After having six different game times in 2015, Maddon asked the business side of the club to be more consistent at least with day game starting times. Here you see the influence of Joe Maddon. The 12:10 start on 7/9/17 was requested by and granted for a TBS national broadcast.Ģ016: Mon-Fri & Sun day games 1:20 Sat 12:05, 1:20 or 3:05, night games 7:05 (except 6/18, 7:15) The 2:20 starts on 9/30/18 and 10/1/17 were mandated by Major League Baseball, who asked for all the games on the final day of the season across all of North America to start in the same hour (3 p.m. start on June 29 was due to the Cubs returning from an afternoon game the previous day in Los Angeles. Here is a comprehensive list of starting times for every year since the Cubs moved to Wrigley Field (then, of course, known as Weeghman Park) in 1916.Ģ021: Mon-Fri & Sun day games 1:20 (except Sun 9/26, 2:20) Sat 1:20 or 6:15 night games 6:08 (ESPN), 6:15 (Fox-TV), 6:40 (April, May & September), 7:05Ģ020: Labor Day 3:10 Sat day game (there was only one) 12:05 Sun day games 1:20 night games 6:10, 6:15 or 7:15 (except 9/6 and 9/20, 6:08) doubleheaders 1:20 and 4:15. The 1:20 starting time for Cubs home day games is iconic, as shown above, and you can even buy a T-shirt with that time on it (hey, if you wear it, your shirt will have the right time twice a day).īut 1:20 hasn’t always been the starting time for afternoon contests at Wrigley Field.
The rest of the night games will begin at 7:05 - unless Fox-TV or ESPN come calling for Saturday (6:15) or Sunday (6:08) starting times, and it’s likely there will be a few of those, as the Cubs are a good TV draw even if they’re not a contender (which we hope they will be!). For 2022 there will be 16 night games in the aforementioned months with the earlier starting time. The Cubs did institute the 6:40 starting time for night games in April, May and September and the change proved to be popular with many fans. However, the lack of fans allowed at Wrigley and other ballparks in 2020 allowed the Cubs to play, with the city’s permission, Friday and Saturday night games and have some other odd starting times. The pandemic threw those plans up in the air. In 2020, the Cubs had planned to move the starting time of some night games up to 6:40.
In this update I’ve added the times in 20, and added some further notes. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an update to my article published in July 2013 and an update to that article published in November 2019 which chronicled Cubs scheduled game times through all of Wrigley Field’s history dating back to 1916, when the Cubs first moved to the corner of Clark & Addison.