With light standards set up just behind the first and third base coaching boxes, the Homestead Grays and the Kansas City Monarchs took the field for the first night game at Forbes Field on July 18, 1930.
Frank Duncan at the plate, “Buck Ewing catching July 18, 1930
The night before, the Grays played under lights for the time. A similar lighting system was deployed at the Akron, Ohio Central League ballpark, and Smokey Joe Williams shut out the Akron Guard, a local amateur club, 10 to 0, and held the Guard to two hits.
Ralph Davis, the sports editor of The Pittsburgh Press said:
“Baseball after dark made its initial gesture in Pittsburgh last night…More than 6,000 fans turned out through curiosity or other motives to see the spectacle, and the vast majority of them gave the night baseball plan their unqualified approval.”
Davis declared the field “as bright as day,” and said:
“With 33 huge floodlights as illuminants, the play-field of the Pirates was turned from inky blackness into something approaching mid-afternoon brightness.
“The scene was a revelation to many doubting Thomases who went to scoff and left the field declaring that perhaps, after all, the national pastime, if it ever has to be saved, will find night performances its savior.
“Hardly a shadow was discernible as the rival teams fielded apparently as surely and as speedily as they would have done in broad daylight. Balls hit high in the air were easy to follow in their flight, and long hits to the outfield could be traced without ‘losing’ the ball.”
Davis said the one exception in the field were ground balls “which skimmed along the ground.” Pitchers he said, appeared “to use just as much speed,” as during the day, and the lights seemed to not affect the catchers, and:
“Pitched balls, waist-high or higher, were easy picking for the eager batsmen, but it looked as if balls around the knees were harder to judge.”
The first pitch was not thrown until 9:15, because “the darker it was, the better the lighting system worked.”
As for the crowd, which Davis said “The color line was not drawn,” and the number of black and white fans were roughly equal:
“It was a typical baseball scene, with enthusiasm just as evident as any major league game. Rooters went into a frenzy when the Grays tied the score after the Monarchs had gotten away in the lead, and almost tore down the stands when they finally won out.”
“The color line was not drawn” in the crowd
The game went 12 innings, and ended, The Press said, “Precisely at midnight,” when George Scales scored the winning run on a hit by catcher William “Buck” Ewing.
Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss was “an interested spectator” who “Watched the play closely,” Davis asked him his opinion:
“It is interesting, and provides entertainment for many people who cannot get away from work for afternoon contests. It is not as fast as daylight ball, and I imagine the infielders have some difficulty in judging hard-hit grounders but it is remarkable how well the men handle themselves.”
Dreyfuss summed up his feelings:
“I don’t think night baseball will ever replace the daylight brand in popularity.”
Smoky Joe Williams, who had pitched in the Grays’ first night game in Akron two days earlier, agreed with Dreyfuss when Davis asked his opinion of playing under the lights:
“’Night baseball causes an eye strain,’ said he. “’It is all right as long as you don’t look into one of those big lights. If you do, you lose sight of the ball entirely. I’ll take the daylight stuff for mine.”
The next night, Williams pitched in the second night game to played in Pittsburgh, he took a 4 to 3 lead into the ninth inning when Kansas City scored five runs and beat him 8 to 8. Two weeks later, Williams struck out 27 Monarchs batters under the lights in Kansas City.
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