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Friday, March 1, 2013

Negro League baseball history fact for today – March 1, 2013


In 1930, the Kansas City Monarchs became the first professional baseball team to play night games.  Monarch’s owner, J. L Wilkinson, believed playing at night would increase attendance by allowing fans who worked during the day an opportunity to come to games; making more money for his team.  With their lights on retractable poles which were transported on six trucks and powered by a portable generator run by a loud gas engine, the Monarchs were able to play night games wherever they travelled.   The noise of the generator was so loud it supposedly once disturbed the zoo animals in a town where the team was playing.  Major League teams would not begin playing baseball at night until 1935.     

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