Baseball As America

From the Tour: On the Road With Baseball As America

Vander Meer is “Lights Out” with Ebbets Field Lights On

by Tom Shieber,
Baseball As America Curatorial Committee Member

(Article originally published in Memories and Dreams — Summer 2005)

Ticket to June 15, 1938, game at Ebbets Field, the first night game in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn will put in arc lights at Ebbets Field and go in for night baseball. There are those who contend Dodger baseballers have always played in the dark.
— Bob Ray, Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1938

Funny? Maybe. But for “Laughing Larry” MacPhail it was no joke. Three years earlier, as general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, the brash redhead introduced night baseball to the big leagues. On May 24, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt “symbolically” threw the switch from Washington, D.C., and some 20,000 fans witnessed baseball under the lights at an electrified Crosley Field. The Reds staged six more night contests that season and drew a total of over 140,000 after-dark fans, nearly a third of the total attendance for their 77-game home schedule. The experiment was clearly a success.

So it should have come as no surprise that when the innovative MacPhail became GM of the Dodgers in January 1938, Brooklyn would be the next city to host major league night games. Originally, it was reported that night baseball in Brooklyn would have to wait until 1939 – it was simply too late to add lights to Ebbets Field. But in late May 1938, the Dodgers announced that a $110,000 lighting system would be in place in less than a month.

New York’s Giants and Yankees were incensed. They claimed that a three-way agreement among the neighboring clubs prohibited night baseball in the boroughs. But MacPhail calmly responded to the contrary: “The directors of the Brooklyn club advised me there was no contract, ‘pact’ or understanding of any kind, nature or description regarding night baseball.” Undaunted, MacPhail set the date of the historic game for June 15 against Cincinnati.

Despite riding the heels of a 7-3 western road trip, the Dodgers approached the historic game knowing that they were in for trouble. Scheduled to face them was a 23-year-old fireballer named Johnny Vander Meer. In 1936, while pitching for the Durham Bulls of the Piedmont League, the young southpaw had set a league record by fanning 295 batters in just 214 innings pitched and even struck out 20 batters in one game. Less than two years later and in the majors, Vander Meer was as hot as could be.

In his six previous starts, the “Dutch Master” had surrendered only 24 hits, just over four hits per nine innings pitched. In the last game of the impressive run, Vander Meer faced just one batter over the minimum as he handcuffed the Boston Bees with a 3-0 no-hitter. Now the native of Prospect Park, N.J., located only 20 miles northwest of Brooklyn, was to face the Dodgers, under the lights for the first time, at Ebbets Field.

Johnny Vander Meer

Prior to the start of the historic game, drum and bugle corps entertained the crowd. Track star Jesse Owens, hero of the 1936 Olympic Games in Munich, took part in a number of track-and-field exhibitions, racing ballplayers and exhibiting his long-jump prowess. The crowd was even treated to an appearance by Babe Ruth, who signed a contract the following day to coach first base for the Dodgers. But the moment everyone was waiting for took place at 8:35 p.m., when the lights were turned on. The crowd roared with approval, and just over an hour later the Dodgers’ Max Butcher tossed the first pitch of the game and the much-anticipated contest finally began.

Neither club did much until the top of the third inning, when the Reds plated four runs, all with two outs. By the end of the eighth, Cincinnati had stretched the lead to 6-0, but the story of the evening was the pitching of Vander Meer. The Cincinnati southpaw had held Boston hitless just a few days earlier, and he proved just as unhittable in this nocturnal affair. Vander Meer cruised through the first eight innings despite walking five, with only one Dodger advancing past first base and none hitting safely. Entering the final frame, the crowd grew eager with anticipation. In over sixty years of Major League Baseball, no pitcher had ever hurled two no-hitters in the same season. Now, here was a kid flirting with two in a row!

In the bottom of the ninth, Vandy retired Dodgers left fielder Buddy Hassett on a grounder for the first out. Then things got a bit shaky as the Reds pitcher issued three straight walks to load the bases. Next up was center fielder Ernie Koy, who grounded a 1-1 pitch to Reds third baseman Lew Riggs. Rather than go for the 5-4-3 double play, Riggs played it safe with a slow, deliberate throw home to force the runner. Two down, bases loaded, and shortstop Leo Durocher approached the plate. “The Lip” scared the crowd with a blast into the right field stands, but the shot went foul. Moments later, Durocher hit a lazy fly ball, and with Harry Craft’s catch in short center, the memorable game came to a close. Over 38,000 fans had witnessed the first night game in Brooklyn history and the second-straight no-hitter pitched by Vander Meer.