For most of my life you could count on a few things when it came to Memorial Day and the expanded weekend. First, in Greater Chicago it almost always rains. Second, most public pools opened for the season signifying the unofficial start to summer. Third and most importantly, there was baseball-only screwed up by point #1.

I know that older fans remember the MD doubleheader, an extraordinary example of catering to fans. For some crazy reason, MLB doesn’t always schedule 15 games on Memorial Day Monday any longer.

When it became harder to sync up a Memorial Day game with Wrigley, fans in Greater Chicago had other options starting in 1991 when the Cougars became the first minor league team in the market. The chances of seeing a professional game improved (locally) when independent ball came to the region in the early 21st century. I don’t think I’ve ever typed those two words before.

All that changed a few years ago when the Mope running MLB contracted 40+ minor league teams and reconfigured the schedule to eliminate Monday games (no exceptions). The rest of the country goes out of its way to create three-day weekends for every holiday, real or imagined. Yet, affiliated ball doesn’t want to cooperate. Why should I care if and when minor league ballplayers get a day off if it screws with the rest of the world and our forced holiday weekends?

This might be moot as I’m heading to Wrigley for the first time this season on Monday with friend David. However, not everyone lives in a ML market, or can pony up the do re mi for tickets to a ML game. Thankfully, several unaffiliated leagues have picked up the slack and are playing through the entire holiday weekend. More importantly, many are seizing on the opportunity and are offering fan (family) friendly deals. Now if only Mother Nature will concede the weekend to baseball fans, golfers, boaters, picnickers, and the Indy 500.