FACT OR FICTION TOP 5: 2018 Major League Baseball All Star Game

...Supposedly they do. With the boys of summer were in town for the 2018 MLB All Star Game. All of baseball’s best players in the world stopped by our nation’s capitol to put on a show. You may or may not know that Washington D.C. is a town embedded with some of the craziest urban myths and legends, such as who was responsible for the spelling error at the Lincoln Memorial, where are all of the hidden mini monuments buried all over town, why there really isn’t a “J” street and, my favorite, the ghost cat that haunts the Capital at night. Take HomElectrical’s short quiz to decipher fact from fiction, legend from myth. The next time you are in Washington D.C., always keep your eye out for hidden passageways and dumbwaiter elevators that may lead you to another national treasure. ₍₁₎

FACT!  Long Before LED Bulbs, the Edison Company installed a generator for the White House with wires strung along the lawn to power the building.  Electricity was not popular at the time and the wires inside the house were buried inside plaster with switches in each room to control the electrical current.  President Benjamin Harrison’s wife was so skeptical of the White House’s upgrade that she refused to use electricity in fear she may be electrocuted or shocked. ₍₂₎

FICTION! Though Fenway park is the oldest MLB stadium it did not host the first night game.  In fact it was the last stadium to adopt night games.  The first night game ever documented for baseball featured players from two major Boston department stores and was played along the shoreline at Nantasket Beach near Strawberry Hill.  Not a professional sporting event, but the accomplishment was still way ahead of its time.

The game was played on September 2, 1880 with lights from three wooden towers that supported electric arc lamps provided by the Northern Electric Company of Boston. The game played to a 16-16 tie since players did not want to miss the last ferry of the night back to Boston. It wasn’t until 1935 that Major League Baseball was played under permanent stadium lighting. ₍₃₎

FACT!  The last time the world series was played indoors during the day was Game 6 at the Metrodome in Minnesota, 1987. However, the last daytime game to be played outside featured Kirk Gibson’s Tigers with a win over the Twins during the 1984 World Series, which ended with a riot in the streets of Detroit. ₍₄₎

It wasn’t until the 1988 Game 2 of the World Series in Los Angeles that Kirk Gibson went yard in arguably the greatest walk off moment in the history of the World Series. Luckily the games were played at night or some of the magic might have been lost in the glare of the sun.

FACT! Wilkie Wilkerson, who owned the Kansas City Monarchs introduced the first night game for professional baseball.  In 1930, the year after the stock market crash the country was broke.  For Baseball, teams were struggling to get fans to the games.  One team had already disbanded, and while the games were played during the daytime, it was becoming impossible for working class fans to attend.

A General Electric physicist, William David Coolidge, who invented Flood Lights helped to create portable stadium lighting, so the team could take them on the road with them. Though the filaments in the bulbs burnt out quickly, Coolidge “baked” Tungsten to give the bulbs a longer life. In the first year with portable lighting, the Monarchs attendance rose from 5,000 to 12,000; peaking at 15,000 fans. (5) However, the first MLB game is credited to the Reds and Phillies in 1935 since the Monarchs were an African-American league team. Depression or not, the show must go on!

The MLB has moved forward in retrofitting stadiums to use the most innovative LED Bulbs for night games and conserving energy.

In 2014, the Seattle Mariners and Safeco Field made history when they became the first MLB team to light up their home field with LED Lights. The field is illuminated with 578 GigaTera light fixtures that are 30% brighter than their old counterparts but use 50% fewer watts. Just these lights alone save the stadium 784,000 kWh per season and more than $50,000 in energy costs. The organization is now able to save more than $1 million per year simply by reducing their energy and waste costs.

BONUS FACT: If Congress somehow approved the construction of a completely identical Washington monument in 2018, it would cost around $350,000,000 (that’s the equivalent of 200 Washington Monuments to one U.S./Mexico border wall). ₍₇₎

References

1. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/in-what-year-was-electricity-installed-in-the-white-house
2. https://frenchmoments.eu/fun-facts-about-the-eiffel-tower/
3. https://business.directenergy.com/blog/2017/october/lighting-up-the-mlb
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/sports/baseball/why-series-games-wont-see-light-of-day.html
5. http://time.com/3837130/night-baseball-history/
6. https://www.mlb.com/news/safeco-field-first-major-league-park-to-illuminate-field-with-led-lights/c-106941794
7. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/in-what-year-was-electricity-installed-in-the-white-house