Many MLB groups are shifting all their night time video games to six:40 p.m. begins. The Cubs ought to, too.

In 2021, as baseball returned to a 162-game schedule after the pandemic, many groups, together with the Cubs, started to maneuver their night time sport beginning time earlier than 7 p.m. native time. The 7 p.m. (0r 7:05 or 7:10) had been a normal night-game beginning time in baseball for at the very least 30 years earlier than that.

The Cubs are actually starting night time video games at 6:40 p.m. native time in April, May and September, however preserving the primary pitch at 7:05 p.m. in June, July and August (apart from just a few nationwide TV dates in these months within the 6 p.m. CT hour).

Before I get into extra on this, right here’s a little bit of night time sport historical past.

When night time baseball first started to turn out to be widespread in MLB within the Nineteen Forties (besides, in fact, for lightless Wrigley Field, which didn’t have night time video games till 1988), many groups started night time video games at 8:30 p.m. native time.

Why was that? First of all, the lights weren’t pretty much as good as they’re now (particularly with LED lighting in most parks together with Wrigley), so taking part in at nightfall didn’t present adequate gentle. Also, some groups felt that individuals would favor to go to dinner after which come to a ballgame, type of the “dinner and a show” concept that many individuals had in going out to dinner and a theater. Also, again then most video games might end in not rather more than two hours, in order that they wouldn’t finish too late, and with fewer individuals dwelling in suburbs and most coming to video games on public transit, getting house late wasn’t an actual concern.

By the Sixties most groups had moved night time sport begins to eight p.m. native time. Famously, Sandy Koufax’s good sport towards the Cubs at Dodger Stadium in 1965 started then, however nonetheless ended earlier than 10 p.m., as it ran just one hour, 43 minutes. That doesn’t actually occur anymore.

In the Seventies night time sport begin occasions started to be shifted to 7:30 p.m. native and within the Nineteen Eighties to 7 p.m., which is the place the Cubs are available in. When night time baseball started at Wrigley Field in 1988, 7:05 was the usual begin time (with a handful at 6:30, together with this memorable April 1989 game performed in frigid circumstances and the Cubs and Padres mixed to make 11 errors).

And that leads us to the current day, and I’m scripting this largely due to this detailed article by Mike Mazzeo in Sports Business Journal on the subject of earlier night time sport begins, the place the headline reads: ‘Never had more positive feedback’: Inside MLB’s race to beat 7 p.m.

Inside the article are details and quotes from a lot of totally different groups about their shifting night time sport beginning occasions to six:40 or 6:45 p.m. native time. Many of them have gone to this all season. Here’s a chart from the article that I discovered fairly illuminating (information by way of May 2026):

You’ll see the impact of the pitch timer there too, the place the variety of video games ending earlier than 10 p.m. native time jumped considerably from 2022 to 2023. But the variety of night time video games starting earlier than 7 p.m. native time additionally rose, from 42 % in 2021 to 76 % this yr. This sums up my emotions in regards to the earlier begin time:

“When we moved our start time to 6:40 p.m., I’ve never had more positive feedback on anything from our season-ticket holders,” John Weber, the Phillies’ senior vp of ticket operations and a 25-year membership government, informed Sports Business Journal. “I couldn’t imagine playing a game at 7:05 right now.”

The article continues with extra attention-grabbing charts on how groups have cut up up their beginning occasions. Of course, the Cubs, with their limitations on whole night time video games, play extra day video games than anybody else, however it’s also possible to see they’re a part of the pattern in shifting night time video games earlier, with about half of theirs in 2026 scheduled to start earlier than 7 p.m.

This is from the White Sox, but additionally related to Chicago on the whole:

The White Sox solicited suggestions earlier than arriving at an optimum pre-7 p.m. first pitch. Unlike the Guardians, the 6:10 p.m. weekday begin time didn’t grade out effectively when the White Sox polled season-ticket holders and choose particular person followers, mentioned Brooks Boyer, government vp and chief income and advertising and marketing officer. The clear winner was 6:40 p.m., considerably forward of seven:10 p.m.

“Part of that is the traffic that we have in Chicago, people just didn’t want to fight that,” Boyer mentioned.

I requested Gene Schafer, a fellow Cubs season-ticket holder who involves greater than half the video games yearly and has a reasonably lengthy drive to Wrigley Field, which period he prefers. Here’s what he informed me:

I’m within the southwest suburbs, so it’s a fairly good journey in each instructions. I’ve joked that it could be good to have the 7:05 begin time with the 6:40 finish time. But these additional couple of minutes once I get house could make an outsized distinction. Especially when I’ve work within the morning.

And that’s the important thing to all of this, I feel — getting individuals house earlier. Obviously the pitch timer has helped significantly, knocking about 35 minutes off the common sport time. Tack on an additional 25 minutes by shifting begin occasions from 7:05 to six:40 and, effectively, an hour earlier is fairly vital.

The article additionally accommodates this remark from a Cubs government:

Cubs Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer David Cromwell mentioned the membership has provided a school-night particular since shifting some video games earlier, bundling a ticket with a sizzling canine and non-alcoholic beverage.

“It’s more family-friendly, more kid-friendly the earlier start time during that school-year period, and our fans have been really positively responsive to that,” Cromwell mentioned.

While all that’s actually true, and a great factor for the Cubs to do, getting youngsters house earlier in the summertime wouldn’t be a nasty concept, both. This yr, the Cubs have the next scheduled night time sport begin occasions (the three outliers are occasions mandated by nationwide TV):

6:40: 19
7:05: 16
6:15: 2
7:30: 1

As you possibly can see, nearly all of Cubs night time video games begin within the 6 p.m. hour. Thus I’m going to conclude this text by saying that beginning subsequent yr, the Cubs ought to decide up on this pattern and transfer all their night time sport beginning occasions to six:40 p.m. CT (clearly, excepting what’s mandated by nationwide TV). It’s a pattern within the business that followers appear to love, and it’s price doing on the North Side of Chicago, too.