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That's the game time listed for twenty different dates on the Cub schedule published in the November issue of Vine Line.

I've added the times to the BCB tentative 2007 Cubs schedule, which is always on the right sidebar. The Cubs have added home game times to the tentative schedule on their website, but no road times are listed there.

So far, there are 25 night home games listed -- five fewer than the maximum allowed. Undoubtedly, a couple more will be added for ESPN Sunday night dates. Even when the Cubs suck, they're a good draw for ESPN; also, they'll leave another couple of dates for potential switches to night games later on.

A few oddities: the original Padres tentative schedule had the May 24 date listed as 2:35 (all times given here and in the schedule link are Central time). Both Vine Line and the Padres website now list that as a 9:05 CT start.

The entire series at Texas is listed as 7:35 starts; this isn't unusual for Texas home games in June. However, this likely means that the first game of the next series, vs. the White Sox at the Cell, may be a night game, different from recent years when the White Sox have made that a 3:05 start.

The first game of the Colorado series at Denver in August is listed as a 2:05 start in Vine Line, but the Rockies website has it as an 8:05 CT start. I'd be more inclined to believe that, as it comes a day after a night game in Houston.

There are presently 52 night road games scheduled, and 25 night home games, which could be as many as 30. This is approximately half the schedule, pretty much the same as this year, and about 20-25 night dates less than many other teams. Example of a team at the other extreme: the Astros, who play almost all their home games at night, have 119 night games listed. More representative are the Blue Jays, who are scheduled for 107 night games in 2007 (also check out that link for the first web evidence of the White Sox' 7:11 home night game starts).

That is NOT the reason why the Cubs haven't succeeded. Get better players and it wouldn't matter if the games were played at 5 am. Lack of night games wasn't the reason they didn't make the World Series in 1984 or 2003, when they were within two innings of getting there.