On the road, again

When the Frontier League contracted from 14 to 12 teams during the offseason and switched to a North-South division alignment (though the East and West names were kept), it was thought that the changes would mean less travel for most teams, especially those switching from the East to West division. To some degree, this much is true as Evansville is the big travel winner this season. Switching divisions helped the Otters reduce more than 1,300 miles off their travel from last year.

One thing, however, that might have been lost in the shuffle is teams are playing fewer home games because of the loss of the defunct traveling Frontier Greys. That might explain why six teams will be rolling down the highway for more miles this season than in 2015.

While the schedulemaker included some odd twists and trips this year, it seems there are fewer of those head-scratching, this-doesn't-make-sense journeys. The Wild Things will be making their third 500-mile trip tonight when they go from Normal, Ill., back to good ole Washington, Pa. None of the three trips have been followed by an off day. And Washington has to make eight more trips of 500 miles or more. Such is life for the eastern-most franchise in the Frontier League.

Even with all its long journeys, the Frontier League sure isn't the American Association when it comes to travel. In that league, the Winnipeg Goldeyes opened the season in Joplin, Mo., then went to Laredo, Texas, and then on to Lincoln, Neb., before making a 690-mile trip back to Winnipeg to play their home opener the next night. When the Goldeyes were in Laredo, they were more than 1,700 miles from home.

Here are some of the interesting/puzzling items in the Frontier Legaue schedule:

* Traverse City plays a series at River City, then returns home for a series against Florence, then hops back on the bus and goes to Evansville and Gateway. That's two trips to St. Louis in two weeks.

* Windy City has a bizarre trip that takes it to Lake Erie and then 575 miles overnight to River City. There is no travel day between series.

* After the all-star break, Normal does not have a homestand longer than three games until the final two series of the season.

* River City opened the season at Lake Erie, then had three days off. I assume the Rascals traveled back to O'Fallon, Mo., before heading off to Florence for the second series of the year. That meant the Rascals were on the road for 1,569 miles before playing their fourth game of the season.

* River City has one of the worst trips of the season, a 598-mile journey to Washington to play three games in two days, then turns around and and returns home to play Traverse City the next night.

* Evansville and River City each have three consecutive off days in June (19-21). Sounds like the perfect time to work out some undrafted college guys.

Here is the breakdown of miles each team will travel this season series to series, from start of the year to the final pitch of the regular season. If some teams choose to make short trips a commuter series, that's not factored in. I only calculate the location of each series, with the exception of River City's first two, for which I included a trip back to O'Fallon.

Miles      Team                     +/- from 2015
6,174       Normal                      303 less
6,734       Windy City                876 more
6,834       Joliet                          129 less
7,101       Gateway                     100 more
7,196       Southern Illinois        118 less
7,272       River City                  92 more
7,359       Evansville                1,339 less
7,517       Florence                     494 more
8,029       Lake Erie                   289 less
8,156       Schaumburg             1,837 more
9,791       Washington                 332 less
11,128     Traverse City            1,660 more