Even before breaking the ‘goat curse’ in 2016, the Chicago Cubs were a team that couldn’t do anything. Even the ‘night game’ was like that.

It was June 24, 1935 (hereafter local time) 안전놀이터 that the first night game was played in the American professional baseball Major League (MLB).

Powell Crosley Jr. (1886-1961), who acquired Cincinnati the previous year, installed a light tower at Crosley Field, the home stadium, after confirming that minor league night games helped increase the number of spectators.

The number of spectators, which was 2,000 at the home game immediately before the Brooklyn (currently Los Angeles) Dodgers, increased more than tenfold to 20,422 on the first day of the night game.

Then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) turned on the light tower wirelessly from the White House, and Cincinnati defeated Philadelphia 2-1 in 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Six years later, in the fall of 1941, Phillip K. Wrigley Cubs owner (1894-1977) ordered parts for a light tower to be installed in Wrigley Field.

At that time, lighting towers had already been installed in nine of MLB’s home stadiums.

The problem was that on December 7 of that year, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

The owner of Wrigley had to donate 165 tons of steel he bought to install the light tower to the US Army.

The Cubs later tried to make a light tower by mixing wood and used iron poles, but the War Production Board (WPB) refused to allow it.

The Cubs asked WPB again in 1944 if they could install a light tower, but again, the answer was ‘don’t do it’.

WPB then suggested, “If you want to play a night game, use Comiskey Park (the home of the Chicago White Sox).”

Wrigley’s owner declared the following year (1945) that “baseball is a daytime game” and that “our goal is to play in the sun for as long as possible.”

Since then, a court battle has continued for over 40 years over whether it is right to install a lighting tower at Wrigley Field.

And finally, on February 25, 1988, the Chicago City Council conditionally approved the installation of the light tower, allowing night games to be held at Wrigley Field.

Then it started to rain and after waiting for 2 hours, the referee finally declared ‘no game’.

In the end, it wasn’t until the next day that the Cubs recorded their first night game against the New York Mets.

Fortunately, the Cubs recorded a 6-4 victory over the Mets as well.

Since that day, the Cubs have recorded 468 wins and 415 losses (0.530 win rate) in home night games.

So, it is not known whether the Cubs suffered not only from the goat’s curse, but also from the ‘curse of the light tower’.