You might have noticed that the scheduled 6 p.m. CT starting time for last Wednesday’s Cubs/Dodgers game at Wrigley Field didn’t match any usual night-game time for a game during the week. Those are usually 6:40 p.m. CT in April, May and September, and 7:05 p.m. CT the rest of the year. (Hint, Cubs: Many fans really like the 6:40 time and would love to see it all year.)
Anyway, any deviations from that are usually for national TV (Fox or ESPN). But this game wasn’t part of those channels’ packages. So why the unusual time?
To explain, we first have to start with the two Cubs/Dodgers games in Tokyo. Yes, that’s right. What do those games have to do with this? The Japan games were, as you might remember, Cubs “home” games, with the Cubs batting last. They were taken out of the Wrigley allotment for this year, so the Cubs will play just 79 games at Wrigley Field.
Had the Tokyo Series not happened, there would have been a four-game Cubs/Dodgers series at Wrigley Field last week, and the game times likely would have been 6:40, 6:40, 6:40 and a 1:20 getaway day game last Thursday. The Dodgers had a series at home at Dodger Stadium against the Pirates over the weekend, so a day game Thursday would have given them appropriate time to return to Los Angeles for the opening of that series Friday evening.
But since there was an off day last Thursday, and the Cubs didn’t want to play a Wednesday afternoon game, the starting time was governed by a portion of the MLB/MLBPA collective-bargaining agreement. The relevant language says:
The “in-flight time” noted is on a chart in the CBA that has a time for each MLB city combination. In the case of a Chicago to Los Angeles flight, that’s listed as three hours, 29 minutes. Thus the amount that’s subtracted from 7 p.m. is 59 minutes… so in this case, the Cubs could have listed a starting time of 6:01. Just to make it a round number, they made it 6:00. The first pitch last Wednesday was actually thrown at 6:05 and the game ended at 8:45. The Dodgers’ flight arrived at LAX at 1:41 a.m. Pacific time, so they could have their off day Thursday at home.
So that should clear up that question, if you had one.
Angels management took this to an extreme last Thursday in their home game against the Pirates, before heading on a road trip that started in Minnesota. (The Pirates didn’t have to travel at all after the game, as Pittsburgh stayed in Southern California to play the Dodgers!)
In most cases, teams like this would schedule afternoon games, especially with flights over three hours. But the Angels were allowed to do this by the CBA, and by gum, they did it, even though several of their players were pretty unhappy about it:
So this isn’t good for anyone, except maybe for Arte Moreno’s bottom line. The Angels are averaging about 39,000 fans per game this year, which currently ranks sixth in MLB. That’s not nothing, but having the players in peak condition to play also should be a consideration. The Athletic article says that Angels opponents “frequently end up with difficult travel schedules as a result of Angels’ start times.” Blum asked for comment from the MLBPA and MLB:
It should not surprise you, then, that after the Angels’ flight arrived at 4:25 a.m. Central time Friday in Minneapolis, that they got trampled 11-4 Friday night by the Twins — and wound up swept in the series, outscored 21-5.
Let’s hope owners and players can figure something out that’s better than this. When you watch a MLB game, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for the players to be put in the best possible situation to succeed, to get enough rest and be in peak physical condition. Being a top MLB player isn’t just the two and a half or three hours you see them on the field. There are lots of other things that go into preparing for game performance. MLB and its teams should make that as easy as possible for players.
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