Lol do the cubs play at that time so the Pope can watch?
I remember growing up it was 7:35 start times, now all 30 teams start well in advance of that
Needs timezone fix where cst and est are tighter and mountain and PST are too
I believe part of the agreement for the Braves new stadium was later start times to not add traffic to the already heavily trafficked area.
Game start so much earlier now than even 15-20 years ago. It wasn’t uncommon for games to start at 735 local time. 40-50 years ago post 8pm starts were the norm.
God bless the 6:40 start time
The Dodgers go out of their way to make East coast fans choose between baseball and sleep…
The White Sox one year (maybe more? I don’t remember) started a bunch of their home games at 7:11pm as part of a sponsorship deal with 7-eleven.
The mariners moving to a 640 start time is the best thing this team has done in years.
Playoff run was nice too.
I have always wondered about the Angels’ start time. Are they like trying to micromanage traffic patterns to avoid inconveniencing Disneyland attendees or what?
MLB: scheduling playoff games in the middle of the workday since 1706, or whatever the fuck else this tired ass sport thinks is “tradition”. Every 5 years the average age of the MLB viewer gets 5 years older. Pitch clock was the only thing coming close to stopping the bleeding.
I was going to ask why the Diamondbacks don’t start later (when it’s cooler), then remembered it’s now hot AF 24 hours a day during the Summer (and Spring and Fall).
Cold weather vs hot weather
I miss when 7-eleven sponsored the White Sox to start at 7:11.
Jays adding an extra 2 minutes for the second anthem.
As a Giants fan on the East Coast, their change to 9:45 ET instead of after 10 plus the pitch clock means I see WAY more ninth innings than I did a few years ago
I guess I’m a night owl too but I don’t get the love for 6:40 start times. I feel like I have to hustle after work to make it in time
Now, separate it out by home timezone.
Atlanta is the latest so it can be as far away from 5pm/rush hour so people can avoid the damn traffic.
The Cubs do realize their stadium has lights now, right?
I like the 1:20 start. Cincinnati would have these during the week and call them “The Businessman’s Special”. Take a long lunch and the go to the game.
This is wrong.
Brewers start home games at 7:10
Gotta start at 7:10 in Houston or else no one would ever make it on time cause of traffic.
How far this sub has fallen…
The Cubs keeping it real. Leave work to go to lunch, don’t come back.
1:20 gang where tf you at?! Love me some baseball on a warm, sunny afternoon
I’m having to infer/assume way too much to interpret this graph. No labeling of the y-axis and no indication of whether it’s local time or what time zone
Not scaling the x-axis ruins this one for me, I’ll say it
Hold up. Y’all don’t start games at a weird time like 7:07?!
Can you explain? Do the teams always start games at the same time and can they just decide when to start on there own? Or what does this show?
![Most Common Home Scheduled Start Times for MLB Teams in 2025 [OC]](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/xcbaf3vrsbyf1-1920x1024.png)
32 comments
**Data source:** MLB schedule data (2025 season) from the MLB Stats API.
**Tools:** Data extracted using Python, visualization created with R using the Tidyverse
**Links:**
* Full article with context: [My Substack](https://sudomasochist.substack.com/p/why-baseball-games-start-at-odd-seemingly)
* Source code: [GitHub](https://github.com/sudo-masochist/data-vizes/tree/main/mlb-team-first-pitch-time)
* Personal website: [sudo_masochist](https://sudo-masochist.github.io/posts/mlb-first-pitch-time/mlb_first_pitch_time.html)
Lol do the cubs play at that time so the Pope can watch?
I remember growing up it was 7:35 start times, now all 30 teams start well in advance of that
Needs timezone fix where cst and est are tighter and mountain and PST are too
I believe part of the agreement for the Braves new stadium was later start times to not add traffic to the already heavily trafficked area.
Game start so much earlier now than even 15-20 years ago. It wasn’t uncommon for games to start at 735 local time. 40-50 years ago post 8pm starts were the norm.
God bless the 6:40 start time
The Dodgers go out of their way to make East coast fans choose between baseball and sleep…
The White Sox one year (maybe more? I don’t remember) started a bunch of their home games at 7:11pm as part of a sponsorship deal with 7-eleven.
The mariners moving to a 640 start time is the best thing this team has done in years.
Playoff run was nice too.
I have always wondered about the Angels’ start time. Are they like trying to micromanage traffic patterns to avoid inconveniencing Disneyland attendees or what?
MLB: scheduling playoff games in the middle of the workday since 1706, or whatever the fuck else this tired ass sport thinks is “tradition”. Every 5 years the average age of the MLB viewer gets 5 years older. Pitch clock was the only thing coming close to stopping the bleeding.
I was going to ask why the Diamondbacks don’t start later (when it’s cooler), then remembered it’s now hot AF 24 hours a day during the Summer (and Spring and Fall).
Cold weather vs hot weather
I miss when 7-eleven sponsored the White Sox to start at 7:11.
Jays adding an extra 2 minutes for the second anthem.
As a Giants fan on the East Coast, their change to 9:45 ET instead of after 10 plus the pitch clock means I see WAY more ninth innings than I did a few years ago
I guess I’m a night owl too but I don’t get the love for 6:40 start times. I feel like I have to hustle after work to make it in time
Now, separate it out by home timezone.
Atlanta is the latest so it can be as far away from 5pm/rush hour so people can avoid the damn traffic.
The Cubs do realize their stadium has lights now, right?
I like the 1:20 start. Cincinnati would have these during the week and call them “The Businessman’s Special”. Take a long lunch and the go to the game.
This is wrong.
Brewers start home games at 7:10
Gotta start at 7:10 in Houston or else no one would ever make it on time cause of traffic.
How far this sub has fallen…
The Cubs keeping it real. Leave work to go to lunch, don’t come back.
1:20 gang where tf you at?! Love me some baseball on a warm, sunny afternoon
I’m having to infer/assume way too much to interpret this graph. No labeling of the y-axis and no indication of whether it’s local time or what time zone
Not scaling the x-axis ruins this one for me, I’ll say it
Hold up. Y’all don’t start games at a weird time like 7:07?!
Can you explain? Do the teams always start games at the same time and can they just decide when to start on there own? Or what does this show?
Is this in local time for each stadium?
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