May 24, 1935: Turn on the lights

CINCINNATI - It's something that seems like it should have happened earlier. Baseball owners, with their franchises struggling to make ends meet during the Great Depression, tried to come up with ways to get more fans to the ballpark. After several years turning down the idea - and after seeing it work in the minors as early as the 1880s - the owners conceded to a new idea: how about staging a few games a year at night, so fans can see a game after they get home from work?

The first city to try it was, fittingly, Cincinnati, the home of the first all-professional baseball team and baseball's first dynasty. The Reds decided to have seven night games in 1935, one against every other National League game. Their first attempt on May 23 got rained out, so on May 24, 25,000 fans went to Crosley Field to witness the first night game in Major League history. The crowd proved immediately that night baseball could work - a near-capacity crowd turning out to see a last-place team in the middle of the Great Depression was no small feat.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt flipped a switch in the White House, the floodlights turned on at Crosley Field, illuminating the field for the Reds and the Phillies. Paul Derringer threw the first pitch to Phillies second baseman Lou Choizza in a light mist. After the game, the players marvelled at how well they could see the ball, comparing the lighting conditions to that of a hazy afternoon. There was no problem tracking fly balls against the night sky. The only moderate complaint was that it seemed as though the ball came faster from the pitcher.

The Reds beat the Phillies that day 2-1, and a phenomenon was born. While teams at first limited their number of night games - especially during World War II to conserve electricity - eventually, night games became so common that they became the norm, with day games turning into the rare occurence.

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HONORABLE MENTION
May 24, 1988: BOSTON - Speaking of lights, how about the time that a Stanley Cup Finals game had to be rescheduled because of a power outage? With Game 4 between the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins tied 3-3, the lights turned off at Boston Garden at the 16:27 mark of the second period. The power outage led to the game being abandonded and the series moved back to Edmonton for Game 5, which became the new Game 4. All the power outage did, though, was delay the inevitable, as Edmonton finished up their sweep at home.