1935

PROGRAM FROM THE FIRST NIGHT BASEBALL GAME

The Negro Leagues did it. The minor leagues did it. Football did it. But long after night play was routine in other contexts, major league baseball would not allow the lights to go on.

The reasons given were ludicrous. Games couldn’t start until the sky was pitch black. Teams would have to pay two sets of players, one for day, one for night, because no one could be expected to play under such different conditions.¹ “The disturbed and misanthropic fan,” argued the Sporting News, “will not sleep well after a night game.”² Most important, though, was that baseball’s leaders just didn’t like the idea. If God had intended baseball to be played under the lights, the Almighty would have let them know. The only good reason not to do it came from outfielder and bon vivant “Turkey Mike” Donlin back in 1909, when the idea was first floated: “Jesus! Think of taking a ballplayer’s nights away from him!”³

In 1935, however, night baseball debuted for reasons that trumped theology, tradition, and even the sanctity of the family dinner: money. The Great Depression had hit the game hard. In 1929, the 16 major league teams drew 4.7 million fans; by 1933, that was down to 2.9 million.⁴ The owners were hurting.⁵

Larry MacPhail, president of the Cincinnati Reds, had seen how night baseball had saved the minors.⁶ With the Reds attracting fewer than 5,000 fans per game, it was time to shake things up. So on the night of May 24, 1935, with the middling Reds playing the even-worse Philadelphia Phillies, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button to light a million watts—and sparked the biggest change to baseball since pitchers were allowed to throw overhand. That night’s program (which cost 10 cents) marked the moment, with a prominent advertisement on the cover from the company that provided the light (see the photo). The Reds, remember, were desperate for revenue.

That first year, Cincinnati was allowed one night game against each of the other National League teams. In those seven contests, it attracted an average of 18,571 fans.⁷ MacPhail estimated that one night game alone, which attracted 33,468 fans, brought in almost enough revenue to offset the entire cost of installing the lights.⁸

By any standard, the experiment was a success; there were no complaints about the quality of light, and the play was sharp. But there was still a sense that it was a little undignified. It was not until June 1938 that a second team installed lights—the Brooklyn Dodgers, also run by MacPhail. It worked there, too—39,000 fans saw Johnny Vander Meer throw a second consecutive no-hitter in Brooklyn’s night debut. The American League flatly banned night play through 1938, but the Philadelphia Athletics and the Cleveland Indians gave it a go the following year; Cleveland drew 55,000 fans its first night. In 1940 the St. Louis Browns joined the queue.⁹

By 1941, 11 of the 16 teams were playing night games,¹⁰ and during the war, the number allowed was increased to serve day-shift workers in defense industries.¹¹ After the war, the remaining holdouts gave in—with one exception. The Cubs had light towers all but ready to go in 1942. Then management donated them to the war effort. It would take another 46 years for the lights to go on at Wrigley Field.¹²