponents, to a greater extent than previous years.
Richmond’s schedule, announced on Aug. 30, carries a heavier accent on division competition that reduces travel time and contains some costs. Of the Flying Squirrels’ 69 home games next season, 60 will be against the same five teams: Erie (Detroit Tigers), Altoona (Pittsburgh Pirates), Akron (Cleveland Guardians), Harrisburg (Washington Nationals), and Bowie (Baltimore Orioles) .
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Those five teams and Richmond comprise the Southwest Division of the EL, with six other teams in the EL Northeast Division.
This season, 10 of 11 potential EL opponents visit Richmond in division and cross-division competition, with all involved in six-game series, or more, at The Diamond.
Next year, only seven visit Richmond, and one of those teams — Reading (Philadelphia Phillies) — starts the season at The Diamond with a three-game set and does not return.
The four EL teams that will not visit The Diamond next season: Somerset (New York Yankees), New Hampshire (Toronto Blue Jays), Hartford (Colorado Rockies) and Binghamton (New York Mets). Richmond will not meet Somerset or New Hampshire at home or on the road.
Todd Parnell, the CEO of the Flying Squirrels, said that when a schedule is released, his attention is drawn by what days the team is home rather than the list of guests.
“Because I don’t want to be the person steering the ship when we don’t have a July 4 here at The Diamond,” Parnell said. Otherwise, the Flying Squirrels take the schedule they receive and make the best of it, according to Parnell.
The format for the 2023 schedule remains the same as this year, with games played Tuesday through Sunday in a six-game series, with Mondays off.
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