Doubleheader (baseball)
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Doubleheader is the term used to describe two baseball games played between the same two teams on the same day. (The term originated in the railroad industry; see doubleheader.)
Today, a doubleheader is generally the result of a prior game between the same two teams being postponed due to inclement weather or other factors. Most often the game is rescheduled for a day on which the two teams play each other again. Often it is within the same series, but in some cases, may be weeks or months after the original date. On rare occasions, the last game between two teams in that particular city is rained out, and a doubleheader may be scheduled at the other team's home park to replace the missed game.
In past years, however, originally-scheduled doubleheaders were a regular feature of the schedule; this changed when the Major League Baseball Players' Association won a package of concessions from the owners, which, in addition to virtually abolishing fixed doubleheaders entirely, also called for no team ever to be scheduled to play on more than twenty consecutive days.
There are two types of doubleheader games, day-night and twi-night doubleheaders.
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[edit] Day-night
A day-night doubleheader is one in which the first game is played in the early afternoon and the other is played at night; in this scenario, spectators have to pay twice to gain admittance to both games. Except in special circumstances, such as a rain makeup, and only with the approval of the MLBPA, this is illegal under terms of the 2002 Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Elias Sports Bureau does not include this as a doubleheader for the sake of the record books. These types of doubleheaders are favored by Major league clubs as with the fiscal environment of baseball today, the clubs can still make their money for two games instead of one for two games.
[edit] Twi-night
In a twi-night doubleheader, the first game is played in the twilight, or late afternoon; after the first game ends, there is a break of usually 20 to 30 minutes, after which the second game is played. Fans in this case get to see both games for the price of a single ticket. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, this is legal provided the start time is no later than 5 p.m. These types of doubleheaders, usually as a result of a rainout, are more common in Minor League Baseball. Since the fiscal demands are not as huge as the Major Leagues, Minor league clubs are more willing to do these types of doubleheaders.
[edit] Classic
A third type of doubleheader used to exist; the "classic" doubleheader was like the twi-night doubleheader except the first game was played in the early afternoon and the second in the late afternoon. This was done out of necessity in the years before many ballparks had lights; often if either game went into extra innings the second game was eventually called due to darkness. However, it is extremely rare nowadays in the major leagues, even for rain makeups, since the use of lights in baseball stadiums, most games are scheduled for the night. Like the twi-night doubleheader, this type of doubleheader is more prominent in the Minor Leagues.
[edit] Tripleheaders
There are three recorded instances of a tripleheader in Major League Baseball, 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, except when the first game is the conclusion of a game suspended from a prior date. This would only happen in the extremely rare case of the only remaining dates between teams being doubleheaders and no single games are left for the suspended game to precede.
[edit] College and minors
In college and the minor leagues, however, the doubleheader also results in shorter games. In most instances, both ends of such a doubleheader are seven innings, even if it is a playoff game; in 1994, the first game of the five-game Pacific Coast League championship series between Vancouver and Albuquerque was rained out; the two teams played a doubleheader, seven innings each, on the originally-scheduled date of the second game. In the minors, the only exception is when the first game is the completion of a suspended game from a prior day; i.e., the game was started but was halted by weather before becoming an official game. In these cases, the suspended game is played to completion (seven or nine innings, whichever it was scheduled to be when it started), and the second game of the doubleheader is seven innings. If, however, the suspension came after the game became official (possible if, for example, a game is tied), then the suspended game is played to its originally-planned length and the second game is scheduled for nine innings.
[edit] Doubleheaders of Note
On July 8, 2000 the New York Mets and the New York Yankees played a doubleheader, but this was no ordinary doubleheader. The June 11 game between these two, which was to be played at Yankee Stadium, had been postponed. They had to make it up but the Mets weren't due back to Yankee Stadium until next year. The next stint of Interleague games were to be played at Shea Stadium the second day of which a doubleheader. On that day they play the first game at Shea and the Yankees won 4-2. But to keep the number of home and road games equal, the two teams "took the subway" to Yankee Stadium to play the second game of the doubleheader. In actuality, while many fans took the subway the two teams boarded buses and, accompanied by a police escort, proceeded without delay to the second game which the Yankees won 4-2.
This also happened again in 2003 on 28 June when the Yankees and Mets played another home-and-home doubleheader. The doubleheader occurred because of a rainout on 21 June, 2003. The first game occurred at Yankee Stadium followed by the night game at Shea Stadium. The Yankees won both games, 7-1 and 9-8.
[edit] Incidence of swept doubleheaders
According to a paper in American Statistician, Michael Goodman makes the claim that double-headers are more often swept as opposed to being split, which is against the common thought. The Elias Sports Bureau found that double headers are swept 48.9% of the time.
On the Incidence of Swept Double-Headers Michael L. Goodman American Statistician, Vol. 23, No. 5 (Dec., 1969), pp. 15-17 doi:10.2307/2682179
