By Paul Sullivan

Chicago Tribune

Excluding the two-game series between the A’s and Mariners in Japan last week, baseball season starts in earnest on Thursday with 15 games, including the White Sox at the Royals and the Cubs at the Rangers.

The March 28 opening date is the earliest ever to kick off a baseball season in North America, one day earlier than last year’s slate of openers.

So what’s the rush?

In its infinite wisdom, Major League Baseball decided in the last collective bargaining agreement to add an additional weekend at the start of the season, giving teams three or four additional off days in the 162-game schedule. This gives the players more time to rest over the course of the six-month schedule, and theoretically gives clubs more scheduling options.

But that also means many teams, including the Sox and Cubs, likely will be playing several games in cold and rainy weather, if they’re fortunate enough to get the games in at all. And with teams doing everything they can to play, even in inclement weather, fans will have to endure some miserable days at the ballpark.

It’s always “buyer beware” when fans purchase tickets to early-season games, and there’s always going to be postponements in the first month of a season. But there’s no reason to inconvenience fans by forcing them to sit in unpleasant conditions just to get the game in, and unless you’re paying premium prices and have access to a sheltered “club,” you may have two choices: endure the rain/cold or eat your expensive tickets.

One such day occurred last April 14, when the Cubs bounced back from an eight-run deficit in a 14-10 win over the Braves. But only 1,000 or so of the announced crowd of 36,788 at Wrigley Field watched it in person. Most who braved the elements had left the park by then because the game was played in a constant drizzle on a very cold and windy afternoon.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon called it “the worst conditions” he could remember and said the game shouldn’t have been played. Braves star Freddie Freeman complained about the Cubs deciding to play in the first place, saying, “We were just lucky no one got hurt.”

MLB is partly responsible for the problem. The league office has to approve postponements and urges teams to do everything possible to get the games in. But Cubs President Theo Epstein conceded the team messed up when a fan at the Cubs Convention in January asked why they don’t use “common sense” when it comes to postponing games.

“Sometimes people ask me what’s the hardest part of working in baseball,” Epstein said. “I always say ‘the rain.’ It is so hard. It’s a number of people involved. Maybe a half-dozen people, trying to make those kinds of decisions, factoring in the integrity of the game and logistics and of course the fans and their experience.

“We used to call it the brain trust. And we’ve had so many difficult outcomes, now we call it the rain trust. We do our best, but you’re right. There have been some questionable outcomes. That’s the nature of it. We had just as many bad outcomes when I was in Boston. The only time I got it right, and I don’t know why, was when I was working in San Diego.”

The Cubs also made a glaring mistake in 2017 when they postponed a May 20 game against the Brewers too early and saw the sun come out later on. “First time that we’ve had players treated for sunburn after a rainout,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said afterward, jabbing Cubs management for the decision to cancel the game.

Climate change has led to worse weather in the spring, meaning the summer game is played in winter-like conditions for nearly a sixth of the season. The Cubs had four postponements during their first homestand last year, while baseball had a record 28 postponements last April.

With a cold and wet forecast for this spring in the Midwest and Northeast, we can expect similar weather-related issues. That’s why MLB should forget about starting the season in late March and return to the traditional opening of the season the first week of April.

The “rest” issue is silly anyway. If a player needs more rest, give him more days off. Only seven players appeared in all 162 games last year, so it’s not like anyone is interested in breaking Cal Ripken Jr.’s record for consecutive games.

Moving the season to March always was a bad idea, but it’s one that can be rectified next year. Scheduling a few doubleheaders in the summer could alleviate the problem, allowing teams to keep their three or four extra off days. Sure, managers and pitching coaches hate doubleheaders because it affects the pitching staff. Deal with it. The 26-man roster that begins in 2020 should help those managers who fear running out of relief pitchers with two games in one day.

Mark Twain famously said: “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

MLB can’t change the weather, but starting the season earlier than ever makes no sense at all.