Chicago Cubs: 3:05 p.m. Friday games eliminated for consistency

The Chicago Cubs played games at several different times on Friday in 2015, and that’s going to change to help create consistency next season.

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‘ fans have been calling for later games on Friday’s to allow them to work later and still be able to make the first pitch. On the suggestion of

, the Cubs will go in the opposite direction, eliminating 3:05 p.m. games in favor of 1:20 p.m. games. While some fans will be disappointed to hear the games will move to an earlier time, it’s hard to think it will hurt attendance for a team expected to be a World Series contender.

"“When Joe said consistency of schedule would help us win games it became easy,” President of Business Operations Crane Kenney said Saturday at the Cubs fan convention. h/t Jesse Rogers, ESPN"

When Maddon says something will help win more games, you don’t question, you just do. Helping the decision was the fact that they won’t return from any road trips on a Thursday, meaning an earlier start won’t be affected by travel the prior day.

The change is somewhat intriguing because of the Cubs history of day games. It’s been an ongoing battle to increase night games at Wrigley, and some baseball experts have questioned if all the day baseball has kept the team from contending over the years. Now the team will move Friday games to an earlier time slot, once again putting that theory to the test.

I don’t believe the earlier start time on Friday is going to hurt this team, simply based on the fact of its talent supersedes most other concerns. This team is built to win, and the start time of games isn’t going to prevent the Cubs from making a postseason push in 2016.

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What is clear is if you have tickets for a Friday home start, it might be time to start making plans, or cooking up excuses to leave work early. Your dog is sick? Throwing up all over the house? You should go home, most definitely.