Gas up the bus, 2015 version

The Wild Things begin a nine-game road trip -- their first since 2011 -- tonight in Normal, Ill. This is after a 508-mile trip through the night from Washington. The Wild Things better get used to logging a lot of hours on the bus because this year they are the biggest losers on the league's travel chart. Yes, Washington will travel more miles this season than any Frontier League team, including the Greys, who do not play a home game.

With teams from Pennsylvania to Michigan to Missouri, at least one interdivision game every night, and not playing a balanced schedule, the Frontier League is a scheduling nightmare. Giving teams sensible road trips is not always possible, and we understand as much. Throw in having to schedule around college tournaments, youth leagues and even a professional women's softball team has to make the poor soul in charge of scheduling reach for the Excedrin. Throw in trying to give each team the same number of weekends at home and you have the formula for a migraine. Being the schedulemaker in this league is probably a thankless job because every player, coach and owner thinks his team has a bad schedule.

In one way, the Wild Things have the worst schedule.

A method for determining this is checking the miles each team will travel. The chart below is the mileage each team will log on the road this season along with the difference from last year. When calculating mileage for each team, I do not take into account if a team chooses to travel back and forth each night (in league circles it's called a commuter trip) to play a close rival. For example, Windy City is a commuter trip for Schaumburg because it's only 38 miles between the ballparks. Even in this case, I credit Schaumburg with only one 38-mile trip.

Miles       Team       (Difference from 2014)
10,123 -- Washington (952 more)
 9,492 -- Greys (2,396 fewer)
 9,468 -- Traverse City (1,054 fewer)
 8,698 -- Evansville (392 more)
 8,318 -- Lake Erie (1,074 fewer)
 7,434 -- Rockford (69 more)
 7,314 -- Southern Illinois (38 more)
 7,180 -- River City (230 fewer)
 7.023 -- Florence (192 fewer)
 7,001 -- Gateway (65 more)
 6,965 -- Joliet (1,199 more)
 6,477 -- Normal (190 more)
 6,319 -- Schaumburg (246 fewer)
 5,858 -- Windy City (817 fewer)

The Greys logged the most road miles each of the last two seasons. Washington logged the most  in 2012 at more than 11,000. In 2013, there were four teams, including River City from the West Division, who traveled more miles than the Wild Things.

While 10,123 miles seems like a lot, I did a quick comparison with the schedules for two teams in the American Association, Winnipeg and Laredo. One is in Canada, the other is on the U.S./Mexican border, which shows how far-flung the American Association has become.

Winnipeg will travel 13,001 miles. The Goldeyes play their first 10 games on the road and their home opener is not until June 2. Laredo's travel is even worse. The Lemurs will log 17,105 miles and have four trips of more than 1,000 miles between series, including one that covers 1,465 miles. By comparison, Washington's longest trip is 580 miles.