There are still 65 San Francisco Giants games left in the 2024 season. One of them could be a perfect game. Maybe someone will hit for the cycle or hit three home runs in the same game. Maybe the Giants will hit three home runs total in those 65 games. There are an infinite number of baseball multiverses out there.
So let’s talk about next season.
The Giants’ provisional 2025 schedule is out, with an announcement coming via this delightful video on social media:
What is this?
The 2025 schedule.
Okay, I like it Picasso 👨🎨 pic.twitter.com/20YHJmI3yE
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) July 18, 2024
There are a lot of takeaways here. The first is that you should never play Pictionary with Brett Wisely. That’s also the second and third takeaway. But when it comes to baseball, there are also things to learn about the proposed 2025 schedule. Here are some of them.
The Giants will open the season in Cincinnati
There was a time when Cincinnati used to be the home of the very first game of the season every year. They’d get a little head start as a way to celebrate the Red Stockings, who might have been the first professional baseball team. Abner Doubleday invented the game at the original Skyline in Price Hill. The story is that he had six bowls while coming up with the infield fly rule. People forget this.
The last Opening Day lineup for a Giants team starting the season in Cincinnati:
Marvin Benard – CF
Bill Mueller – 3B
Barry Bonds – LF
Jeff Kent – 2B
J.T. Snow – 1B
Ellis Burks – RF
Brent Mayne – C
Rich Aurilia – SS
Mark Gardner – SP
Gosh, that lineup is like a warm blanket for old people like me. The Giants won, 11-8.
The Dodgers don’t come to San Francisco until July 11
Thanks. I hate it.
The current schedule requires that every team play each other at least once throughout the season. The old schedule required the Giants to play 373 games against the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres, give or take. The current schedule is preferable. I enjoy watching the Twins and Guardians come into town. I love watching the Giants face off against teams I’m not as familiar with. It’s a net positive.
It’s not entirely positive, though, and the worst part is fewer Giants-Dodgers games. This consequence is bad enough to come close to canceling out the advantages of the all-30 schedule. Close, but variety wins out over rivalry for me. Your mileage may vary.
But there are six Dodgers games in September (three home, three away)
Oh. Sure, I don’t see how this could backfire.
Baseball is goofy enough that the Dodgers could be bad next year. Baseball history is littered with whoopsies, injuries and faceplants, even for teams as talented as the Dodgers project to be.
The Dodgers will not be bad next year. The best-case scenario for the Giants is that the Dodgers are merely good. In the event that the Giants are contending next season, they’ll have to face a good team for a disproportionate percentage of the remaining schedule in the final month of the season.
If it works, it’s the best thing possible. Think of Barry Bonds pirouetting against Chan Ho Park. Think of Brian Johnson against Mark Guthrie. Think of Wilmer Flores hitting his NLDS-winning homer against Max Scherzer in a 1-2 count.
If it doesn’t work, it feels extra bad, man.
There’s a brutal stretch in April
It’s the worst of the season. Starting on April 11, they go from New York (where they’ll face the Yankees) to Philadelphia. Then they’ll fly all the way back to Anaheim to face the Angels without a day off. And then they’ll open a seven-game homestand against the Brewers and Rangers, also without a day off.
That’s 17 straight games, starting in New York and crossing time zones without an off day, where they’ll start a homestand against two ostensible contenders. There isn’t an off day during that homestand, either.
I’m not a schedule-ologist, but that’s the worst stretch I can remember. Contender after contender, with the Angels mixed in, combined with time zones and no off days. Good luck, 2025 Giants.
The Giants will be in Sacramento on the 4th of July
The Giants will be in Sacramento on the 4th of July for a lot of reasons. The main one is that the powerbrokers in the MLB offices are craven, and their souls have been replaced with line graphs going up and up and up. Another reason is that John Fisher’s soul is as durable as a pair of Old Navy jeans, tattered and useless after just one wash. He will leave this planet having never lived a day.
GO DEEPER
A’s 2025 schedule: First season in Sacramento includes significant travel, long homestands
It’s not not cool that the Giants will be in the state’s capitol for a series on a holiday weekend, though. The circumstances stink, but the general result is compelling.
However, this series means that the Giants and A’s will play on Sunday, in Sacramento, in the middle of July. It’s possible that ESPN will mercifully choose this for their Sunday Night Baseball telecast, which would start around 5:00 p.m. local time. If they don’t, it means there’s a day game in Sacramento, in the middle of July, on turf.
Start drinking water right now, everyone, just to be sure. Even if you’re going to watch at home in an air-conditioned space, start drinking water. There might be fireworks after the game, but they’ll be coming from Logan Webb’s scalp. And he’s used to playing in that kind of heat.
The Giants will be in San Diego on April 29
How will they react to Ha-Seong Kim on the Giants? My guess is polite applause, maybe even with a plurality of fans standing up while they offer it. It’s not like Kim was such an integral part of the Padres that they have to recognize his contributions to a pennant or a championship, but he’s been a good player for a while, and it would be nice to recognize him, even after he signs with a division rival.
Also, the Giants are absolutely signing Ha-Seong Kim this offseason. Claim your bragging rights here.
The interleague schedule, home and away:
Home
• Mariners
• Rangers
• Athletics
• Royals
• Guardians
• Red Sox
• Rays
• Orioles
Away
• Astros
• Yankees
• Angels
• Twins
• Tigers
• White Sox
• Athletics
• Blue Jays
That last group isn’t an overpowering mix, with a lot of the best teams (according to current expectations) having to play in San Francisco. Then there is a smattering of “iffier” teams on the road, including the Athletics of Athletics Town. That’s the preferred dynamic if you’re a Giants partisan. And, again, I still think it’s cool that the Giants get to play every one of those teams. The upsides negate the downsides.
Of course, you might not care about a May series against the Royals, and your principles and morals are correct in this. Still, here’s the roadmap of your future existence, 2 1/2 hours at a time, for several months. The schedule means so much to the overall success or failures of the 2025 season, but not in ways that we can predict right now. The only takeaway that matters might be that the Dodgers aren’t in town until July, which stinks.
I’ll take it. The idea of all-30 schedules is worth it, even if it forces the rivalry games into the middle of the season. Sure, you can watch more Shohei Ohtani, but what if you could watch more David Fry, instead? Leave that question to the philosophers. It might even out.
(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
