Field trip to … a Baseball game?
The inside story of why Minor League Baseball teams play games that start at 11 am so frequently
The most memorable field trip of my life as a kid was to Alcatraz Island, the former federal penitentiary located in the San Francisco Bay. A day outside the classroom is exciting. As a suburban kid, any trip to The City was even more exciting, especially if it involved getting on a ferry boat on the Bay.
I remember it was optional to experience the solitary confinement that the worst of the worst criminals were subjected. I remember the loud clang of the metal doors slamming shut. Adult chaperones gasped. It was pitch black. No light. The tour guide told us that criminals would only get one 30-minute break per day. After a few seconds of total silence and darkness, a few kids started to cry. The gates re-opened.
I also went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose on a field trip. I don’t remember anything about it. I probably took a field trip to the zoo, a museum and/or a planetarium too. I never officially went to a baseball game on a field trip, but my Dad allowed me to skip school a few times to attend an A’s or Giants game.
Nowadays, tens of thousands of school children across the country take a field trip to a Minor League Baseball game, a promotion that’s usually a boom for attendance and introducing the sport to a younger audience, yet leads to a non-traditional starting time that raises eyebrows.
Why do minor league baseball teams play games at 11 am?
Minor League Baseball teams realized that if kids can take a field trip to a museum, they can also take a field trip to a baseball game. Tickets are discounted and sold in bulk to classrooms or entire schools, and often include a hot dog, chips and beverage.
Like with any field trip, the kids need to be bussed back to school and arrive at the usual time that school ends. Baseball games are usually three hours, so you can’t start a game at 1 pm and return the kids to school at 4 to 4:30 pm. The solution was to start games at 11 am.
It's unclear exactly when these morning games began. Based on my conversations with longtime broadcasters and reporters, day games were marketed to Summer Camp groups as far back as the 1970s. This marketing morphed from Summer Camp Day to School Field Trips and really took off in the early-to-mid 1990s.
The first time I was part of an 11 am start was in 1997, when the Modesto A’s (as they were known then), played a kids morning game in nearby Lodi, when John Thurman Field was being renovated. I remember asking the “Li’l A’s” general manager at the time, and he told me they’d done the morning school games in the past and it was a successful promotion. I didn’t get the sense that it was a brand-new idea.
Across the country, some teachers make a classroom assignment out of it, involving baseball statistics or a history lesson, or conduct science experiments. Some teams and schools turn it into a D.A.R.E. event with lots of messaging for kids to say no to drugs. Others just want to turn off their brain and enjoy a baseball game.
Here’s a video of the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils promoting their Education Days.
It’s mostly a win-win for teams. They draw more fans than they’d get for a midweek night game. Earlier this season, my Albuquerque Isotopes drew over 11,000 (!) total fans for a Thursday game that would otherwise get about half that size. It’s often the first time a kid ever attends a baseball game. Ideally, the kids enjoy themselves and ask their parents if they can attend another game. Plus, the day game allows the players and coaches a rare night off.
That 11 am starting time though? Yeah, that often leads to grumbling.
At least once a year, I’ll hear somebody complain that a baseball game should never start before Noon. I understand that. Baseball people are creatures of habit and their bodies are not wired for a game that early. It’s a really tough recovery from the previous game.
I asked one of the Isotopes pitchers, Peyton Battenfield, about it a couple weeks ago. He started consecutive 11 am games. He didn’t mind. He’d rather wake up and go play baseball immediately, rather than sitting around all day waiting for the game and thinking about his start. His opinion is more the exception to the rule though.
Most managers stagger their position players, especially their catchers, so only a few play the morning game and the night game that precedes it. Nobody ever takes batting practice on the field. It’s a “show and go” for both teams.
In 2021, when Major League Baseball took over control of Minor League Baseball, they instituted a rule that teams can only schedule two games that begin before Noon, although caveats exist if both MLB affiliates agree.
They also created a rule about the time between games. If you start at 11 am, the previous game must start at 6 pm or earlier.
Some minor league teams circumvent this rule by playing the first game of the series on a Tuesday at 11 am, since there is a dedicated day off on Monday. Personally, I think this should be stopped. I hate being rushed for the first day of a series. The visiting team deserves a chance to get used to the playing field before a series begins too. Let everyone unpack and get prepared for the series properly with a night game.
Overall, I think these new rules by MLB are smart, a fair compromise between the recovery time for players and the ability to teams to market their sport to the coveted younger demographic.
I’ve been part of numerous games in the past where it’s a long game, you don’t get back to the hotel until after midnight … and then have a game 11 hours later. That’s a recipe for an injury.
Once, after a rainout, I broadcasted a doubleheader, followed by a morning game. It was three games in less than 24 hours. I work solo and my voice was wrecked for days. I can only imagine the toll that takes on players during a grueling season of 150 games.
Anybody who works in minor league baseball has a horror story, or five, of starting times that made us want to scream in disbelief.
Here’s another of mine, from 2017: a four-game series in Memphis from Monday-Thursday that went night-day-day-night. So we had to play two consecutive midweek day games at Noon in the sweltering Memphis humidity (they were for Summer Camps) and did not receive a getaway day. This led to peak Triple-A grumpiness for everyone. This also leads to bad baseball.
How prevalent are morning baseball games?
On Wednesday, May 22, 15 different minor league baseball teams scheduled a day game. That’s one-fourth of the 60 games played across four levels of the minors.
The Isotopes played one of those games here in Salt Lake. It started at Noon and wasn’t specifically tailored for kids, but it looked like a decent number were in attendance. It was the fifth time in six weeks the Isotopes played a game on a Wednesday or Thursday that started at 11 am or Noon.
The concept of midweek day baseball isn’t new. Baseball went approximately seven decades playing only day games, before night games were introduced in the minors in 1930 and the majors in 1939. It’s the starting time and the marketing of the game that’s unique.
Before every MLB team enjoyed chartered flights, the final game of a series was a courteous “getaway day” for the visiting team. Games started at Noon, allowing the visiting team to catch their commercial flight home. This was common on Sunday’s, and for the final game of a series on a Wednesday or Thursday.
In the 1980s, MLB started to market these day games as a “Business Person’s Special” to lure white-collar workers from the office. Some teams setup an area for haircuts during the game or other similar themes. But again, all of that was targeted toward adults and the starting times were usually at Noon, maybe 1 pm.
Once television became more prevalent, the networks wanted more night games because the ratings were better. This didn’t eliminate the midweek day game, but it made them less frequent, especially in the summer months when temperatures soar.
The minor leagues don’t have to worry about television. They can play whenever they want. What I find interesting is how the new scheduling model for the minors impacts the dynamics of a morning start.
Prior to 2001, the minors schedule was similar to the majors: a three-game or four-game series against the same team. The morning games provided the added benefit of allowing teams to bus home after a roadtrip.
But now, the scheduling format is a six-game series from Tuesday to Sunday, with every Monday the dedicated day off.
These morning games are not “getaway days” to leave town. It’s just an early game in the middle of a series, before playing 3-4 more games at night.
Morning games are now so ubiquitous I’ve talked to pro players who attended them as a kid. I’ve talked to high school and college students with aspirations of working in sports and their first exposure to baseball was at a School Day Matinee.
Overall, I like the morning games. I like saying “Breakfast with the Isotopes” the way Dick Enberg used to say, “Breakfast at Wimbledon.”
Admittedly, it’s a tough turnaround, especially for the players. I operate on a lot of coffee for these 11 am games, but I’ve gotten used to them. I understand the business side of introducing baseball to kids. It’s smart. And I really enjoy having a night free.
What sports also play games in the morning?
It took longer than I thought, but universities took notice and created morning games for some of their sports, primarily women’s basketball.
It was around the mid-2010s these games started to become more common around the country. Now almost every team schedules at least one at home. (A lot of colleges prefer doing it between the Fall and Spring semester when their college athletes are not in class.)
It’s the same concept: expose your sport to kids on a field trip that might not otherwise know you exist, at a discounted price, enjoy the bigger attendance, feed off the energy of enthusiastic kids, and hope you turn them into lifetime fans.
I’m actually surprised more sports don’t do the same. I’m sure the trend will continue with sports who are not at the mercy of television dictating their starting time.
If you enjoyed this story about schedules, here are a few companion pieces that are similar.
I enjoy the morning games. But do tend to stay away from where the kids are sitting. Linking baseball and school is a good thing. See Peggy Noonan's WSJ column today for a similar theme.
My oldest son is on his first school field trip today, so this was a joy to read. Also, where ever I've lived I've always taken in the Business-person's Special. Noon at PNC Park with only a handful of Yinzer's makes for a good time out!