Baseball season has so far been a casualty of COVID-19. Whether you are a fan of the New York Mets or the New York Yankees or you just like following the New York/Penn League champion Brooklyn Cyclones or Staten Island Yankees or you just enjoy a night out with the Atlantic League champion Long Island Ducks there are few things that are more relaxing than spending a summer night at the ballpark. Outdoor lighting makes that possible from your local high school all the way up to the big leagues and it has changed our way of life in more ways than one. While you may not be able to attend a game this year, hopefully this can in some small way fill part of that baseball void that COVID-19 has left behind.
Making Night Day
In the early days of sports games were played during the day. Some sports like football were fine as they played one game a week on the weekends but others like baseball played several games per week. These games were played in front of small crowds since most people were at work or were in school. If the game took too long or the skies darkened the game had to be called on account of darkness. It was inconvenient to say the least for fans and players alike and did not maximize potential revenue sources leading to many teams and leagues folding.
Of course more than one person thought about the possibility of playing a game under the lights, something that we take for granted today. By playing after working or school hours more people would be able to attend which would be good for everyone involved. More people could buy tickets and concessions, they would bring their children who would get into the game and their advertisers could reach more people. That idea went from vision to reality in Hull, Massachusetts on September 2, 1880 when two teams representing different Boston-area department stores played baseball under temporary lighting fixtures. The game ended in a 16-16 tie.
Night Baseball Was Initially Not A Hit
This idea fostered in Hull did not catch on and it took awhile for it to be tried in the professional ranks. On July 4, 1896 in Wilmington, Delaware the first regularly scheduled night game was attempted between the Class A Atlantic League’s Wilmington Peaches and the Paterson Silk Weavers for a holiday triple header. It was not a hit, though plenty of players got hits since the ball could not be found by fielders through the dimly lit stadium and allegedly so many runs were scored that scorers and fans lost track.
It was tried again in 1909 in Grand Rapids, Michigan when the Grand Rapids Wolverines and Zanesville Infants took the field at night and again players were not excited about it. The lighting was inadequate and they convinced the official scorer to change all dropped balls to hits. The game was called after the 7th inning with Grand Rapids winning 11-10 though the game was later scrubbed from the standings due to a rule that prohibited official games from starting less than two hours before sunset. But the game was played in front of 4,500 spectators, a good draw even today for this level.
The Great Depression Creates An Opportunity
Night baseball was tried a few others times, mostly to generate interest due to the novelty. General Electric took the claim of having invented night baseball by using flood lights at a Class B game in 1927 in Lynn, Massachusetts between the Lynn Papooses and Salem Witches in front of more than 5,000 people. A novelty for sure, but a potentially lucrative one.
Night baseball went from novelty to mainstream in 1930 as two teams installed artificial lighting in their stadiums. On April 28 in Independence, Kansas the Independence Producers of the Class C Western Association played the Muskogee Chiefs with Muskogee winning 13-3. Only about 1,000 fans attended, mostly due to the weather, which had delayed the inaugural game by two days. A few days later in Des Moines, Iowa the Des Moines Demons of the Class A Western League played the Wichita Aviators. Permanent lighting towers had been installed in an attempt to boost attendance during the Great Depression, which was forcing many minor league teams to fold. Des Moines had averaged about 600 fans before this but 12,000 fans made their way out to take in this game, watching the home team win 13-6. They had wanted to be the first to play under the lights but their schedule allowed Independence to beat them to it.
At the same time the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs played several night games in 1930 since one of their opponents carried portable lights with them. With attendance falling amidst the Great Depression and with the deck stacked against his team due to Jim Crow laws the Monarch’s owner, J.L. Wilkinson, gambled everything he owned on night baseball. Using a new tungsten bulb from General Electric six 50 foot tall telescoping towers were installed on trucks with floodlights. Attendance at Monarch games went from 5,000 per game to 12,000 per game with some games topping out at 15,000 fans allowing the Monarchs to survive the Depression.
Night Baseball Comes To The Bigs
Night baseball began to become more than a novelty in the minors and around the world being played for the first time in Canada in 1931, Japan in 1933 and Cuba in 1937. In an attempt to generate higher attendance the owner of the Cincinnati Reds installed lights in 1935 at Crosley Field and on May 24, 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt symbolically switched the lights on from Washington DC. On that night the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 and they played at least one night game against every other team in the National League that season. Their attendance rose 117% during night contests.
Other major league teams took note. Most owners were reluctant to play night games and considered Reds’ General Manager Larry MacPhail to be somewhat of a renegade. When MacPhail left the Reds to lead the Brooklyn Dodgers one of his first orders of business was to install lights at Ebbets Field. The first game played there under the lights was on June 15, 1938 ironically against the Reds but the Reds had the last laugh. The Reds’ pitcher that night made history as Johnny Vander Meer became the only person to ever throw two consecutive no-hitters. The game was attended by nearly 39,000 fans.
Prime Time In Night Time
Night games began to become less of a novelty and more common and by 1940 more stadiums had lights installed than lacked lighting. The 1943 All Star Game in Philadelphia was the first to be scheduled under the lights (though the 1942 All Star Game was played at night due to rain and ended just before the mandated World War 2 blackout time of 9:30) but it took until 1971 for a World Series game to be played at night when Game 4 between the visiting Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates was played at Three Rivers Stadium in the Steel City with the Pirates taking a comeback 4-3 win.
The last holdout to install lights at their stadium was the Chicago Cubs which came in 1988, though day games are still a part of the mystique of the North Side at Wrigley Field and still make up a large part of the Cubs schedule even today. Every All Star Game since 1969 has been played at night and every World Series game since Game 6 of 1987 has been played at night, though there is a movement to move some World Series games back to daytime.
In 2019 around 68.5 million fans went through the turnstiles of Major League stadiums, over 41.5 million at Minor League parks and around 5.2 million more fans in Independent leagues around the country. All possible because of outdoor lighting.
By moving the games to the evening more people are able to attend and more people could watch or listen to broadcasts. Day baseball has become a rarity during the week, confined to getaway days, school days or business person’s specials except with the Cubs, where it is required by city ordinance and in Detroit where every Thursday game is played during the day. It helped to make baseball the national icon that it has become and a piece of American history.
