You Can’t Believe
Everything You Read – the Surprisingly Early History of the First "Scheduled" Night Game of Professional Baseball – September 1, 1888
Tradition holds that the first
night-game of major league baseball was played at Crosley field in Cincinnati
on May 24, 1935. The Cincinnati Reds
beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1, under electric arc-lights
switched on by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from a remote switch in the
White House.
The big-league Kansas City Monarchs
of the Negro League had played under electric light five years earlier, in 1930, traveling with their own portable electrical lighting system.
But although both of those may
have been night-game “firsts” of some kind, for games actually played, they
were not night-game “firsts” for major league games “scheduled” to be played at
night. The first scheduled night-games involving
major league teams scheduled about fifty years before actual night games were
ever played in the majors.
The first known scheduled
night-game involving at least one major league baseball team was scheduled to
be played in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1883.
The first known scheduled night-game between two major league baseball
teams was scheduled to be played in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1888. In both cases, games were postponed, and then
never played. In one case, it was the weather; in the other, technical problems. In both cases, the management took the
opportunity to play test-games to test the visibility conditions before rescheduling. In both cases, the visibility was so unsatisfactory
that the postponed games were apparently rescheduled for daytime. The nighttime baseball experiment was
postponed for about fifty years – at least for the major leaguers.
Early Night Baseball
The dream of playing baseball at
night is even older than Edison’s patent on the incandescent lightbulb. In December, 1878, more than a year before
Edison’s patent issued, the New Orleans
Picayune[i]
declared Edison’s life not to have been in vain – if, for no other reason than, baseball could be played under his light:
The
New Orleans Picayune has discovered that Edison has not lived in vain – base
ball can be played under his light.
The Brenham Weekly Banner (Brenham, Texas), December 27 1878.
Although he had only just
recently filed his patent application, Edison’s electric light was already big news;
the most famous inventor of his day was known to have turned his attention to
the most anticipated invention of the time, the light bulb; now symbolic of any
brilliant idea. The New York Sun, for example, had recently published an extensive interview
with Edison, in which the main topic of discussion was his recent work on the
electric light.
Chariton Courier, November 30, 1878, page 1 (reprinted from the New
York Sun).
The promise of nighttime light
stayed in the news. In 1879, the New York Sun waxed futuristic (if that’s
a thing) about the promise of electric lights – night baseball was one of its
anticipated benefits:
The
night may not be distant when a nine inning base ball game will be played under
its rays.
Little Falls Transcript (Little Falls, Minnesota), August 7, 1879,
page 1 (reprint of New York Sun article).
The editors of The Sun were
already familiar with electric light in 1879. They had recently installed an electric
light on their building that shone on City Hall Park, from which the sounds of children playing under the lights reached the ears of “toiling editors.” An
article about their light mentions children playing nighttime leap frog and tag – it is
not too difficult to imagine the same children playing a little night-baseball too;
perhaps those children were actually the first ones to play baseball under the
lights?
Little Falls Transcript (Little Falls, Minnesota), August 7, 1879,
page 1 (reprint of New York Sun article.
The Sun was right – the day was not too far in the distant
future. The future arrived in September of
1880.
First Known Night Game
The first known game of baseball
played under lights was a decidedly amateurish affair contested by the
employees of Boston-based, rival mail-order retailers, R. H. White & Co.,
and Jordan, Marsh & Co. The game was
played in front of guests of the Sea Foam House in the Strawberry Hill
neighborhood of Nantasket Beach, in Hull Massachusetts on September 2,
1880. The lighting was not bright enough
for spectators to really follow the action, and fielders found it less
dangerous to just let fly balls bounce and chase them, than to catch them on
the fly. The organizers of the event
even took journalists covering the event on a short field trip during the
game. But the game was only a sideshow;
the main event was a demonstration to show the feasibility of lighting large
areas of cities with electric light:
Lighting
Towns By Electricity.
A
novel exhibition of base ball made at Strawberry Hill, Nantasket beach, last
evening. What especially attracted the
three hundred spectators to the balconies of the Sea Foam House was the promise
of the exceedingly novel sight of a game of base ball in the evening, long
after the sun’s rays should be dispelled by natural darkness. The real significance of the occasion,
however, was the first public experiment in illustration of a new system of
illuminating towns by electricity. The plan is to illuminate the streets of a
city – in fact, the whole atmosphere around and above the buildings – that the
use of any light whatever in the house will be rendered unnecessary. This end is to be attained simply by placing
groups of electric lamps on the summit of towers some 200 feet high, and placed
at intervals, say four to the square mile, through a city. . . .
An
idea of the effect produced by the illumination may be best conveyed by stating
the fact that a flood of mellow light thrown upon the field enabled the
ball-layers, between 8 and half-past 9 o’clock, to complete a game of nine
innings. The nines were picked from the
employes of Jordan, Marsh & Co. and R. H. White & Co., and tied the
game with a score of 16 to 16. It cannot
be said that the practice of such sports is likely at present to be carried on
extensively by night rather than by day, for the players had to bat and throw
with some caution, and the number of errors due to an imperfect light was
innumerable. Fly balls descending nearly
perpendicular could be caught easily, but when batted a long distance it was much
easier and saver to get the ball by chasing it after it struck the ground. The fact, however, that a game could be
played at all shows a considerable advance in the intensity of the light over
that which previous experiments have disclosed.
To the spectators the game proved of little interest, since in general
only the players’ movement could be discerned, while the course of the ball
eluded their sight.
During
the game, by the courtesy of the managers, the representatives of the press
were treated to a ride along the shore to Allerton Point, distant a mile in a
straight line from the towers. Here the
light shone upon the face of a watch with sufficient brightness to disclose
easily the position of the hands. Upon
the hotel plaza one could read in the full radiance of the light a newspaper at
a little less than the ordinary distance for holding a book from the eyes, but
turning so as to throw a shadow upon the page, the letters immediately
vanished. – [Boston Advertiser, Sept. 3d.
Sacramento Daily Record-Union,
October 23, 1880, page 6.
The reference to “previous experiments” raises the question
of whether this was, in fact, the first nighttime game of baseball. Were there earlier attempts to play baseball
under the lights, or was this a casual reference to earlier attempts to light
large, outdoor areas?
In any case, these amateurs had started a trend that
professionals were soon to follow – or at least attempt to follow.
Nighttime
Baseball in Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1883
Early in the 1883 baseball
season, the National League’s Indianapolis team was set to play the professional team from Fort Wayne, Indiana,
which played its league games in the Northwestern League (similar to a AAA
minor league today), for the "championship" of Indiana.[ii] The game was made even more noteworthy
because it was scheduled to be played at night:
Base
Ball at Night.
Fort
Wayne, Indiana, 28. – The experiment of playing base ball by electric light
will be tried in this city, to-morrow night, when the Fort Wayne and
Indianapolis clubs will contest for the championship of the state. The grounds will be lighted with twelve
lights on the four corners and sides of the grounds on poles forty feet high
from the grounds.
The Salt Lake Herald, May 29, 1883, page 4.
The game never took place; the
game was postponed due to bad weather. A
test of the lighting conditions also signaled a need to increase the number of
lights before the game could be held:
The
Fort Wayne and Indianapolis ball clubs went to play a game on the former’s
grounds last night, by electric light, but a storm prevented. A test of the lights was made but they were
insufficient to well illuminate the center field, and twenty-five more Jenny
lights[iii]
are to be added, making thirty-six in all, and the game will come off soon.
The Daily Globe (Saint Paul, Minnesota), May 30, 1883, page 4.
With the addition of some new
lights, the field conditions were believed to be in order:
Base
Ball at Night.
Fort
Wayne, 1. – The second test of lighting the base ball grounds with the Jenny
electric light was made to-night with sixteen burners which proves the practicability
of playing base ball at night.
The Salt Lake Herald, June 2, 1883, page 4.
If only their optimism had been
justified. Before Indianapolis and Fort
Wayne could reschedule their game, two other teams played a night game on the
field; a professional team from Quincy, Illinois, a member of the Northwestern
League, beat up on some Methodist schoolboys from Fort Wayne College; the
professionals out-scored the college boys 19 to 11.[iv] The results of the game were predictable and
the lights were less than promising:
They
have had that game of base ball at Fort Wayne by electric light, but the
evidence given by the wires is that it was not an enthusiastic success,
especially with the fielders, who when they endeavored to take a fly found the
rays of too many conflicting suns in their eyes or an unreliable mixture of suns
and moons.
The Daily Globe (Saint Paul, Minnesota), June 3, 1883, page 4.
Although the game was played
under seventeen “Jenny lights” (more than the twelve used in its original test,
but far less than the planned thirty-two), the visibility was too low. Although the “[p]laying between the pitcher
and the catcher enabled them to work fairly . . . the fielding was
unsatisfactory owing to the insufficient number of lights used.” And the game was sloppy; “Passed balls,
Quincy 4, College 5. Errors, Quincy 6,
College 11.”
The Daily Globe (Saint Paul, Minnesota), June 3, 1883, page 5.
The Saline County Journal
(Kansas), June 7, 1883, page 2.
Although one report of the game
suggested that the team planned on getting more lights to play another game in
the future, I was unable to find any account of another night game in Fort
Wayne, Indiana during the rest of the season.
The poor results may have soured
the entire baseball industry against electric lights. It would be five years before two more
professional teams scheduled a night game.
Nighttime Baseball in Indianapolis, Indiana, 1888
On August 23, 1888, the Evening
Bulletin of Maysville, Kentucky printed what may be the first-ever report of a
night game featuring two major league baseball teams:
Indianapolis
and Detroit base ball clubs played a game of base ball by electric light
Tuesday night. The scheme worked well.
The Evening Bulletin, August 23, 1888, page 4.
As with many things, however, you
can’t believe everything you read. And
the corollary to that rule, that most things you read have at least a grain of
truth in them, also holds true. Although
Indianapolis and Detroit had played a game that day – they played their game
during the daytime.
What was true, however, was that the Indianapolis team had played under the lights that day; but not in a game. It was a test-run to prepare
for a scheduled night-game against the Chicago White Stockings the
following week.
The story was also false on one more score; the lights were not electric – they ran on natural gas.
The story was also false on one more score; the lights were not electric – they ran on natural gas.
The Los Angeles Herald published
an optimistic account of the practice:
The Los Angeles Daily Herald,
August 22, 1888, page 4.
The Indianapolis Journal
published an extensive report of the practice, the effect of the lights, and
the hoped-for night game to be played against Chicago; they seemed optimistic –
just add a few more lights and everything would run smoothly – as if:
The
first attempt ever made at playing base-ball by natural-gas light occurred last
night at the ball park in this city. It
was merely a preliminary test, no regular game being attempted, and the
illumination not being nearly so extensive as is contemplated when a regular
game is to be played. Only two lights
were used. They were erected in the
northeast corner of the ground, about sixty feet apart, and they threw a bright
light all over the ground. Nearly all of
the members of the Indianapolis team got out and practiced. Balls were batted in the air, to the
outfield, and along the ground, and the players seemed to get them as easily as
in the daytime. The ball could be seen
clearly when high in the air. A new ball
was tried at first, and afterward an old one was thrown in, but it seemed to
make no difference. Manager Spence, who
had all along been skeptical concerning the success of the project, said, after
watching the playing last night, that he believed it would be a go. Denny McGeachy and others thought the same
thing. Quite a crowd was out to watch
the exhibit, among them nearly all the directors of the club. President Brush was much pleased with the
result, and no sooner did he see the effect of the display than he ordered
sixteen lights to be put in by the natural gas companies at once. The difference between sixteen lights and two
will be very marked, and judging from last night’s display it will be an easy
thing to play a regular game with that much illumination. The club goes to Pittsburg to-night, and no
night game can be played until it returns, but the attempt will be made with
the Chicagos during the series here with that club the latter part of next
week. The game will probably be played
on Saturday night, Sept. 1.
The Indianapolis Journal, August
22, 1888, page 7.
The stage was set for a showdown
against Chicago under the lights:
But when the Chicago game rolled
around, they played it during the day. Coincidentally
(or not?), the gas company took out a large advertisement just below the
notice of the game:
The night game never happened
because the gas-plan was snake-bit from its inception. First, there were construction problems:
During
the first inning [of the Knights of Pythias Game] the workmen who were engaged
in putting up natural-gas pipe, at the east portion of the stand, let a section
of the piping fall, but it was fortunately caught before striking any of the
spectators.
And then, there wasn’t enough gas
to fully illuminate the field. What
happens when everyone flushes the toilet at the same time? – it’s the same with
natural gas. If you add fourteen extra
lights, without increasing the supply of gas, you get sixteen dim lights –
instead of two bright ones.
Not
Very Successful.
The
workmen put in the last of the lights at the ball park yesterday afternoon, and
last night all of them were lighted and an attempt was made at knocking the
ball around. The result was quite
disappointing to the stockholders of the club.
It was found that the lights were by no means as brilliant as it was
hoped they would be. It seems that when
the two lights were burning in the test made a couple of weeks ago they made a
much more brilliant display than they did last night, when compelled to share
with thirteen or fourteen other lights. The
fact that a strong wind was blowing no doubt affected the lights somewhat, but
it was quite evident that the illumination was by no means sufficient to light
the grounds for playing at night. An old
ball could not be seen at any distance at all, and a new ball was visible only
a part of the time as it sailed through the air. Healy and one or two others of the players
suggested that if additional lights be placed back of third and first bases,
and a reflector used, the light would be sufficient, as the main trouble seemed
to be in seeing ground balls, but not many coincided in this opinion. President Brush is now afraid that the
experiment will not be a success, and that the expense to which the club has
gone in putting the lights will be a loss.
However, it might be well to leave the lights where they are, as the
park might be rented for summer evening exhibitions of some kind.
The Indianapolis Journal, September 6, 1888, page 3.
President Brush, the owner of the Indianapolis club and promotional genius behind the aborted night-game, is a
member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. John T. Brush owned the
Indiana Hoosiers during the 1880s, and later owned the Cincinnati Reds and the
New York Giants. He served as owner of the
New York Giants for more than twenty years, from 1890 until his death in
1912. He is also one of the men
responsible for writing the rules that still govern the modern World Series. But despite all of his accomplishments, he
could not pull off a satisfactory night game with late-1880s technology.
Epilogue
But for two postponements, the
history of major league night-games may well have been vastly different. If the weather hadn’t been so bad in 1883,
Fort Wayne and Indianapolis could have played a game under electric
lights. If the pipe-fitters hadn’t been
so clumsy in 1888, Indianapolis and Chicago might have played a game under gaslight. That’s not to say that the games would have
been a success; they would likely have been plagued by the same visibility
problems that affected the test-games. But
the list of “firsts” in baseball would be a lot older.
As it is, it took nearly fifty
years to realize the dream of night baseball and for another night-game to find
its way onto a major league schedule.
But the first scheduled games – they were scheduled much earlier than generally believed.
[i]
The patent generally considered to be Edison’s original patent for an
incandescent light bulb is US Patent Number 223, 898, Patented January 27,
1880, filed November 4, 1878. When he
filed for that patent, however, he had already received at least six patents
related to the electric light; and others had made less-successful electric
lights with other designs since as early as the 1840s.
[ii]
It was a common practice at the time for professional baseball teams to
sprinkle several non-league games throughout their season which would not count
in the league standings.
[iii] “Jenny”
lights were electric arc lights manufactured by the Jenny Electric Light Co.
which had offices in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and may have been based there. See The
Electrical World, Volume 3, page 139 (The Jenny Light in New England. – A new
elecrric arc light is coming into the field here in New England . . . . This light is known as the Jenny electric
light. It is well known in the West,
where it is considered one of the best, and holds its own in competition with
the Brush and Thomson-Houston Company systems.” and Volume 4, page 88 (“The
outside lighting is done by the Jenny Co., Fort Wayne, Ind.; a description of
that will be given hereafter.”).
[iv]
Other accounts of the game list the contestants as Quincy and the M. E. Church
Nine. See, Under the Lights, by Oscar
Eddleton, on the Society of Baseball Research Journals Archive (research.sabr.org). The apparent disagreement is accounted for by
the fact that Fort Wayne College (now Taylor University),
was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church as Fort Wayne Female College in 1846. It went co-ed and changed its name to Fort
Wayne College in 1850. The M. E. Church
Nine and “the college” in Fort Wayne are two names for the same team.
[Note: edited May 26, 2019, to reflect that the Kansas City Monarchs traveled with their own electric lighting system as early as 1930.]
[Note: edited May 26, 2019, to reflect that the Kansas City Monarchs traveled with their own electric lighting system as early as 1930.]