Night Baseball

In 1933, Larry MacPhail became general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, a team that was near bankruptcy. MacPhail had been able to draw fans to his minor league games in Columbus by playing at night, and so he began pressing Major League Baseball for the right to play at night. Two years later, MLB relented, offering every team the chance to play seven night games. Only the Reds took the bait. On May 24, 1935 the Reds played the Philadelphia Phillies in major league baseball's first night game. At the end of the season, MacPhail's night games had attracted four times as many fans per game as the Reds could muster during the day.

Slowly, each major league team began adding lights to their stadiums until 1949, when only the Chicago Cubs refused to play their home games at night. Finally, even the Cubs installed lights at Wrigley Field in 1988. Still, the Cubs play most of their home games under the sun.

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