Mr. Cub would love this, minor league teams ready for tripleheader
Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks famously said, “It’s a great day for a ballgame; let’s play two.”
A pair of minor league teams hope to do one better on Wednesday. The Potomac Nationals, a Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, and the Lynchburg Hillcats, an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, have scheduled a tripleheader for Wednesday after games on Monday and Tuesday were interrupted or postponed by rain in Lynchburg, Va.
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The teams will resume a game that was suspended in the top of the fifth inning Monday, starting at 3 p.m. Wednesday, and then plan to play a pair of seven-inning games later in the evening. Potomac was leading the suspended game 4-2 when play was stopped on Monday.
That’s 19 innings of baseball on tap for the lucky fans in Lynchburg. Of course, there could be more if any of those games require extra innings. (Yes, we probably just assured that will happen by even mentioning the possibility, and, no, we’re not sorry).
The clubs are trying to get the tripleheader in because they aren’t scheduled to play again in the first half of the season. The official site of the Hillcats reported the tripleheader will be the first in the Carolina League since 1996. According to baseballreference.com, only one triple header has occurred in the major leagues in the modern era of the game. It happened on Oct. 2, 1920 in Pittsburgh between the Pirates and the visiting Cincinnati Reds.
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According to the Society of American Baseball Research, the Pirates and Reds played three games that day because the possibility existed that Pittsburgh could finish third in the National League if it won its four remaining games and the Reds lost all four of their games. Finishing third would mean the Pirates would receive the third-place share of the World Series receipts.
All three games were played in five hours of total game time, which is absurdly fast as compared to games today that can last three hours or more.
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Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer to Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo
