Mailbag: Has one team ever played a double-header against two different teams?
Posted by Andy on April 28, 2011
Reader Neal W. writes in to ask:
"Has there ever been a doubleheader where the home team played two different teams?"
I don't know the answer--I'm hoping another reader will.
But it does remind me of looking at team schedules as a kid and often being fooled that there was a double-header against two different teams. Back in the days when there still were scheduled double-headers, it wasn't unusual to look at a Sunday on the calendar and see two games scheduled. Occasionally I saw two games where the opponents were different and got surprised. Eventually I realized that the calendars were actually showing two different Sundays for a month that ended on a Sunday or a Monday. They did this to save space rather than print an entire extra week at the bottom that would be mostly empty.
But back to the question at hand--does anybody know?
April 28th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
St. Louis Cardinals, September 13, 1951
Game 1: Beat NY Giants 6-4
Game 2. Lost to Boston Braves 0-2
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/STL/1951-schedule-scores.shtml
This has probably happened other times, but this was the first one that I spotted.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Reminds me of a game I heard about in which I think the Yankees, Giants, and Dodgers all played each other in one game, with one team rotating out every half-inning. Obviously it was an exhibition of some sort. I don't know when it happened or why.
And the Yankees and Mets have played a doubleheader with one game at each team's home park on at least one occasion.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Can't remember the details but I'm certain this happened in the last 5 years. It was late September and I'm pretty sure the Angels were involved.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
The Indians did it a decade ago. I knew I remembered it vaguely, but it wasn't hard to Wikipedia it and find out it was in 2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleheader_%28baseball%29
C'mon, guys- if I can answer it, it's too easy a question for this site.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:34 pm
The Yankees/Dodgers/Giants game was an exhibition game during World War 2 to help raise funds for the war.
http://research.sabr.org/journals/forgotten-all-star-game
April 28th, 2011 at 10:35 pm
The Indians played the White Sox and Twins on the same day in September 2000.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:35 pm
Make that Sept 25, 2000. Indians hosted the White Sox and Twins.
April 28th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
New Yorkers remember this unique(?) doubleheader from 2008:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200806271.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN200806272.shtml
The Mets & Yanks played a split doubleheader in 2 different parks.
The Mets won the opener in Shea, 15-6, as Carlos Delgado emerged from a terrible slump with 2 HRs and 9 RBI.
The Yanks took the nightcap in the Bronx, 9-0, with Sidney Ponson (!) pitching 6 scoreless innings in his Yankee debut, 3 days after being released by Texas.
April 28th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
I forgot to credit Johnny Twisto for the initial mention of that Mets/Yanks doubleheader.
April 28th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Only recently, I learned about that doubleheader that the Indians played in 2000. But I had never heard about such a thing happening before. Now I see that it has happened on other occasions.
Doesn't this happen sometimes in spring training, too? Or am I just confusing it with split squad games, where some of the players stay home and play one team while others take to the road and play another one? With 15 teams each now in Arizona and Florida, somebody's either got to have a bye/off day or play a split squad or intrasquad game each day in each circuit.
(I don't know how close all of the Arizona teams are to each other, but in Florida, the teams that train on the east/Atlantic coast rarely play those that train on the west/Gulf coast, at least while they're still in Florida. The ones in between, such as any teams that may be in the Orlando/Kissimmee area, may be able to get to either coast. Depending on how many groups of teams there are in the Grapefruit and possibly Cactus League, there may be more groupings of odd numbers of teams that mandate creative scheduling.)
April 28th, 2011 at 11:21 pm
On September 25, 2000, the Cleveland Indians hosted a doubleheader against two different teams. The September 10 game against the Chicago White Sox in Cleveland had been rained out. With no common days off for the remainder of the season and both teams in a post-season race, the teams agreed to play a day game in Cleveland on the same day that the Indians were to host the Minnesota Twins for a night game. The Indians defeated the White Sox 9-2 in the first game while the Twins defeated the Indians 4-3 in the second.
Source(s):
Wikipedia
April 28th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
Mets & Yanks, July 8, 2000 or June 28, 2003?
Sep 7, 1903, Superbas & Giants?
April 29th, 2011 at 12:20 am
@12, Jeff J -- Well done. Perhaps I forgot those other 2 split-stadium doubleheaders because the Mets were swept each time....
April 29th, 2011 at 1:36 am
Max Flack and Cliff Heathcote. They were traded for each other between games of a Cards / Cubs double-dip on May 30, 1922.
April 29th, 2011 at 1:38 am
Also, in the early days when blue laws were prevalent, sometimes teams played double headers in non-blue law states that were close by. The Cleveland Spiders in 1899 used to travel a lot to Louisville to play the Reds and the Colonels on Sundays - and they also went to St. Louis to play the Perfectos on split doubleheaders.
April 29th, 2011 at 1:48 am
It happened a number of times in 1899:
June 11- LOU 2 CIN 8 and CLE 1 CIN 10
June 25- NY 5 STL 3 and CLE 3 STL 1
July 9- CLE 4 STL 11 and LOU 4 STL 11
Aug. 6- LOU 6 CIN 9 and STL 2 CIN 4
Aug. 20- CLE 7 CHI 8 and LOU 5 CHI 0
Sep. 3- CLE 1 CIN 3 and LOU 7 CIN 6
Sep. 10- CLE 2 CIN 10 and LOU 7 CIN 8
Oct. 8- CLE 0 CHI 13 and LOU 3 CHI 7
Oct. 15- LOU 9 CHI 8 and STL 0 CHI 7
Cleveland and St. Louis were under common ownership that year. The owners put most of the good players in St. Louis, and turned the Cleveland Spiders into basically a road team after June, hence a W-L of 20-134, and the Spiders were folded in 1900...
April 29th, 2011 at 3:19 am
Not the same thing, but there have also been three recorded tripleheaders in major league history:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/games/standings.cgi?date=1920-10-02
Reds beat the Pirates 13-4 and 7-3 before losing 6-0 in 6 innings at Forbes Field on October 2, 1920, the final day of the season.
The other two were 9/1/1890 (NL-Brooklyn vs. Pittsburgh) and 9/7/1896 (NL-Baltimore vs. Louisville).
April 29th, 2011 at 11:19 am
@15, Milhouse -- er, Smed -- What is the basis for this statement? "The Cleveland Spiders in 1899 used to travel a lot to Louisville to play the Reds and the Colonels on Sundays."
The schedule listed on B-R shows only one "side trip" to Louisville (Sunday, May 21). There is also one such trip to Cincinnati (Sunday, June 11) and one to St. Louis (Sunday, June 25).
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLV/1899-schedule-scores.shtml
I do sort of wonder if the listed schedule is entirely accurate. For instance, it shows them playing in Cleveland on Saturday, June 24; playing Sunday in St. Louis, about 500 miles away, and then playing back in Cleveland on Monday. Was it even possible in 1899 to make a 500-mile train trip in less than 24 hours?
The most salient fact about the 1899 Spiders, of course, is that they were a "dead team walking" -- their roster having been gutted by mass transfer to the owner's other team, the fans stopped coming out; and from July 3 to the end of the season, the Spiders played 85 of their last 93 games on the road.
April 29th, 2011 at 11:27 am
I also see a weird incident Sep 14, 1971, Senators/Indians
April 29th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Joel Youngblood is, I believe, the only player to play for different teams (Mets and Expos) in two games in two cities on the same day (Aug 4, 1982). He picked up a hit in each game, both times against future HOF pitchers (Jenkins and Carlton). I remember watching the Expos game on TV.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198208040.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI198208040.shtml
April 29th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
@19, Jeff J -- Wow -- a 20-inning nightcap!
(Is that what you meant by "a weird incident"?)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE197109142.shtml
The game took 6:15 in front of 2,639 fans. Each side used 9 pitchers. The 18 pitchers who each faced at least 1 batter was a record for the game-searchable era that lasted until 2006.
April 29th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
@21
It is one of several incidents that are claimed to have started in one park & ended in another. Maybe a suspended game finished later?
April 29th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
"Has one team ever played a double-header against two different teams?"
No, because a double-header is when you play the SAME team twice. So, in order to play a double-header against two different teams, one team would have to play four games.
🙂
April 29th, 2011 at 5:01 pm
@21, @22.
Not clear from the box that the game was suspended, but it seems likely. It appears this DH was a twi-nighther as the first game is recorded under Weather as "Night". So, adding nine hours to (perhaps) a 6:00 pm start would mean finishing around 3:00am. And, I seem to recall the AL had a 1:00am curfew for many years.
Also, the visiting Senators had to travel after the game (albeit only to Detroit) for a game the next day, so they may have had to suspend for that reason, even if not for a curfew.
Good thing this was in September with the expanded rosters. Both teams certainly made good use of their available players.
April 29th, 2011 at 5:12 pm
@24 "Good thing this was in September with the expanded rosters. Both teams certainly made good use of their available players."
The Apr 28, 2008 O's/Chisox game wasn't.
April 29th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
@25.
Nor the May 31, 1964 Giants/Mets DH (23 innings in the second game).
April 29th, 2011 at 5:22 pm
@25.
This brings to mind the 1992 Dodgers and the LA race riots that spring. The riots forced cancellation of an entire Dodgers/Expos series. Those games were made up in July the next time the Expos were in LA, with 3 consecutive double-headers in 3 days. I recall that the NL granted a special roster expansion just for that series, so the teams could bring up a few more arms.
April 29th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Bonus points for the triple-headers in pre-lights stadiums. Although, games were a lot faster then without pitching changes, dragging the infield, etc.
April 29th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
@21, @22, @24-
It was the completion of a game started on Sep. 14 in Cleveland...
April 29th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Not only did Cleveland have to play that doubleheader against two different teams, they had to play back-to-back doubleheaders in Boston a few days before, with a three game trip to Kansas City after that:
Wednesday: doubleheader in Boston
Thursday: doubleheader in Boston
Friday: at Kansas City
Saturday: at Kansas City
Sunday: at Kansas City
Monday: home for doubleheader against Chicago and Minnesota
All of this was in the midst of finishing the season with 23 games in 20 days, not a single day off. That is a ROUGH stretch of baseball. The Tribe went 14-9 in that stretch and finished one game out of the wildcard.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/CLE/2000-schedule-scores.shtml
April 30th, 2011 at 3:46 am
I seem to remember that at some during my childhood (late 70's/early 80's), the Giants and Braves finished three games in one day, with a suspended game being finished prior to a scheduled doubeheader.
Probably just a faulty memory, though... 🙂
April 30th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
@8 John Autin: You had the results right, but not the ballparks. The Mets won the afternoon game, 15-6, at Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees won the nightcap, 9-0, at Shea.
May 1st, 2011 at 12:12 am
@32, Stu Baron -- Thanks for the correction.
There's a funny story behind my mistake, which shows how hard it is to correct an erroneous memory even when the truth is proven to us. I had remembered that doubleheader being played in the order I wrote, i.e., wrong. But before writing that post, I looked up the box scores and found that my memory had it backwards. I was so confounded by the discovery that I even went to another source to confirm. So, now I was quite aware of the right order of the parks -- yet I still wrote it wrong, the way I originally remembered it!