Philllies played in MLB’s first night game
One of the most significant events in Major League history took place 90 years ago when the first night game was played in Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.
The Cincinnati Reds edged the Phillies, 2-1. The May 24, 1935, game was completed in a brisk 1:35 in front of 20,422 fans.
At 8:30 p.m., President Franklin D. Roosevelt pressed a gold telegraph key in the White House 500 miles away, sending an electric pulse to a signal lamp on a table near first base in Crosley Field. Standing at the table, Reds general manager Larry MacPhail, generally credited as the “father” of night baseball, then flipped a switch and 632 Mazda lamps turned night into daytime, according to a May 21, 2020, article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, authored by Joe Suess.
For the 1935 season, the Reds were permitted to schedule seven night games, one against each National League club except the New York Giants, who refused to play after dark (so they played two against St. Louis).
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 Co. to design the lighting layout.
“Day baseball is now dead for all practical purposes,” MacPhail said in the Enquirer story. “Sooner or later, the game will be played in its entirety at night, and as I’ve said before, then baseball will be squarely in the amusement, the entertainment business ...”
If the illumination did not enlighten the team owners, the increase in gate receipts did. The Reds in 1935 averaged 4,600 fans per day game, but 18,000 fans at night.
By 1940, eight of the 16 Major League teams had lights.
Dolph Camilli, who played first base for the Phillies that first game, wasn’t sold on night ball.
“For a game or two, it was not that bad, but I never did care for it,” Camilli told The Enquirer in 1985. “You never could pick up the spin of the ball. It was hard to time the ball. It’s a different game altogether. I still don’t like it.”
The Major Leagues had been relatively slow to adopt nighttime baseball. The Minors had begun playing under the lights almost 10 years earlier, and virtually every Minor League ballpark had installed lights by 1939. Night baseball was considered the salvation of Minor League Baseball. (SABR Games Project).
Night Nuggets
The Brooklyn Dodgers were the second team to install lights. The first night game in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field came June 15, 1938, against the Reds. Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Vander Meer pitched the second of his two consecutive no-hitters that night. Truly a historic night. The president of the Brooklyn Dodgers was Larry MacPhail, who had moved on from Cincinnati.
The Chicago Cubs were the last holdout, finally installing lights at Wrigley Field in 1988. The first game was Aug. 9, 1988, a 6-4 win over the New York Mets before 36,399. The force behind installing lights at Wrigley Field was the Cubs’ executive vice president and general manager, Dallas Green.
The first World Series night game was in 1971, Game 3, Oct. 13, at Three Rivers Stadium -- the Cincinnati Reds at the Pittsburgh Pirates. Since 1988, all Fall Classic games have been under the lights.
The Philadelphia Story
After the 1938 season, Connie Mack, owner and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, wanted to install lights at Shibe Park. The neighborhood objected as they were concerned with the light, noise and traffic night baseball would lead to. However, the Athletics went ahead and installed lights. (ballparksofbaseball.com).
Mack’s A’s were the third Major League team to play under the lights, May 16, 1939, according to a SABR Games Project.
The Cleveland Indians won, 8-3, in 10 innings. The game started at 8:55 p.m. and drew 18,509. Attendance for the previous game against the New York Yankees was 5,000.
The lighting system installed at Shibe Park was said to have enough illumination to light more than 2,000 homes. Huge light standards were erected on the 20th Street side of the park and on top of the left-field stands. In all, 27,080 50-watt lamps were deployed to light the field, wrote Richard Cuicchi.
The Phillies, who shared Shibe Park with the A’s, played their first night game at home on June 1, 1939, a 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Baseball-Reference.com box score listed attendance at 8,000. The next game drew 2,000.
Shibe Park hosted the first All-Star Game at night on July 13, 1943, a 5-3 American League victory. 31,938 attended.