If Wrigley Survived Lights, I’ll Survive A Jumbotron

My Aug. 8 column from CBS Chicago

shirt(CBS) In my dresser drawer there sits a yellow T-shirt that shouts “SUPPORT DAY BASEBALL” in bold red letters on its front side, while its back sports the equally loud message: “NO LIGHTS IN WRIGLEY FIELD.”

The shirt – a throwback honoring the “purists” who campaigned during the 1980s to keep Wrigley out of the Electric Age – is something that I bought several years ago, and I wear it to Cubs games on occasion.

Although, only if I’m attending one that starts in the afternoon.

After all, I wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite.

I do love day baseball. However, it’s not that I don’t like night games at Wrigley Field too. I do, and the T-shirt is more tongue-in-cheek than anything. But, in my scorebook, the old ballpark at Clark & Addison is still built for day games and is at its best when teams are playing there under the sun, rather than under than the lights.

Twenty-five years ago tonight, however, on Aug. 8, 1988 (8/8/88), the Chicago Cubs went under the lights Wrigley for the first time when the franchise abandoned its long-held tradition of playing only during the daylight at home and took the field for (gasp!) a night game.

Continue reading at CBSChicago.com

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