Most of us think very little about a baseball game being played at night, these days. For most, it’s the only time to attend, as the workday is over, and it’s a bit cooler outside than a hot afternoon in July.

Prior to the 1930s, a nighttime baseball game was a rarity in most places. Cooperstown, a famous baseball destination, witnessed its first nighttime game in early September 1932. The spectacle attracted a record crowd for its time, at a much smaller Doubleday Field.

According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, the first-ever nighttime game was played in Hull, Mass., on Sept. 2, 1880. Teams representing Jordan Marsh & Co. and R.H. White, two Boston-based department stores, played to a 16-16 tie. This was only a year after Thomas Edison had perfected the electric light bulb, so the 300 spectators were likely on hand to see the lighting, as well as the game.

Those lights were far from the towers you see today at Damaschke Field in Oneonta or NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton, and it was still a long time before any professional baseball was played at night. Lynn, Mass., makes the claim of a first professional night game, played on June 24, 1927, against Salem in a Class B New England League game. The first major-league night game was May 24, 1935, at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio.

In Cooperstown, the first night game was played between two African-American teams. It was "Ewing’s Colored Giants" of Schenectady against the New York Red Sox.

The Freeman’s Journal wrote that, "Night games have been very popular in many of the cities and larger places of the country and the local management feels very fortunate to bring two celebrated colored teams here."

A paying crowd of 600 gathered at Doubleday Field at 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, 1932, to watch this bit of local history. It may not sound like a big crowd by today’s standards, but it was still another six years before Doubleday Field was greatly expanded toward its present capacity.

"Every seat on the grandstand and every place on the bleachers was taken with a lot of people standing up," the Freeman’s Journal reported. "The crowd was estimated at 600 "¦ to say nothing of the kids and others who crashed the gate."

The lighting equipment was provided by the New York Red Sox. One big truck brought the lights and standards and another brought a large generator for the power. There were 10 floodlights used, although a few more were in a state of disrepair. Five were placed behind the first base line, with the other five along third. Once in a while, a high fly ball would get lost in the darkness, and it amused the crowd to see how a fielder reacted to try to place where the ball might come down.

Ewing’s Giants jumped out to a 5-0 lead early, but the Red Sox had their own five-run eighth inning, and went on to win, 8-5.

These two teams stayed in town for another week, playing again the following Friday night, and also in daytime contests over Labor Day weekend with the local team, called Otsego Lake.

On Monday: We’ll grab the fishing poles and head to the pond in Neahwa Park.

City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is

www.oneontahistorian.com.