Mind if I'm a grumpy old guy for a minute?
What's up with all these spring training night games? OK, a bit of research. 2002 (Media Guide had four, count 'em four, pictures of Barry Bonds on the cover): two Cactus League Giants night games. 1992, 4 scheduled Cactus League night games (just a jersey on the cover). 1982? Media Guide has a 25th year logo on the cover, and there were -- hey, no spring training schedule in the Media Guide! Hmmm....1987 has the schedule, with a bland diamond and logo on the cover, and only one night game.
I wouldn't want anyone to put too much stock in my memory, but what I recall is that there was usually just a single night game in the 1970s. Anyway, I've lost track of how many there have been so far, but there's one right now and two more scheduled for next week.
I'm grumpy because I like listening to the games in the afternoon. Oh well. I suppose if it was the 1970s, I wouldn't be able to listen to "radio broadcasts" of spring training games from here in Texas. Let alone watch any of them on TV, wherever I was. So I shouldn't complain. But, you know, I am anyway. Sorry.
The night games are great when you make a trip to Florida or Arizona so that you can go to multiple games in the same day. I have always just assumed they rotated them around to sell more tickets and make it more attractive for fans to come down for a week.
ReplyDeleteOf course, in the 1970s (and 1980s and through most of the 1990s...hell, even the last time I was at spring training in 2005) getting tickets was cheap and easy...now, many teams treat spring training games largely (it seems to me) as just an additional revenue stream. Which helps explain, I think, the increasing number of night games.
ReplyDeleteJonathan, I assume I am older than you. Grumpier is pretty much a given. And I do not remember any night games in Arizona (or Palm Springs, where the Angels were based at the time) in the 1970s.
ReplyDeleteAnd I recall it seeming odd to me when the Padres started having a couple of night games for TV purposes. It was not all that long ago that they started this.
I think doc is right about the changed conditions and motives.