Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
OK, so there's some controversy here in Chicago because the Cubs organization is pushing for an amendment to the city ordinance that would allow night games on Friday and Saturday nights. One of the reasons Lou Piniella cited for wanting weekend night games was when they played a night game in Arizona on a Thursday, then had to travel all the way back to Chicago and play a day game on Friday. (First, this has only happened twice all season, and one of those was traveling home from Milwaukee, all of a 75-minute bus ride; second, he failed to mention that no series has started on a Saturday since, well, forever, so there's no need for Saturday night games. )
I would have thought that on a Thursday preceding a Friday day game with travel across half the continent, the rules would have mandated a Thursday day game? So just when do the rules mandate a "getaway" day game? Is it only if the home team is travelling?
But the "getaway" scheduling rules only come in to play when the game is the following day -- as in, they don't even get a day off. I always thought they were supposed to play a day game if a team has to travel more than 200 miles and play a day game the next day. Maybe it's only if the home team has to travel and to hell with the visiting team. I don't know.
Why are there no weekend night games allowed? That's stupid. Does this law apply to the White Sox too?
It doesn't apply to the Sox, and here's why: Wrigley Field sits right in the middle of one of the city's busiest nightlife districts, if not THE busiest. And when I say "in the neighborhood," I don't meant like the stadium is kind of near it but isolated from the rest of the neighborhood by a huge parking lot surrounding it -- I mean, a home run from a power-hitting left-hander could wind up in somebody's beer cup in the patio at the bar across the street. On any given Friday or Saturday night, there are already tens of thousands of people streaming into the neighborhood. Trying to cram an additional 40,000 into the area would be a logistical nightmare of completely unmanageable madness and gridlock. It would be like trying to stuff an additional 40,000 people into a twice-as-busy version of Center City on a Friday night.
Whereas White Sox Park is kind of in the middle of nowhere.
Directly from the current CBA in place: [url]http://mlb.mlb.com/pa/pdf/cba_english.pdf[/url] - Article V, Section C, paragraph 5:
Day games shall not be scheduled or rescheduled to start before 1PM, except as provided in paragraph 6 (same section), and except that such games may be scheduled to start between Noon and 1PM, if EACH club (team) meets one of the following two conditions:
a - if an off-day occurred the previous day; or
b - if a game were played in the same city within the previous 24 hours.
This paragraph goes on to talk about day games on holidays...
Further down in the same section, here is where it talks specifically about the Cubs:
"Other getaway games shall not be scheduled or rescheduled to start later than 5PM if either club is required to travel for a day game, scheduled the next day, between cities in which the in-flight time is more than 1 1/2 hours." Here is the kicker: "In each season, the championship season schedule [the regular season] may contain six exceptions to the rule in the immediately preceding sentence provided that the traveling Club is traveling to Chicago to play the Cubs and the in-flight time does not exceed 2 1/2 hours."
This should answer the OP's questions. The CBA MANDATES getaway day games if in-flight travel time to the next city exceeds 1 1/2 hours AND the next scheduled game is a day game on the day following the getaway game, unless such next scheduled game is IN Chicago and involves the Cubs; then it's 2 1/2 hours.
Hope this helps - I know it's been years since the original question was posted...
Oh, and after checking flights between PHX and ORD, I discovered the in-flight time is at least 3 hours, so the only thing I can speculate is the game in Arizona *started* prior to 5pm AZ time (maybe a 4:30 game).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
) 
