88 Years Ago Today, The First MLB Lights Went On
Today, we look back at the first MLB night game, played 88 years ago today in Cincinnati between the Reds and Phillies
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . The Cincinnati Reds’ starter for the first official MLB night game, Paul Derringer, enjoyed a long and fruitful 15-year Major League career, with 10 of those years based in Cincinnati. Derringer was a two-time World Series champion, winning with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1931 and with the Reds in 1940, earning the win in the decisive Game 7 of the 1940 Fall Classic with a complete-game effort.
Derringer came close to winning additional hardware several times in his career — he finished in the top 20 in MVP voting six times, including a third-place finish in 1939, and was selected to six All-Star Games.
. . . Not everyone in the baseball world was convinced that night games would take off. Here are a couple of quotes from doubters that … have not aged well.
“Young man … not in my lifetime or yours will you ever see a baseball game played at night in the Majors.” — Commissioner Kenesaw Landis to Reds general manager Larry MacPhail
“There is no chance of night baseball ever becoming popular in the bigger cities. People there are educated to see the best there is and will only stand for the best.
High class baseball cannot be played at night.” — Clark Griffith, owner of the Washington Senators
Leading Off
The First Night Game in MLB Was Played 88 Years Ago Today
By Matt Graves
(Photo by Mark Rucker/Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)
Major League Baseball made history on this date in 1935. The first night game gave access to baseball to almost everyone.
For more than 65 years, big league ball was only played during the day. In fact, there’s a little bit of a timeline of when baseball was played at night.
The first recorded night game was back in 1880, one year after Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. Another night game occurred in 1883, and several more Minor League night games were held before the turn of the 20th century.
The first night game in Cincinnati took place between two Elks Club teams at the Palace of the Fans in 1909. The following year, a night game was held at Chicago’s Comiskey Park between two semi-professional teams.
It wasn’t until May 2, 1930, that the first professional night game held under a permanent lighting system took place in Des Moines, Iowa. Not only was the game broadcast nationally on NBC Radio, but 12,000 fans were in attendance compared to 600 for a day game.
After that little experiment, night baseball quickly spread throughout the minors as attendance gradually increased. The cooler night air encouraged fans to come out to watch the games more than the hot summer heat. When Cincinnati Reds general manager Larry McPhail saw the success of night games, he received permission at the 1934 National League meetings to introduce night baseball for his Reds.
Engineers had six months and $50,000 to design and install a permanent lighting system at Crosley Field. General Electric contracted Cincinnati Gas and Electric to design it.
On the night of May 24, a crowd of 20,422 fans filled Crosley Field to witness history. President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key in the White House, sending an electric pulse to a signal lamp on the table near first base. Cincy starter Paul Derringer outdueled Joe Bowman of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Reds scraped together two runs, just enough for the win.
Cincinnati averaged under 5,000 fans per day game. However, close to 18,000 were in attendance at night.
After the success in Cincinnati, other teams followed suit. Ebbets Field in Brooklyn was the next park to embrace the nightlife of baseball. The first nighttime All-Star Game was at Shibe Park in Philadelphia in 1943, while the first World Series night game was Game 4 of 1971 Fall Classic. The last team to play all their home games in the daytime were the Chicago Cubs. They remain the club to regularly play the fewest night games in the Majors.
The Baseball Hall of Fame has a collection related to the first night game at Crosley Field. In 1970, the Reds donated files and records relating to the development of lighting at their ballpark to Cooperstown. It includes diagrams, proposals and more.
Matt Graves is a writer for Last Word on Sports Baseball. You can find him on Twitter at @LWOSGraves.