[Dilbert San Diego]

Ah yes. Brings back memories of Sunday doubleheaders. And the occasional twi-night doubleheader. Nowadays I think the only doubleheaders happen when making up a rained out game.

Baseball has changed but not all changes have been for the better. Or maybe I’m too nostalgic

[Alberta's Child]

A while back I read a fascinating article about the history of doubleheaders in baseball. Apparently they didn't exist in the very early days of organized baseball in the 1800s, but started to appear in the 1880s and 1890s. It was simply the baseball equivalent of the "2-for-1 special" in retail trade. Smart team executives scheduled doubleheaders as a way to attract fans to games involving terrible teams. They figured they'd get more fans to a doubleheader between the Yankees and a perennial basement-dweller than they would get for two separate games.

Later, they became almost a necessity for a 154-game schedule because teams traveled by between cities and needed a lot of off-days in their schedule to get to places like Detroit, Chicago and St. Louis. That all changed with air travel, even with teams spread all over the country.

[Alberta's Child]

P.S. — The Boston Braves played 38 doubleheaders in 1931, which I believe is the all-time record for one season. That means they played 76 games in doubleheaders that year, which is almost half of their 154-game schedule!