The Golden Age of Doubleheaders
From the 1950s through the 1970s, doubleheaders were routine in NPB. Morning and afternoon games on Sundays and holidays were common. When the traditional Yomiuri-Tigers rivalry was scheduled as a doubleheader, records show 50,000 fans packed Koshien Stadium from morning. For fans, doubleheaders meant 'two games for one ticket' - stadiums bustled from morning to evening. For players, doubleheaders were grueling but part of daily life. Different starting pitchers handled each game while position players played both. Some 1960s seasons featured over 20 doubleheaders, an era that tested player stamina and mental fortitude far beyond today's standards.
The Complex Factors Behind Their Disappearance
Multiple factors drove doubleheader decline and eventual elimination. First, broadcasting rights. From the 1980s, television broadcasts became crucial team revenue, with per-game rights fees becoming standard. Doubleheaders made it difficult to collect fees for both games, diminishing economic incentive. Second, growing awareness of player health. Two games daily accumulated fatigue and increased injury risk. The players' union advocated for workload reduction, requesting fewer doubleheaders. Third, stadium usage. Dome stadium proliferation reduced rain cancellations, decreasing the scheduling necessity for doubleheaders.
The Final Doubleheaders
NPB's last doubleheaders occurred in the early 2000s, mostly as exceptional makeup games for rain cancellations. Regular doubleheaders had essentially disappeared by the 1990s. Late-era doubleheaders paradoxically attracted attention as 'rare events.' Tickets were sold separately for each game, eliminating the old 'two games for one ticket' value. Player attitudes also evolved. Those who once considered doubleheaders routine later expressed reluctance, citing not just physical demands but the difficulty of maintaining game quality across two contests.
Books on baseball business are also helpful
Could Doubleheaders Return
From 2020 onward, MLB revived doubleheaders with 7-inning games (2020-2021 special rule), later reverting to 9 innings. Adopted as a COVID-19 scheduling solution, this demonstrated the feasibility of doubleheader operations in the 2020s. NPB could potentially revive doubleheaders for major schedule disruptions from typhoons or earthquakes. However, 2020s-era NPB games average over 3 hours, making back-to-back games exceed 7 hours. Fan endurance, stadium staff working hours, and broadcast scheduling make doubleheader implementation in a highly commercialized environment extremely difficult. Doubleheaders were products of a simpler, more pastoral era of professional baseball, a format that no longer fits the commercialized game of the 2020s.
Attendance and the Evolution of Ticketing
The ticketing system during the doubleheader era differed greatly from the system that followed. From the 1950s through the 1970s, most stadiums offered a single ticket granting admission to both Game 1 and Game 2. Fans could spend an entire day at the ballpark, making doubleheaders a high-value leisure experience. However, as team management shifted toward revenue maximization in the 1980s, more stadiums began charging separately for the second game. This change drew fan dissatisfaction, and Game 2 attendance often dropped far below Game 1 figures. At Korakuen Stadium, records show that after the all-day ticket was abolished, second-game attendance fell to less than half of the first game. The transformation of ticketing practices eroded one of the key appeals of doubleheaders for fans.
Physical Toll on Players and Pitching Strategies
The physical burden on players during doubleheaders was enormous. Particularly in summer at open-air stadiums, the accumulated fatigue from Game 1 heightened the risk of heatstroke and dehydration in Game 2. Position players sometimes fielded for 18 or more innings across two games, placing extraordinary stress on their legs and lower backs. Regarding pitching strategies, each team developed unique approaches. Typically, ace-caliber pitchers started Game 1, while relief pitchers or young prospects were deployed in Game 2 as expendable starters. However, during tight pennant races, teams sometimes sent aces into Game 2 as well. In the 1960s, pitchers dubbed iron-armed occasionally threw a complete game in Game 1 and then entered Game 2 in relief. Such extreme usage shortened the careers of numerous players.
Comparison with Other Professional Baseball Leagues
The treatment of doubleheaders varies across professional baseball leagues worldwide. In MLB, doubleheaders remained an institutional fixture for decades, and despite operational changes such as the 7-inning format introduced during the 2020 COVID-19 response, they continue as a tool for schedule completion. In the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), doubleheaders largely disappeared after the 1990s similarly to NPB, though they are sporadically implemented to address concentrated rainouts during typhoon season. In the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan, the small number of teams and limited game schedules mean there is inherently less need for doubleheaders. Behind these differences lie complex factors including league size, climate conditions, the maturity of broadcast rights business, and collective bargaining agreements. NPB's decision to abandon doubleheaders was the result of Japan-specific business conditions intersecting with a growing emphasis on player welfare, following a trajectory independent of other leagues.