We are all excited that a new baseball season has just begun. With that said it will not be too long before some of us will asking how much is enough? For comparison purposes let’s look at the current and recent seasons, as well as seasons from the past in terms of length.
The 2026 MLB regular season will span 187 days or just over six months, running from the first game on Wednesday, March 25, through the final games on Sunday, September 27, 2026. The 2025 MLB regular season ran from March 18 to September 28, 2025, lasting 195 days from the first game to the last. Adding in the playoffs, the 2025 season officially ended on the seventh day of the World Series on November 1st, when the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays. That means it took 229 days or more than 7 ½ months to complete the 2025 season from the first regular season game to the last out in the World Series.
Let’s now go back in the time machine 50 years ago to the 1976 season. The regular season that year ran from April 8 to October 3, 1976 or 179 days in length. The last game of the World Series was on October 21, 1976, with the Cincinnati Reds defeating the New York Yankees in four games to win the title. The full season from the first regular season to the last World Series game spanned 197 days. Therefore, the 2025 season compared to 1976 was 32 days or over a month longer (16% greater).
The 1976 and 2025 seasons were both 162 games long, but the number of teams eligible for the post season has increased greatly. In 1976 there were only two rounds (ALCS/NLCS and World Series) and four teams that made the post season. In 2025 that number increased to four rounds (Wild Card, ALDS/NLDS, ALCS/NLCS and World Series) and tripled to 12 teams. Therefore, much of the reason for the elongated season is due to the increased playoff games. We covered this aspect of the additional playoffs and our thoughts in our previous BP post titled Playoffs for Everyone.
Looking back even further, 1960 was the last year that both leagues played a 154 game schedule. [Note the American League adopted a 162-game schedule in 1961 due to expansion, while the National League followed suit, increasing to 162 games in 1962.] The 1960 MLB regular season lasted 175 days, starting on April 12 and ended on October 2, 1960. The American League actually started on April 18th that year, with both leagues concluding on October 2nd. There were only 16 teams back in 1960 and the playoffs just consisted of a World Series. That year the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the New York Yankees in seven games, with the last game played on October 13, 1960. The entire season took only 185 days to play from first regular season pitch to the last World Series game. In comparing the 2025 to the 1960 season we see that it increased 44 days or almost 24% in length.
What are our takeaways from these statistics? The season is too long.
It has increased almost a month and a half since 1960 and the 154 game schedule, and more than a month since 1976 using a comparable 162 game season. Aside from the actual season length, but rather from an emotional standpoint, having baseball played in March and November for what many of us equate to a warm weather, summertime game just feels off.
League expansion from 16 teams back in 1960 to 30 teams today was good.
Increasing the number of playoff teams due to expansion was necessary, but going from two to now 12 teams was excessive. The odds of making the post season in 1960 was 12.5%, today it is 40%. This 40% looks even worse since MLB has the longest season (162 games) by far in all of professional sports.
Ideally, today’s game would best be served with a playoff system removing the wildcard round and leaving just the ALDS/NLDS, ALCS/NLCS and World Series and reducing the regular season back to 154 games. That would shave off about two weeks from the season and would ensure that games are note played in March and November ever again. Odds of MLB ever adopting this proposal are zero. MLB owners have only one thought and that is to add money to their pocket with no regard about how long they extend the season and dilute the overall product. Baseball is a great game, but too much of anything is never a good thing.
Baseball Purist 
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