The first game under the lights at Wrigley Field began a 30-year odyssey for the Friendly Confines themselves, the Chicago Cubs and their fans. It is a date fraught with more than fate. It is, indeed, a baseball trivia fan’s delight.
The long strange journey on the way to installing lights at Wrigley Field begins not in the closing years of the 20th century, but rather near its midpoint. Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley had been contemplating installing lights for years before work finally began in in 1941. Wrigley, though, was not thinking about night games. He was thinking more about starting games at twilight, around 6:00 p.