1:05 Start Time

[WillyM]

I'm old enough to remember when the Orioles, Colts, and Bullets were all subject to a Baltimore city ordinance that prohibited any Sunday game from starting earlier than 2 PM.

I know it's been a long time since that ordinance went out of effect, but once the Orioles switched their Sunday start time to 1:35, that was where it stayed for a long time.

Until this year, when all of a sudden they switched it to 1:05.

From what I could see on MASN's broadcast, it looked like there were a whole lot of empty seats at the start of the game, though they filled in later on.  I'm wondering if a lot of fans showed up at the park in time for a 1:35 start and were surprised to find the game was already in the second inning.

Anyone know why the Orioles chose to switch the starting time to 1:05?

[El Gordo]

51 minutes ago, WillyM said:

I'm old enough to remember when the Orioles, Colts, and Bullets were all subject to a Baltimore city ordinance that prohibited any Sunday game from starting earlier than 2 PM.

I know it's been a long time since that ordinance went out of effect, but once the Orioles switched their Sunday start time to 1:35, that was where it stayed for a long time.

Until this year, when all of a sudden they switched it to 1:05.

From what I could see on MASN's broadcast, it looked like there were a whole lot of empty seats at the start of the game, though they filled in later on.  I'm wondering if a lot of fans showed up at the park in time for a 1:35 start and were surprised to find the game was already in the second inning.

Anyone know why the Orioles chose to switch the starting time to 1:05?

Good question. I wondered the same thing.

[LocoChris]

I wondered this too, but for some reason I like the 1:05 time better. 

[NashLumber]

I like 1:05, too. I do think you’re right about locals still being used to the games being 1:35 and not showing up till late in the 2nd inning or so. Today was a Kids Run The Base’s day, so I noticed a good number of kids (and that kids under 9 promotion probably helped fill things out a bit) when I saw highlight clips (I had to listen on AtBat today). Attendance today was 27,394. 

I have no idea why they changed the Sunday starts to 1:05, though. 

[Moose Milligan]

15 minutes ago, LocoChris said:

I wondered this too, but for some reason I like the 1:05 time better. 

Cause it's football time. Sunday games should start at 1pm no matter which sport.

IIRC, didn't night games start at 7:30 back in the 90s?

[sportsfan8703]

5 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Cause it's football time. Sunday games should start at 1pm no matter which sport.

IIRC, didn't night games start at 7:30 back in the 90s?

Probably. Had to give the DC area fans time to get up here with traffic. 

[Going Underground]

6 hours ago, NashLumber said:

I like 1:05, too. I do think you’re right about locals still being used to the games being 1:35 and not showing up till late in the 2nd inning or so. Today was a Kids Run The Base’s day, so I noticed a good number of kids (and that kids under 9 promotion probably helped fill things out a bit) when I saw highlight clips (I had to listen on AtBat today). Attendance today was 27,394. 

I have no idea why they changed the Sunday starts to 1:05, though. 

Kids Run the bases every Sunday and it used to take forever . I got a survey as a Season Ticket holder about when you wanted Sunday games to start ,i think two years ago but could have been last year. Most people picked 1:05. Most or all the people at the game knew the new start time . It looked like more then 27,394 at the game yesterday. I have been to games when it said 31,000 or so and looked like more people  yesterday. i though a little over 30,000 but i guess not.

[glenn__davis]

Selfishly I prefer 1:35 because I live in the suburbs and can't make it from church to OPACY by 1:05.  I think we only have a few Dugout Club games on Sundays though, so we'll figure out some way to make it work.

[Redskins Rick]

The 1:05 PM change was announced back in Nov 2017 by the Team on their website, and the Sun carried it, but with no explanation of why.

Quote

Sundays will still be family days at the ballpark, which means fans ages 4-14 will be able to participate in a postgame Kids Run The Bases event, sponsored by Weis Markets.

 

[Frobby]

7 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Cause it's football time. Sunday games should start at 1pm no matter which sport.

IIRC, didn't night games start at 7:30 back in the 90s?

I’m not sure when they changed, but for sure night games used to start at 7:30 back at Memorial Stadium.   And they were still usually over by 10 pm, unlike now.  

[Redskins Rick]

18 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m not sure when they changed, but for sure night games used to start at 7:30 back at Memorial Stadium.   And they were still usually over by 10 pm, unlike now.  

Back before the days of the 3+ hour games.

Quote

Here is the average length of a MLB game, starting with this year and going back at 10-year intervals to 1954, and then ending with 1950, the earliest year in Baseball Prospectus' database:

2014: 3:09
2004: 2:51
1994: 2:58
1984: 2:40
1974: 2:29
1964: 2:35
1954: 2:31
1950: 2:23

 

[Teddy OBP]

8 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Cause it's football time. Sunday games should start at 1pm no matter which sport.

IIRC, didn't night games start at 7:30 back in the 90s?

Was 730 on weeknights for most of 80s too IIRC. I think Saturday was 705.

[eddie83]

I guessed it was either because they wanted families to stay later for the run the bases promotion and/or Buck wanted the game over earlier to make it easier to add an arm if needed from AAA.  

[WillyM]

14 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Cause it's football time. Sunday games should start at 1pm no matter which sport.

IIRC, didn't night games start at 7:30 back in the 90s?

From looking through my old Orioles yearbooks, I was able to determine that 1972 was the first year that the Orioles started night games at 7:30.

Prior to that, the night games started at 8:00.

[CynBeth]

I like the new start time but we were there yesterday and they let you in the main gates 2 hours prior to first pitch but did not open the inner gates to get to your seats until 11:30 am which I did not like. We have a 13 game plan and we could go in the gate by the bullpen but we found out there was really no point in that because we were blocked from going very far.