PHILADELPHIA – When the Braves play the Cubs on Thursday in a makeup game at Wrigley Field, it’ll be the fourth different city in which they’ve played in a span of six days.
And when they head across town to open a three-game series Friday against the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, it’ll make it five ballparks in a seven-game span, something that few professional ballplayers will ever experience outside of spring training.
They played the Marlins on Saturday in Atlanta and Sunday in Fort Bragg, N.C., and the Phillies Monday through Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said the schedule was most demanding for some of the team’s essential behind-the-scenes staffers.
“The video people, the training staff, the clubhouse kids – all these one-day stops, that’s a lot of work that goes into playing a baseball game,” Snitker said. “And to go into two venues for an afternoon or an evening, that’s a lot of work for them. At the end of this road trip we’re going to need four days off to recover, I think. But you know, that’s kind of what we do.
“You don’t really think about it, you just do it. Yeah, when you think about it, it’s a lot…. But I go into Chicago, into Wrigley Field, and I get so jacked up anyway.” (Snitker is from nearby Decatur, Ill.)
