[Editor’s Note: Paul is on vacation this week, but he left behind this post about an awesome DIY project. Enjoy!]
Way back in 2007, when this blog was a bit more than a year old, I did an interview with a guy named Claude Jacques. He’s big in the “skedder” community, which refers to people who collect pocket team schedules — a brilliantly obsessive niche.
I hadn’t heard from Claude in a long time, but I recently received a little package from him, with the following note:
Just as many teams have stopped printed tickets and programs, many of them have also stopped distributing pocket schedules. If you request one from a team, you’re often met with, “The team schedule is on our website,” or “You can find it on the app.”
One skedder was even told by a D-II basketball team, “Put your phone in your pocket. There’s your pocket schedule.”
So now some of us are making our own custom skeds. I’m enclosing a few of the ones I’ve made over the past few years. They’re very popular amongst the skedder community.
I didn’t realize that DIY skedding was a thing, but of course it makes perfect sense. I was going to photograph the ones that Claude sent me, but then I figured it would be better to shoot little videos of them. Although Claude currently lives in Maryland, he’s originally from Quebec, so here’s one he did for the Canadiens:
He also gave equal time to Ontario with this Maple Leafs sked, complete with a hilarious front panel design:
Claude enclosed several different Mets skeds, I guess because he knows I’m a Mets fan:
Sticking with MLB, here’s one for the Angels, complete with Japanese text for Ohtani:
Here are the last two, both for the Hershey Bears. The first one is like a standard candy bar, and the other one is tiny, like a Hershey’s Miniature! Check it out:
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So much fun! Big thanks to Claude for sharing his work with us. You can check out his website, where he showcases his immense sked collection, here.
I found the “Fun Size” Hershey Bears schedule especially witty.
What’s even better is if you’re lucky enough to go to a Bears game and watch it from a suite, the elevators have bowls of fun-sized Hershey bars in them. The suites have some of the best sweet treats you can get.
“Put your phone in your pocket. There’s your pocket schedule.”
Talk about snarky…
I love this project! I prefer a good old pocket schedule to always having to take out my phone, entering my pin, going to the website, telling said website I don’t accept their cookies, and scrolling through the games. I may have to start making some of these myself.
The most time-consuming part is filling out all the little squares. Sometimes you can cut and paste the schedule from the team website but it doesn’t always transfer well from a graphic that’s made to be printed out on an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet to a small 2.5″ x 4″-ish panel.
Spelling (or categorize it as wrong word choice, since the word is spelled correctly, but should be “complete”):
…compete with Japanese text for Ohtani:
However you care to describe it, it’s now been fixed. Thanks.
Throughout the eighties I worked outside in the summer. Every year I would get a new Detroit Tigers pocket schedule and stick it on my truck dashboard.
I love these as well as Claude’s website! My only gripe is that on his site I can only see the cover image of the sked and not the inside where all the dates and seating charts/prices are. I’m always on the lookout for these, can usually get them at Belle Tire in Michigan or Little Caesar’s. Lately though they have been supplanted by the big magnetic schedules.
Glad you like the website. Someone once asked if I could scan the inside and outside of each of my skeds for a website that he was putting together. For the covers, I can usually scan 6-9 at a time. For the inside and outside, I can only do one or two at a time (skeds have gotten more elaborate with more ads, etc. as of late).
I do agree that they’re getting harder to find. It used to be that you could find them at any grocery store, convenience store, bowling alley, etc. Nowadays, you have to pretty much go the stadium or send an SASE request.
Love this. Sad that the pocket schedule is fading out, fans should start asking for it again in big numbers. Such a cool souvenir from a game or a town you have visited.
This is great! I’ve found a new niche to obsessive and create my custom thing for.
Pittsburgh has a habit of businesses putting sport schedules on magnets with an ad for their business using just city names, which I hate, but is generally the easiest pocket type schedule I can get my hands on. And I agree, there’s something about having it in hand or having a nice small schedule to hang on the fridge or the corkboard at work that’s even more convenient than your phone in your pocket.
Pittsburgh teams are usually pretty good for putting out their own schedules, so it was quite a surprise when the Penguins didn’t have one this season. Not even a Print Tech-sponsored was made.
Hershey is about a half hour from where I live and I really dig the Hershey Bar style pocket schedule. I am honestly curious if the team ever did a schedule like that before.