Doubleheaders

One way to gauge the age of baseball fans is to see how they react to the notion of a doubleheader.  There are those among us who rode to twin bills on our pet dinosaur.

Two games in a day makes more sense than not.  Rather than games in early April—yesterday’s White Sox-Indians’ split of a doubleheader was the result of an April game cancelled on account of March-ness—two games could be played on special days, like Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.  Oh, wait, that used to happen all the time.  Then again, so did twin bills throughout the season.  

According to a piece by Chris Jaffe in the online Hardball Times, over 33 percent of the NL schedule consisted of doubleheaders in the 1956 season and nearly 27 percent for the AL.  Jaffe also notes that every team in MLB played in a doubleheader on Labor Day, 1958.  So, what happened?

First, there’s something owners have always disliked about two games for the price of one.  Indeed, when twin bills are played now, they’re day-night affairs, with tickets sold for each game separately, and still they’re rare.  My guess is MLB likes to have a season that takes up seven months, with a World Series game someday taking place in month eight, aka, November.  The players’ dislike of two games in a day I can understand.  Fatigue and injury are real possibilities.

Still, you’d think a judicious use of doubleheaders makes perfect sense.  They can reduce the likelihood of early April snow dates; make the summer holidays special; and, with expanded rosters (say 28-30 players), lessen the chance for injury.  Fans would no longer freeze to death in the opening weeks of the season, and they could see how good their team’s minor league system is doing with players getting the proverbial cup of coffee.

Heck, the commissioner could still have November if he wanted.