Night Baseball — Baseball Bench Coach

A great way to spend a summer evening is to tune into an MLB game (or games!). With ESPN, MLB network, and regional and local affiliates, there are so many options available. One could watch games from coast to coast each night. Indeed, television contracts alone, mostly focusing on prime time broadcasting, guaranty over $100 million for each MLB team before selling a ticket. We’ve come a long way from the crackling sound of a radio positioned in the right spot to get the play-by-play of our favorite team. How did we get here?

The first reported baseball game under the lights was in 1880 between two department store teams. In the next fifty years, there were just a handful of night exhibition games in organized baseball. It wasn’t until April 28, 1930, in Independence, Kansas, that a Class C minor league team, the Independence Producers, played the first professional game at night. The first “big league” night game was played later that summer by the Negro League’s Kansas City Monarchs. The concept spread overseas with games played in Canada, Japan, and Cuba, in the early 1930s. By the end of the 1934 season there were 65 minor league ballparks with lights installed.

The first night game in MLB history was on May 24, 1935, at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. President Franklin D. Roosevelt threw a ceremonial first “switch” at the White House. The Reds were in financial straits at the time and saw night baseball as a way to boost attendance. The Reds defeated the Phillies that evening, 2-1, before a crowd of 20,422, Crosley’s third largest of the season. The average attendance for day games in Cincinnati that season was around 2,000. Reds ballpark usher Ralph Ploews exclaimed: “People were in utter joy.” The Reds played six other night games that season against the remaining NL teams all to big crowds.

Not everyone in baseball was overjoyed. In fact, Hall of Famer Clark Griffith, owner of the AL’s Washington Senators, said at the time: “High class baseball cannot be played at night.” He, along with fourteen other MLB owners, soon acquiesced. Over the next thirteen years MLB ballparks all had light structures in place for night baseball, the last one being Tiger Stadium in Detroit in 1948. Except one, Wrigley Field. But that’s not to say that Cubs’ owner P.K. Wrigley didn’t fall in line. He ordered the steel for light towers after the 1941 season. When Pearl Harbor was attacked, Wrigley donated the material to the War Department. The light towers were used by a Naval Air Station in a north Chicago suburb for training fighter pilots making night landings.

Mr. Wrigley was also not enamored with night baseball, at one point deeming it a “passing fad”. In the early 1960s, William Shlensky, a shareholder of the Wrigley Co., filed an action against the company to force the installation of lights. Shlensky argued that the team was losing money, and other teams in MLB, most particularly the cross town White Sox, were achieving higher attendance and revenue due to night baseball. Mr. Wrigley argued that night baseball would be detrimental to the surrounding neighborhood. The judge ruled that Mr. Wrigley could run his ballclub as he sees fit, a win for the business judgement rule in corporate law and day baseball. The ballclub continued to suffer on the field. The 1969 team got out to a big division lead but the daylight sun was said to cause its tumble to the Mets late in the season.

Two key events in 1981 changed the ballclub’s tune. The Cubs were sold to the Tribune Company and Dallas Green rolled into town as general manager, both claiming that night baseball was important for the Cubs to be competitive. They had opposition. The Illinois Legislature passed an anti-noise law in 1982 that effectively barred the installation of lights at Wrigley Field. A 1983 Chicago City Ordinance did the same, and both the statute and ordinance were upheld in court. Citizens United for Baseball in Sunshine (CUBS), a neighborhood group near Wrigley Field, advocated for day baseball outside the ballpark gates. The Cubs threatened to move to the Chicago suburbs.

What turned the fortunes is that the team became good! The 1984 Cubs led their division for most of the season, and MLB became concerned about what that might mean for the World Series in October. Since it was an even-numbered year the National League winner would be the host team for games 1, 2, 6, and 7, which were scheduled to be weekday night games broadcasted nationally in prime time. MLB determined that if Chicago would reach the Series, Wrigley Field would instead be the host site for just games 3, 4, and 5, weekend games that could fit into the television sports schedule. The Padres defeated the Cubs in the NLCS that year, but the same issue appeared in 1985 when the Cubs led the division on Father’s Day. MLB had a new ultimatum – if the Cubs would get into the Series they might be forced to host their games at Milwaukee County Stadium, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, or at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Let’s get some lights!

On August 8, 1988, Harry Grossman, a 91 year old season ticket holder, brought night baseball to the North Side. Grossman lived near Wrigley Field his entire life, and saw over 4,000 games there since the 1906 championship season. He walked onto the field before this summer game featuring the Cubs and Phillies, and led the fans in chanting, “one, two, three, let there be lights”. He turned on a ceremonial switch, and the game began. After three and a half innings of play, the rains came and the first night game was actually rained out. The Cubs played the Mets the next evening, August 9, and night baseball was here to stay. Grossman would take a hero’s tour on the late night talk circuit, including an appearance on the David Letterman Show.

Night baseball restrictions continue to handcuff the Cubs despite the lights. By City Ordinance Wrigley Field is currently limited to 35 regular season night games plus up to eight more games added by the request of national TV networks. In 2022 the average number of night games per MLB team was 54, which has been the case for a few decades. The most home night games are in Atlanta where Truist Park hosts 63 a year. Interestingly, since the lights were turned on in 1988, the Cubs night winning percentage at Wrigley is .542, compared to a .521 winning percentage during the day. Another restriction is that night games can’t be played at all on Friday evenings, which has caused Cubs managers to ask the Chicago Board of Aldermen for waivers to play Friday night on at least two occasions.

Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, is famous for his colorful expressions, including saying “Let’s Play Two!” on beautiful days at the ballpark and deeming Wrigley Field the “Friendly Confines”. He had this to say about night baseball: “I played all my home games under one light, God’s light”. The Cubs only wish they could play under the same rules as other teams in baseball.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach