On July 4th, 1905, in the afternoon game of a doubleheader, Philadelphia’s Rube Waddell bests Cy Young in a 20-inning marathon as the Athletics down Boston 4-2. A’s catcher Ossee Schreckengost worked 28 innings that day, a Major League record.

The Baseball season is too long. It is in all sports these days. I went to the season opener in Oakland on March 28th. If the World Series goes 7 games this year, it would end November 4th. That means meaningful baseball 8 months out of 12. That isn’t a season, that is three seasons.

The NFL, NBA, and NHL are probably worse. They were playing hockey in Florida of all places until a week ago. And basketball in Boston while the Red Sox were almost through the first half of their season. And don’t get me started on the NFL. Football from August to almost March is absurd.

It is all about the Benjamins, of course. Expanded playoffs and longer “seasons” makes for more tickets and media rights to sell. And with more teams having a chance at the big prize, more fans are more engaged for longer. I get that. And I happen to like the expanded playoffs in baseball.

I can’t fix the NBA, NHL, or NFL. I am just not interested enough in their product to think about it enough. But for MLB the solution is starring us all right in the face, the double header. Once a staple of the sport, the Saturday afternoon double-header has all but gone the way of the Dodo bird. Except in cases of makeup games.

Here is a modest proposal to make a more “natural” baseball calendar AND increase interest in baseball for the younger generations :

• The MLB season should start no earlier than the second Monday in April
• Game 7 of the World Series should be played no later than the third Sunday of October
• The League should schedule double headers for every Saturday of the season. Not Split Double Headers but real double headers.
• These Saturdays should be known as Ernie Banks Games*.
• All people under the age of 24 should be admitted free.
• To accommodate the inevitable problem of Saturday weather postponements, Mondays will be designated as travel/make-up game days.

If you have Commissioner Rob Manfred’s email address, feel free to send this proposal his way.

*Mr. Cub was famous for saying “Let’s play two.”