First Organized Night Baseball Game

First Organized Night Baseball Game. . Summer afternoon baseball games were a hot experience. Many people with jobs could not attend day games during the week. Ways to draw spectators to baseball games were considered and night baseball was thought to be a way to bring in fans. Between 1880 and 1930 several exhibition games played under lights had taken place, but organized baseball considered them novelty experiments. Organized baseball is defined as Major League Baseball and the minor league teams associated with them. Acceptance of night baseball was not without opposition. The Sporting News said that fans might possibly have difficulty sleeping after attending night games. It was thought that eating a large meal before a night game and then getting excited at the game would cause indigestion. There were also people who believed night baseball would increase player injuries and damage their eyes. The Great Depression also caused attendance at professional sporting events to decrease. However, Marvin L. Truby, President of the Independence Baseball Club in 1930, believed night baseball would improve attendance. Truby said, “I have never seen a proposal which looked as good as night baseball. It will eliminate the uncomfortable seating in a hot grandstand on a sultry afternoon, and the play should be every bit as fast and as good.” The new lights meant that people lucky enough to have jobs could go to games after work. The lights for Producer Park were purchased from the Giant Manufacturing Company located in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The towers for holding the lights were 60 feet tall, and constructed of steel pipe. The Independence Daily Reporter (April 17, 1930) in writing about an exhibition game held under the lights, “Independence is thus leading the world in the plan which experts say will ultimately result in adoption by practically every minor league baseball team in the world.” An organized baseball team had never before purchased lights and installed them on their home field, which marked history in the commitment to night baseball by an organized baseball team. On April 28, 1930, Independence held the first night game in the history of organized baseball. The Independence Producers played the Muskogee Chiefs. The Producers lost to Muskogee 13-3.