When you’re checking out a bunch of teams’ schedules as you plan a road trip, there’s a good chance that you’ll come across one or more doubleheaders. Typically scheduled because of weather-related game postponements, doubleheaders in the major leagues and minor leagues are easy to spot on online schedules because they dramatically alter the appearance of the calendar. Here’s an example:
Some baseball travelers plan trips around a doubleheader, while others get lucky and encounter one at a time they’re already planning to travel. It’s nice if you’re able to fit a doubleheader into your travel schedule, simply because it gives you a chance to see a lot of baseball in just one day.
If you’re a relatively new baseball fan or are new to taking baseball road trips, you might hear some doubleheader-related terminology being thrown around. There’s no need to be overwhelmed by this jargon. Here’s a quick rundown of the common doubleheader terms that you’ll likely hear.
Day/Night Doubleheader
When you hear the term “day/night doubleheader,” you’re hearing about a pair of games that take place on the same day, with one game starting in the afternoon and the other starting in the evening. Some people refer to this type of doubleheader as a Split Doubleheader. Commonly, you’ll find the games of a day/night doubleheader scheduled for 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. or thereabouts. The biggest takeaway about a day/night doubleheader is that you’ll need two separate tickets to attend the two games. A ticket to the afternoon game will give you an opportunity to watch it — but you’ll need to leave the stadium after the game concludes. Once fans exit the stadium, staff clean it up and prepare for the next game. Provided that you buy a separate ticket to the evening contest, you’ll be able to enter again and watch more baseball.
What I Like: You’ll have a couple of hours to kill between games, which you can use in all sorts of ways. Whether you head to your hotel to check in after a day of driving or you stick around the ballpark neighborhood and do some sightseeing, it can be fun to break up the two games with one or more other activities. Depending on where you are, you might have the opportunity to buy a ticket for the first game and then make a short trip to another nearby city for a one-day, two city doubleheader.
What I Don’t Like: Hands down, the biggest drawback of a day/night doubleheader is having to buy two separate tickets. This can be an expensive day of baseball, especially at the major league level. Having to kill a couple of hours between the doubleheader’s two games can also make for an extremely long day.
Single-Admission Doubleheader
You’ll also hear the term “single-admission doubleheader,” which means that one ticket lets you into the stadium for both games. The game times for single-admission doubleheaders can vary. Some teams will play both games in the afternoon, while you’ll also see scenarios in which the first game begins late in the afternoon with the other one immediately following it. The time between games of a single-admission doubleheader is short. Players will disappear into the clubhouse to change uniforms, the grounds crew will drag the infield and rechalk the lines, and the second game will then begin.
What I Like: Buying one ticket and getting to watch two games is the best thing about a single-admission doubleheader. If you miss part of the first game because you’re traveling from another city during a road trip, you’ll still feel that you’re getting good value. I’ve often found that the ballpark is fairly empty during the first game, which offers a fun and unique experience. It’s also fun to have some dedicated downtime between the games to explore the park or browse the team shop.
What I Don’t Like: There’s not much to dislike about single-admission doubleheaders. Perhaps the only drawback is that you don’t always get to see two full games. For example, one of the games might be the continuation of a postponed game — perhaps just consisting of a few innings of play.
Three Things I Love About Doubleheaders:
1. Without question, my favorite thing about doubleheader is the prolonged amount of time you get to spend inside a ballpark in a given day. (This is especially the case with single-admission doubleheaders.) From the time you enter the park before a single-admission doubleheader until the time you leave, you can easily be at the ballpark for eight or so hours.
2. I love how doubleheaders can be a life saver when a game you’ve planned to attend on a trip gets rained out. When I was in Texas in 2016, I drove about five hours from El Paso to Midland, only for that evening’s game in Midland to be rained out. I’d scheduled two days in Midland, and was initially discouraged that I’d only end up seeing one game. Thankfully, the rained-out game was rescheduled for the following day, resulting a doubleheader that I got to attend before I drove off to my next destination.
3. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy getting two separate meals during the two games of a doubleheader.
I’ve been lucky to attend a bunch of MLB and MiLB doubleheaders over the years, including in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Buffalo, Syracuse, Lake County and Jamestown, to name a few. In fact, between 2011 and 2019, I had just one season in which I didn’t attend at least one doubleheader. What about you? Are doubleheaders something you seek out, or are you still hoping to attend your first one?