Halfway There

Minor Leaguer already scooped me on this with his note the other day, but since there's little else baseball-wise happening I figured I'd go ahead anyway.

The Blue Jays closed out the 2014 season on September 28 with a 1-0 loss to Baltimore finishing at 3:32 EDT. As of the timestamp on this piece, that was 94 days, 22 hours, 48 minutes ago (adjusted for the shift from daylight savings time).

The 2015 season is set to open at Yankee Stadium, with first pitch scheduled for April 6 at 1:07 EDT (we're going to ignore the fact that opening day never starts on time). That is 94 days, 22 hours, 47 minutes from now (also adjusted for the shift back to daylight savings time).

That's right folks - we're now closer to the beginning of next year than we are to the end of last year! Which is certainly cause for New Year's cheer.

Which leads to a question I always come back to but never resolve when I make this calculation annually: for a baseball fan, which half of the offseason is worse? The first half of course has a month of playoff baseball, which would probably be decisive. Except for Jays fan that's been entirely a spectator sport for an entire generation. Still, postseason baseball is usually pretty good to watch. The second half has a month of Spring Training baseball, which has a much higher Blue Jays quotient, but the games aren't nearly as good. And there's always the college season underway as well (though AFL in the first half)

The other major factor is the hotstove season, which is almost exclusively in the first half whereas after December there's few transactions and they're usually of little import. On the other hand, by the second half the roster is much more a finished product and the anticipation is higher with the season much closer. And the days are getting longer rather than shorter.

So chime in with your thoughts about which is worse (however you define it). Or use this as an open thread to discuss...well, whatever. In six days the Hall of Fame inductees, that's something. Or complain if this was a waste of your time (good news: now processing refunds!)

Happy New Year!