Baseball doubleheaders have long been going the way of the Florida Gopher Tortoise and the 50-cent beer for decades.
It used to be that teams regularly scheduled them, often on Sundays, as an attendance booster and a bonus for their loyal fans.
These days, the twin bill is not quite extinct, but the species is so rare that you need to drop everything to get the chance to observe one for yourself when the phenomenon occurs.
It was an unusual treat, then, that the Clearwater Threshers hosted a deuce with their cross-county rival Dunedin Blue Jays at beautiful BayCare Ballpark Aug. 19. A doubleheader that would begin in natural sunlight, an even rarer event, much like spotting a Florida panther or a Florida scrub-jay, made the occasion especially unique.
Double headers in the Florida State League are seven-inning affairs, so while purists didn’t get the satisfaction of at least 18 innings of baseball, it was still two games for the price of one.
The temperature at the unusually timed 4 p.m. first pitch of game one was a typically balmy 93 with a heat advisory. The subtropical sun strained to fully penetrate high clouds, and no rain was in the forecast. A steady, merciful 10 mph breeze moseyed from left field to right preventing great suffering from the heat.
It was hot, but it was bearable. Just.
In any event, as the late Chicago Cubs’ Hall of Fame shortstop Ernie Banks would have said, it was a great day to play two.
Isn’t it always, though?
Indeed, the gorgeous new BayCare Ballpark outfield scoreboard suggested as much, opening the late afternoon first game with the message: “DOUBLEHEADER. LET’S PLAY TWO.”
The affair had not been planned in advance. The second game was a makeup game, the result of a rainout in Dunedin earlier in the season. Clearwater, which had already clinched a post-season playoff spot, sat in second place behind the New York Yankees affiliate Tampa Tarpons in the Florida State League’s standings, separated by a half-game. Post-season playoff positions were at stake, so the make-up games were must-play.
Dunedin, in fourth place in the west, faced house odds of making the playoffs but were not out of the running, so every game determined their late summer fate. (The birds would get a boost the following night as Toronto Blue Jays star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. slipped onto their roster for a rehabilitation assignment from a concussion injury. He went 1-1 with a double, two walks and an RBI as the Jays won 7-4.)
At the onset the normally boisterous Clearwater ballyard was as muted as a frat house on Sunday morning after homecoming. Threshers hurler Cole Gilley (6-1, 3.47 ERA) fired the opening pitch to Blue Jays right fielder Jake Cook (.245 Avg., 1 RBI) to start game one, and Cook grounded to first to get things underway.
The 4 p.m. start may have made some fans tardy as traffic on Drew Street moved at the same pace as the aforementioned Golden Tortoise. The roar of 18-wheelers lumbering down nearby U.S. 19 punctuated the heavy air. Someone at the lightly populated Frenchy’s Tiki Bar in left field wailed “MATTY!” as Threshers’ infielder Matty Ferrara stepped into the batter’s box later in the game, and it may have startled anyone already dozing in the heat of the grandstand 300 or so feet away.
Indeed, the ballpark was so quiet it almost seemed necessary to shush the Frenchy’s patrons.
“Shhh! Can’t you see they’re trying to play baseball down there on the field?”
The noise would come later as the eventual throng beat traffic and made their way to their seats. Clearwater fans are vocal loyalists who always show up whether their boys are at home at BayCare Ballpark or at nearby TD Ballpark in Dunedin, even if there’s not an extra game. There was no reason to think the shaded areas wouldn’t soon fill with fans.
The first game was quick and relatively uneventful. But it was baseball. Isn’t that all we need?
Home plate umpire Will Swinea may have revealed himself not to be from around these parts when it sounded as though he misspoke and referred to “Doon-eden” on announcing a Blue Jays ball-strike challenge. Of course, Dunedians who have heard their charming city’s name mispronounced by telephone customer service reps - even those located in Florida - took no offense.
At least Blue Jays fans who might have been in attendance didn’t voice any objections.
The first game ended in a 7-5 Threshers win despite two home runs by Blue Jays’ catcher Owen Carapellotti, and Gilley got the win to go 7-1 on the season. Swinea called a tidy game at the plate and it was all over in an hour and forty-eight minutes.
A 30-minute interregnum brought a chance for players to hydrate and stretch while fans took time to kibbutz, collect thoughts, grab a hot dog and a beer, and listen to non-traditional baseball tunes by proto-metal rock band Black Sabbath such as “War Pigs” and “Iron Man.” Somewhere, retired long-time Chicago White Sox organist Nancy Faust wept, but at least the tunes were enjoyable to the Boomers who grew up with them. The other musical numbers played were modern ditties indistinguishable from one another to anyone over age 60.
Game two started promptly, as promised, at 6:35 p.m., about half an hour after the completion of game one, and by now most of the 1,400 or so fans who were going to show up had already seated themselves.
Because game two was being made up for a rainout at Dunedin’s TD Ballpark, Dunedin was the “home” team, which probably explains the one-beat pause for fan departure when the Threshers failed to score in the top of the seventh behind 4-2. The game was over, as it was unnecessary, of course, for Dunedin to take the home-team last at-bats because they had already won. The contest was another shorty, only two hours and four minutes in duration.
For nearly five hours baseball fans got to see two decent baseball games played by young gamers who hustle and play like they want to make a long career of the sport. Florida State League games are part of the fabric of the community, and the Blue Jays-Threshers rivalry, such as it is, adds to the joys of living here.
The doubleheader that day wasn’t quite as memorable as seeing an aggregation of manatees, but it was a lovely way to spend an afternoon and early evening in Florida in the dying days of summer.