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N0KFQ > TODAY 08.08.11 19:37l 53 Lines 2407 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10737_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Aug 8
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<DB0RES<ON0AR<HS1LMV<CX2SA<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 110808/1725Z 10737@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Aug 8, 1988:
Lights go on at Wrigley
On this day in 1988, the Chicago Cubs host the first night game
in the history of Wrigley Field.
The first-ever night game in professional baseball took place
nearly 60 years earlier, on May 2, 1930, when a Des Moines, Iowa,
team hosted Wichita for a Western League game. The match-up drew
12,000 people at a time when Des Moines was averaging just 600
fans per game. Evening games soon became popular in the minors:
As minor league ball clubs were routinely folding in the midst of
the Great Depression, adaptable owners found the innovation a key
to staying in business. The major leagues, though, took five
years to catch up to their small-town counterparts.
The first big league night game took place in Cincinnati, Ohio,
on May 24, 1935, and drew 25,000 fans. The crowd stood by as
President Franklin D. Roosevelt symbolically switched on the
lights from Washington, D.C. To capitalize on their new evening
fan base, the Reds played a night game that year against every
National League team--eight games in total--and despite their
lousy record of 68-85, paid attendance rose 117 percent. Over the
next 13 seasons, the rest of the major league parks followed
suit, with one exception, Wrigley Field, which by 1988 was the
second oldest ballpark in use after Boston's Fenway Park. For 74
seasons, the Cubs played only day games at home. Finally, on
August 8, 1988, the Cubs played the Philadelphia Phillies in the
park's first night game. Ninety-one-year-old Cubs fan Harry
Grossman was chosen to turn on the lights. After counting to
three, he flipped the switch, and announced "Let there be light."
Rick Sutcliffe started the game for the Cubs, and gave up a home
run to Phil Bradley of the Phillies on his fourth pitch. The
Cubs' star second baseman Ryne Sandberg answered with a two-run
home run in the bottom of the first inning, and with the Cubs
leading in the bottom of the fourth inning 3-1, the game was
called due to rain. Because the five innings needed for the game
to be official were not completed, Wrigley's first night game is
officially recorded as a 6-4 win over the New York Mets on August
9, 1988.
Today, the Cubs are the only major league team that still plays
the majority of its home games during the day.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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