adminBefore breaking the Curse of the Goat in 2016, the Chicago Cubs were a team that could do no wrong. Even “night games.
The first night game in Major League Baseball (MLB) was played on June 24, 1935 (local time).
Powell Crosley Jr. (1886-1961), who had bought Cincinnati the year before, had installed a light tower at his home ballpark, Crosley Field, after seeing that minor league night games helped boost attendance.
A crowd of 2,000 at the previous night game against the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers more than doubled to 24,422 on the first night of night play.
Then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) lit the light tower by radio from the White House, and Cincinnati defeated Philadelphia 2-1 in one hour and 35 minutes.
Six years later, in the fall of 1941, Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley (1894-1977) ordered parts for a light tower at Wrigley Field.
At the time, nine of MLB’s home stadiums already had light towers.
The problem was that on December 7th of that year, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Wrigley’s owners were forced to donate the 165 tons of steel they had purchased for the towers to the U.S. military.
The Cubs later tried to build their own light towers using a combination of wood and used steel poles, but the War Production Board (WPB) didn’t approve.
The Cubs asked WPB again in 1944 if they could install a light tower, but this time the answer was no.
The WPB suggested, “If you want to play night games, use Comiskey Park (home of the Chicago White Sox).
The following year (1945), the Wrigley owners declared that “baseball is a day game,” and that “our goal is to play in the sun as long as possible.”
For more than 40 years, a court battle ensued over whether a light tower should be installed at Wrigley Field.
Eventually, on February 25, 1988, the Chicago City Council approved the tower with conditions, allowing Wrigley Field to host night games.
The Cubs played their first night game at Wrigley Field on August 8, 1988.
Harry Grossman Ong (1897-1991), a Cubs fan since 1906, flipped the switch to light the tower.
The Cubs started the day 0-for-4, giving up a leadoff home run to Philadelphia’s top hitter, Phil Bradley (64).
However, future National Baseball Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg (64) hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to make it a 2-1 game.
The Cubs then took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning, but…
That’s when it started to rain, and after a two-hour wait, the umpires finally called a “no game.
The Cubs would have to wait until the next day to record their first night game against the New York Mets.바카라사이트
Fortunately, the Cubs were able to record a 6-4 win against the Mets.
Since that day, the Cubs are 468-415 on home nights for a .530 winning percentage.
So the Cubs may have suffered not only from the Curse of the Goat, but also from the Curse of the Lighting Tower.