Let's Play Two

Yesterday afternoon in this, the spring that has yet to arrive, I happened to be driving through a neighborhood on the far northwest edge of Chicago, on our way to my in-laws.  Some fifteen miles away was our daughter, riding a bus through the catacombs of lower Wacker Drive.  Clare being Clare, she called Michele with a question for me.  Delivered over speaker phone, it was: Should they start the baseball season later?  No, I yelled into the phone.  (Oh, those new-fangled contraptions.)

 Here’s my reasoning—play more doubleheaders.  Given that the White Sox will most likely lose three out of four games this weekend to the weather in Minneapolis, they’ll be doing it anyway.  By scheduling five to ten day-night doubleheaders a season, MLB can start the season a little later and even plan short breaks for teams throughout the season.  Back-to-back doubleheaders might be unheard of these days, but so would having the two consecutive days off in a week.

All it would take is expanding the roster by, say, four players for every doubleheader date; it could be two pitchers and two position players, three pitchers or four, whatever a team wants.  There’s even a precedent for expanded rosters other than September call-ups.  If I’m not mistaken, ball clubs used to carry extra players the first few weeks of the regular season before getting down to the 25-man limit.

So, let it snow; find the players some off-time in the season; and give the minor-leaguers a chance to contribute.  All you have to do is play two, that is, more than once or twice a season.