Major league baseball game too long for the kids? Try half of a minor league double-header

John's hack heralds the return of Spring...

A great hack for taking your kids to a minor league baseball game is to look for doubleheaders.  Given the tight schedule, minor league clubs often double up on games when one is rained out, but unlike the big leagues most minor league teams shorten the doubleheader games.  So instead of going to a 9 inning game starting at 7pm you can go to a 7 inning game starting at 6pm.  Your family gets to see an entire game and leave before the kids get too restless.  If your kids are upset about missing the second game tell them that its still early enough...if you leave now...you can stop for an ice cream cone on the way home.

Comments

[ryan]

A few more points about a minor game is they are a bit cheaper to go to (normally) so you don't feel bad when you leave early, also these guys are playing there heart out so you get a good game rather than the guys that are sitting on a $20M contract already (I find MLB games to often be boring).

[Debi]

My husband and I are big baseball fans and when we go to Major League games, we go with the expectation that our DD, who's now 4, won't make it past the 5th inning. That way, anything beyond that is a bonus for us. And so long as we bring plenty of things to entertain her, she tends to hold out pretty well, making it through a few 9-inning games so far.

[Pappatom]

My wife and I decided that this summer we're going to take our about-to-be-four-year-old to his first baseball game. It'll be a minor league game, for four reasons: 1) We don't want to take out a second mortgage; 2) If we only get as far as the 4th or 5th inning, we're only out about 10 bucks per seat; 3) We don't feel like having to dodge the beer spills and foul language common to our local major league ballpark; and 4) We can get good seats at a 1:00PM game and not have to worry about bedtimes.