Indians Play Season Opening "Home" Series in Milwaukee

(Cut and pasted directly from the LA Times, so there)

MLB moves the series from snowbound Cleveland to Milwaukee, where the stadium has a retractable roof. Anaheim ruled out as an alternate site.
By Bill Shaikin, Times Staff Writer
10:27 AM PDT, April 9, 2007

The Angels won't play the Cleveland Indians in Cleveland -- or in Anaheim. After days of snow and cold weather turned Jacobs Field into an unplayable mess, major league officials on Monday moved this week's series between the Angels and Indians from Cleveland to Miller Park in Milwaukee.

The Angels and FSN West still plan to televise the series, club spokesman Tim Mead said. The games are scheduled for 4 p.m. Pacific time on Tuesday and Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday.

After the wintry conditions forced the Indians to cancel a four-game weekend series with the Seattle Mariners, baseball officials grew concerned over the prospect of more poor weather this week, with the possibility the Indians might sit for a week without playing.

Baseball officials spoke with the Angels on Sunday about moving the series to Anaheim, then decided Monday on Milwaukee. The forecast there includes snow and rain this week, but Miller Park has a retractable roof.

"Nobody can really make an argument about an unfair competitive edge this way," Mead said.

The collective bargaining agreement also forbids West Coast to East Coast travel without a day off. The Angels play in Boston on Friday, and the Indians would have had to fly back to Cleveland.

The neutral-site series in Milwaukee -- on short notice, during the middle of the week, with two teams not named Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox or Brewers -- could attract crowds in the hundreds.

The Angels players reported to Angel Stadium on Monday, as scheduled, for their 10 a.m. bus to John Wayne Airport. By that time, major league officials had decided on Milwaukee, and traveling secretary Tom Taylor had scrambled to re-route the Angels' charter flight and arrange buses and hotel rooms in Milwaukee.