Come To Think Of It…Whatever Happened to the Classic Doubleheader?

Once upon a time - as recently as ten years ago, in fact – it was routine for each MLB team to have at least one doubleheader scheduled.  Prior to that, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, it was common for teams to have as many as ten DHs as part of their season schedule.  That was in addition to any DHs that occurred due to rainouts and other cancellations.

But nowadays no MLB team has a DH scheduled.  And even for teams that end up with a DH because of a makeup game, they now make the fans get up and leave and pay to enter the second game.  No more “free” baseball.

I’m surprised they don’t charge for extra innings. Wait, let’s not give them any ideas.

As a Cubs fan in my childhood I’d recall hearing the familiar refrain of Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, saying “Let’s play two.”  Oh, where have you gone Ernie Banks, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-change. Many of the changes to baseball have been positive, such as the addition of the wild card and interleague play. But I miss the long afternoon / early evenings of baseball that started under sunshine and ended up under a graying sky. 

The classic doubleheader seemed to fade away so gradually that I’ll bet most people didn’t even notice that 2001 was the last year that a team had one scheduled. The 2002 Collective Bargaining Agreement made it illegal to play a day-night doubleheader except in special circumstances.

Does anyone even remember the lexicon any more - Twin bill?  Night cap? Twi-night?

(Interesting factoid: The original usage of "doubleheader" is attributed to the 1900's railway industry to refer to two locomotives pulling a particularly long and heavy train).

According to wikipedia.org, there are three recorded instances of a tripleheader in MLB, indicating three games between the same two teams on the same day. These occurred between the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and Pittsburgh Innocents on September 1, 1890 (Brooklyn won all three); between the Baltimore Orioles and Louisville Colonels on September 7, 1896 (Baltimore won all three); and between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds on October 2, 1920 (Cincinnati won two of the three). Triple headers are now prohibited under the current collective bargaining agreement.

So let’s play two…but be prepared to pay for two!