Major League Baseball released a tentative 2011 schedule and it included a major change that will drastically impact both the beginning and the end of the season. It starts on a Thursday and it ends on a Wednesday. Opening Thursday actually takes place in March, no less, after a shortened Spring Training season. This change comes in an effort by the league to avoid playing a World Series in November as not only has the season seemingly gone longer and longer each year, it’s also just really cold.

Imagine teams like the Twins or Cubs (no, seriously) playing a World Series in 40, maybe 50 degree weather. Okay, realistically put the Yankees or Red Sox in the World Series. It may happen this season, and we may witness the players watching their own breath wearing two layers of Under Armour and then not being able to run out ground balls or make long, running catches simply because their joints have frozen tight. If you’ve never played baseball in the frigid months, then just believe that it can happen.

The MLB certainly needs to be applauded for making this kind of a change. Baseball is a summer sport, not a post-Halloween sport. 10 teams will start action on March 31, followed by another 11 games the next day. It’s not a significant advancing compared to this season’s April 4 Opening Day, but it’s definitely a move in the right direction. At least there should be no World Series games scheduled to begin in November.

The Commissioner’s Special Committee for On-Field Matters can be thanked for recommending this change, just as much as they can be thanked for shortening this season’s League Championship Series by one off-day each, but the league is also considering taking the Division Series’ to a best-of-seven. If MLB wants to go that route, they’ll have to do a lot better than removing one off-day, but the changes they’ve made so far certainly make the future look promising.