This Tuesday (June 5, 2018). I was lucky enough to attend my first true doubleheader (two games – one admission) in quite some time (White Sox at Twins). In this post, I’d like to share a few (a dozen to be precise) random thoughts – no earth-shaking insight or statistical wonders – from the experience.
Note: I would have shared these thoughts yesterday, but I spent the day celebrating a family birthday with a combination of roller coasters and champagne. Appropriately in that order.
So, here are a few thoughts that came to me as I took in nearly six hours of baseball during an eight-hour stay at Target Field.
One – Eight hours passes pretty darn quickly when you are at the ballpark.
Got to Target Field at about 2:00 p.m. (3:10 start), left at about 10:00 p.m. In between, saw five hours and 44 minutes of baseball. A great day! Oh yes, and you can make a lot of friends in eight hours. It seems that those who are willing – actually anxious – to take in two MLB games in a day are also ready to talk baseball. (And, it was a knowledgeable crowd, as well.) Had some great conversations about the MLB draft, the day’s lineup(s), the DH, pitch counts, the preponderance of strikeouts and home runs – and even the beauty of the double play.
Two – Two accurately completed scorecards bring twice the satisfaction.
Keeping score is one of the joys of the game (for me, at least). Two completed scorecards in one day – Double your pleasure. Double your fun. And kudos to the Twins for offering a scorecard in the FREE Twins Magazine. As a side observation, as I looked around my section, it appears that keeping a scorecard has gone the way of the sacrifice bunt.
TWIN BILL TIDBIT
The 1945 Boston Braves played an MLB-record 46 doubleheaders.
Three – A split doubleheader is not as frustrating as it used to be.
Back when twin bills were more commonplace – almost a Sunday tradition in my family – doubleheader splits were a frustrating experience. With true doubleheaders now a rare opportunity, that frustration is overwhelmed by the satisfaction of an MLB two-for-one deal. Win or lose, the true twin bill is a baseball bargain.
Four – Day and night baseball on the same date. Genius!
The contrast between a sunny afternoon game – bright blue sky, crisp green grass, stark white baseball (you get the idea) – and a night game, when you occupy a well-lit space in the blue-black atmosphere of the evening is right on the edge of spectacular.
TWIN BILL TIDBIT
The 1928 Boston Braves played a record nine consecutive doubleheaders over a 12-day span (September 4-15). During the streak, they swept one doubleheader, were swept six times and split two – for a four win/fourteen loss record.
Four – A book is a wonderful thing – pre-game and between games.
Get there early and catch up on some baseball reading before the game and (in that quiet time, 30-45 minutes) between games. I chose John Paciorek’s latest book “If I Knew THEN What I Know NOW,” reflections from the MLB player with, arguably, major league baseball’s greatest one-game career. Paciorek’s stat line: One MLB game (Houston Colt .45’s), five plate appearances, three hits and two walks (Yep, he never made an out on an MLB field), four runs scored and three RBI. You might want to check out Paciorek’s blog at johnpaciorek.com
Five – You always see something new at a ball game.
This time, we got to see the MLB debut of the Twins’ Zack Littell. Rough outing, but he did strike out the first MLB hitter he ever faced (Yoan Moncada) and I was lucky enough to be seated near what seemed to be a “personal” cheering sections of fans, family and friends. Every out – in fact, every strike – brought an appreciative roar.
Six – Baseball is about heroes, especially if you are young.
When the Twins’ Eduardo Escobar powered a Twins’ comeback (and a 4-2 win) in Game One with an eighth-inning, three-run home run to deep center, a youngster (about five-years-old) in our section – who had been cheering wildly for Brian Dozier’s every move – proudly announced that he now had two favorite players. Escobar justified his new status, going five-for-eight (three doubles and a home run) and driving in five in the Twins’ twin bill.
TWIN BILL TIDBIT
On May 2, 1954, Cardinals’ right fielder Stan Musial hit five home runs in doubleheader (versus the Giants in Saint Louis). Sitting in the stands that day was 8-year-old Nate Colbert who – On August 1, 1972 – would become just the second player ever to hit five home runs in a twin bill. Colbert was playing first base for the Padres, who were taking on the Braves in Atlanta. (Note: Musial and Colbert are still the only to MLBers with five long balls in a doubleheader.)
Seven – I still don’t like pitch counts.
White Sox’ starter Reynaldo Lopez had a one-hit shutout (and a 2-0 lead) after seven innings in the first game, but he’d reached 106 pitches – and so his day was done. (By the way, that would probably not have happened in the days when true doubleheaders were commonplace.) The results? A Twins’ four-run eighth inning rally. I’ll take the win, but do find it disappointing that pitchers finishing what they started has gone the way of fans keeping scorecards and players laying down successful sacrifices.
TWIN BILL TIDBIT
On September 26, 1908 Cubs’ righty Ed Reulbach started both games of a doubleheader against Brooklyn. He went the distance in both contests, giving up just eight hits over the 18 innings. Reulbach is the only MLB pitcher ever to record two complete-game shutouts in a single day.
Eight – Sponsors – Sponsors – Sponsors
It seems like we now have sponsors for everything, like the (pictured) field stripes brought to you by Toro or the Renters Warehouse Challenge.
Nine – Freebies are still fun.
We were all rewarded for our endurance with a Dozier-Buxton Gold Glove T-Shirt. Actually, they gave them to us on the way into the park; but nearly all fans stuck around and earned the “prize.”
TWIN BILL TIDBIT
On May 31, 1964, Mets fans faced a long day of suffering. Not only did the New Yorkers lose both ends of a doubleheader to the San Francisco Giants – it took them a doubleheader-record 32 innings (9 hours and 52 minutes) to do it. The Giants won game one 5-3 in a brisk 2:29. The second game, however, went 23 innings (7:23), with the Giants winning 8-6. This is the longest doubleheader by innings and the longest in time – without a weather delay.
On July 2, 1993, the Padres and Phillies split a twin bill in Philadelphia that kept the fans (who stayed on) in the park for more than 12 hours. Consider the patience needed. The game was delayed one hour and ten minutes before the first pitch; another one hour and 56 minutes in the fourth inning; and two hours and 48 minutes in the sixth. The teams began play at 4:35 p.m. on Friday, July 2 and wrapped up at 4:40 a.m. Saturday – a doubleheader record 12 hours and five minutes.
Ten – I still don’t like the “shifty” trend in baseball.
As John Dewan tells us in his “Shift Update” (in the 2018 edition of The Bill James Handbook), MLB teams are “shifting” more than ten times as often as they did in 2011 (26,705 times in 2017). For me (remember I keep a basic scorecard), when the third baseman moves over to the right field side of second base and the second baseman becomes a RF “rover,” the baseball universe seems out of balance. On top of that, if the ball is hit to the third basemen, playing where the second baseman usually crouches, penciling in “5-3” on the scorecard just doesn’t feel right.
Eleven – Baseball food is better than ever.
Okay, I’m pretty old school – don’t care for the DH, the challenge or the “Wave ‘em to first” intentional walk – but I must say I don’t miss the good old days when your concession choices were pretty much limited to pop and beer, hot dogs, peanuts, Cracker Jack and licorice ropes. In game one, I munched on a gyros wrap that was delicious and, in game two, it was a smoked beef sandwich on a garlic bun. For my post on great new ball park offerings in 2018, click here.
Twelve – Ernie Banks was right.
Cubs’ Hall of Famer Ernie Banks was quoted often as saying “Let’s play two!” He was right!
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