Season Will Be Longer to Stay 162

Baseball will extend its regular season by three days to accommodate a complete schedule of 162 games, Commissioner Fay Vincent said Thursday.

The arrangement, reached in cooperation with CBS, which holds television rights to the playoffs and the World Series, will force a delay in the start of those events.

Vincent had announced a delay in the start of the regular season from April 2 to April 9 because of the collective bargaining negotiations and 32-day lockout that ended Monday.

He said at the time that the teams each would play 158 games and that an attempt would be made to have them play all 162.

It is believed that baseball favored extending the season a full week to make up the postponed games of the opening week, but CBS, faced with extensive rescheduling problems, insisted on the compromise.

“One of the major objectives was to preserve the full 162-game schedule, and I am pleased that we have accomplished that,” Vincent said.

“I thank CBS and the (Major League) Players Assn. for their cooperation in making this schedule adjustment possible.”

The National League playoffs will begin Oct. 4, instead of Oct. 2. The start of the American League playoffs was switched from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6. The World Series will begin Oct. 16 instead of Oct. 13.

If the World Series goes seven games, it would end Oct. 24. Last year, after an 11-day delay because of the Bay Area earthquake, the Oakland Athletics completed their four-game World Series sweep on Oct. 28.

Vincent said that complete details of the rescheduling will be announced within the next few days. The three-day extension will permit the playing of three or four games, he said. Those games that cannot be made up during the extension will be made up on off days or as part of doubleheaders.

The Dodgers, who would have lost a four-game series against the San Diego Padres and a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants, already have rescheduled one of the Padre games as their home opener on April 9. A club official speculated Thursday that the remaining three games of the San Diego series would be made up during the extension.

Mike Port, the Angels’ general manager, said the rescheduling was being handled by the respective league offices, and he expects to know details today. The Angels had a six-game trip to Seattle and Oakland scheduled in the first week.

Representatives of baseball and CBS said there were no changes in the financial terms of the four-year, $1.06-billion contract.

“There were a significant number of issues that we had to look at,” CBS Vice President Jeremy Handelman told the Associated Press. “We had to sift through that and work out a structure having the least adverse effect on us.

“A lot of planning and strategy was already laid in at a critical time of the year in the television industry, the start of a new season.”