Sport 1930: Night Baseball

Night Baseball

In Indianapolis one night last week, big floodlights poured metallic glare over a baseball field under a pitchblack sky and the Cincinnati “Reds” played an exhibition game with the Indianapolis “Indians.” It was the first night game ever played by a major league team. The lights turned the field to a vividly unreal color, like grass in a postcard, against which the figures of the players stood out sharply three-dimensional. Both teams were hitting well but the red-legged fielders were uncertain judging distances and fumbled. Final score: Indianapolis 17, Cincinnati 5.

Objections to night games: 1) In the eastern daylight-saving cities it is not pitch dark until after 9 p. m. most of the summer. Because teams must warm up before starting and because lights are useless except in pitch dark, games will not start till 9:30, finishing near midnight—too late for most fans. 2) Every team would have to spend some of the increased revenue from night games in buying new players enough to have two teams—one for days, one for nights. 3) All old-time managers, opposed to change, dislike the experiment, say it “sounds the knell of baseball.”