Baseball Day Games – Why Can't We Have More of Them?

Even though both the Mets and Yankees had lost their games before 5pm, I thoroughly enjoyed my workday and that was because there were so many day games on today. I’m left to wonder if this is what it was like for the previous generations of baseball fans?

Today more than half of baseball had started playing by 1pm. I started by listening to the pre-game show on WFAN live from Citi Field at around noon. Since this was a day game there were large groups of kids in attendance and you could hear them chanting “Let’s go Mets!” and generally having a good time at the park. It’s a great sound to hear in an office.

At lunchtime I met up with friends and the plan was to watch the first 45 minutes of the Mets game. The surprise was the Yankees were on too as their previous game was rained out and was rescheduled as part of a day night doubleheader.

So now Yankee fans were joining in on the fun of watching a day game.  The restaurant we attended was packed with fans of both teams. On top of that the Boston/Toronto game was playing on a separate screen as well as the Phillies/Rockies.

Normally I wouldn’t go out and spend $15 to sit and watch a game for 45 minutes but because there was so much baseball going on it felt like a baseball holiday today.

Looking at a packed restaurant and watching people like myself come out and spend money they normally wouldn’t spend made me think, “Why can’t MLB have more day games? It certainly would stimulate the economy?”

Once lunch was over I went back to the office and continued listening to the game by streaming it on my MLB.com app over my phone. I left it on speaker so others could follow too.

The Mets game ended around 5pm and now for my commute home I can listen to the game highlights and all the callers calling in to WFAN with their takes on the game. It made the commute pretty bearable.

What would I normally do if this was a night game? I would flip back and fourth between channels of whatever I’m watching and the Mets game. If the game went on too late I would turn it off. I normally don’t ever stay up to listen to WFAN and the post game shows. It’s just too late. And of course I’m not spending money or enjoying the games with friends.

So I think the day game format is awesome! I’m left to wonder why can’t MLB schedule more days like today? At least once a week?