A very popular poster of the past |
NOTE THE SIGNIFICANCE of the phrasing of that
last sentence. For many news organizations have published stories that focused
on Wednesday being the 30th anniversary of the first night game.
When actually, it was Thursday.
Yes, the Cubs tried playing baseball under
their then-newly-installed light fixtures on Aug. 8, 1988 (the marketing people
liked the idea of the first night game ever being played on 8/8/88). I also
remember all the hoo-hah that arose once it became apparent the people
determined to keep lights out of Wrigley Field were going to lose.
It was regarded as a significant moment in city
history – almost as though they think the Chicago city flag ought to get its
fifth star to celebrate the lights being erected at Wrigley Field!
But it rained that night. They barely got in a
full inning before heavy rain came down and (more than two hours later) the
game had to be called. Since baseball rules say five innings must be played for
a game to be considered official, the happenings of 8/8/88 officially didn’t mean
a thing.
The light-less Wrigley Field, compared to … |
For the simple fact is that more people are
capable of going to ballgames if they’re scheduled around the standard-issue
work day. Even the Cubs realize that, and likely wish they could be like all
the other ballclubs that typically have about 60 of their 81 home games played
in the evening hours.
As one
who back then, and still to this day, is more inclined to check out Chicago
White Sox games (personally, I could care less about anything related to the
National League), the whole idea of thinking anything special about day
baseball was always strange.
… the brightly-lit environs of Comiskey Park |
AND EVEN IF you’re not old-enough to remember
pre-lights Wrigley, you’ve heard enough about the “85 percent of the world that
works” compared to the rest of the people who have time to go to daytime Cubs games
on a regular basis.
For what it’s worth, I wasn’t at that “first”
Cubs night game. That particular year was the one during which I worked an
overnight shift for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago.
Meaning I remember covering the overblown
outcry over trying to play night baseball, but was actually asleep when they attempted
a ballgame.
Elia had own thoughts about day game crowds |
When I came in the following early night, it
seemed almost humorous to learn the marketing efforts fell to naught, and that the
Cubs had to come crawling into the 20th Century some 53 years after
the Cincinnati Red brought night baseball to the major leagues (May 24, 1935 –
the night that then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a Western Union telegram
message to the Reds, giving team President Larry MacPhail (whose grandson,
Andy, became Cubs team president many years later) the go-ahead to turn on the
lights.
SO FOR THE record, the first successful attempt
at playing night baseball at Wrigley Field was 30 years ago Thursday.
The Cubs played the New York Mets and actually
managed to win 6-4, with Cubs pitcher Frank DiPino getting credit for the
victory and Hall of Fame pitcher Rich Gossage getting a “save.”
Somehow, I doubt there will be any similar
remembrances next week – which technically would be the 79th
anniversary of the first night game played in Chicago overall. The White Sox
beat the St. Louis Browns 5-2 on Aug. 14, 1939.
I suspect more people next year will point out the 40th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night (or maybe even the 100th anniversary since the 1919 World Series) than the 80th anniversary of night baseball in this city.
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