I am in the uk so unless the games are afternoon games I miss them, which is why I have noticed that nearly every Friday afternoon the only team playing is Chicago Cubs. (V someone, for those pedantic people)
I assume most team play a night game to get the crowds, and then the afternoon on Sat and Sunday.
Is there any reason why the Cubs do this ?
Probably just out of tradition. The Cubs didn't have lights for night games until 1988. They've made it a point ever since to play a lot of day games. They sell day games out constantly due to Wrigley Field being a hot tourist spot.
Being a Cubs fan and a regular Wrigley Field visitor, the Cubs as stated were the last team to add lights at Wrigley (which was nice, because before that we could claim we'd never lost a night game at home.) No matter when they schedule the games, the Cubs always get around 38,000 people at their games. Day games. Night games. Doesn't matter. I think that it's more tradition to keep scheduling them during the day because they can and it's not hurting their ticket sales. Wrigleyville is AMAZING too. Tons of little bars, restaurants, shops. The community of people there is really cool. Hope this answers your question and a little bit more.
The Cubs love to play day games, since they didn't have lights until 1989. So they play a lot of 1:20 and 2:20 games. Stadiums packed every day too, but its rarely with Cubs fans. Usually just people there to drink, not pay attention to the game, talk loud on their phones, and wave their hands so thier idiot friends can see them on the TV. Its just a outdoor beer garden, except with more idiots.
But another factor to this is that Games shown in the uk and Prob europe that are conveinient (we are +5 ET so 2.20 start is 7.20pm for us) and therefore get the biggest audiences, we see the cubs at least once a week. And I'll wager that they have a lot of long distance fans because of that. We see Yankees memorobilia over a little cubs and bosox here but not much else.
The marketing men at the cubs may be aware of the benifits of widening the brand, Until 2 years ago when i started fantasy baseball I could only name 4 teams, soth chicago yankees and bosox.
The weekend's in summer in Chicago usually start around 11 a.m. on Friday. Just try getting anything done business wise on a Friday afternoon and you are screwed. Most bosses will accept "I have Cub tix this afternoon" as a valid excuse to ditch work.
Throw in the two commodity trading floors in Chi that close at 1 p.m. that employ 20,000+ 18-35 year old males who get paid in cash every friday and you have a good reason to schedule a bunch of afternoon games.
also, with wrigley being in the middle of a neighborhood the city has some say as to when the games take place. the cubs are only alloted a certain number of night games per year, so those are typically always on mondays and tuesdays. night games destroy traffic and parking in the neighborhood, and i know this 1st hand because i live 2 blocks from the stadium. with the nightlife in the area and a cub night game on a thursday-saturday, it would be an absolute mess.
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by Stubo » Fri Aug 26, 2005 11:05 am 
