CHICAGO -- The Chicago Cubs hosted their first night game under the lights of Wrigley Field Monday, but the heavens failed to cooperate and rain forced the contest to be called off in the fourth inning.
The 74-year-old tradition of day-only baseball at the 'Friendly Confines' ended when the game got under way at 7:01 p.m. CDT. But the thunderstorms moved into the area by the middle of the fourth, halting play at 8:15 p.m. with the Cubs leading the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1.
After a rain delay of two hours and 10 minutes, the game was called off and it will have to be replayed. Tuesday's scheduled game, against the New York Mets, also is a night contest.
'We had a summer where every night we hear about the lack of rain. I'm sure for a lot of people that this was a godsend. But we're a little bit frustrated right now,' Cubs General Manager Jim Frey said as the delay neared two hours.
Ageless Cub fan Harry Grossman, 91, flicked the switch that made history at 6:06 p.m. CDT, illuminating a $5 million lighting fixture at what had been the nation's only major-league ballpark without night baseball.
The Cubs took the field an hour later, playing host to the Phillies before 39,012 jubiliant fans who paid up to $1,500 per ticket for scalpers' seats that normally would cost $10.50.
Other fans who were weren't lucky enough to obtain the hottest ticket in town since the Cubs hosted the 1984 National League East playoffs gathered outside the North Side ballpark.
Innumerable other fans who wanted to avoid the congestion around Wrigley Field filled taverns throughout the city to celebrate the occasion with 'Let There Be Lights' parties.
Fans attending the game said they were thrilled to be part of the historic event but were concerned about the end of a tradition.
'I think it's a break of tradition, and being a traditionalist it kind of gives you a sad feeling,' said Andy Vail, 60, an usher at Wrigley since 1946. 'But you have to change with the times. We're just looking at the Cubs in a different light.'
A longtime bleacher bum, Carmella Hartigan, 86, said she also preferred baseball in sunshine but was prepared for the new experience of night games.
'I've never been to a night game before. That's why I'm excited to be here,' she said. 'Times change and you can't be a stick in the mud. So I'll enjoy the game as much as anybody.'
Depsite the heavy activity around the ballpark as the game got under way, police reported no unusual problems or disturbances, which had been a major concern of neighborhood residents opposed to the lighting of Wrigley Field.
Superstation WGN, which has broadcast Cubs' games the past 40 years to Cubs fans across the country, expected millions of viewers to tune in Monday night to witness the glow from Wrigley Field. NBC planned to televise Game 2 Tuesday night.
The Tribune Co., owners of the Cubs, installed the lights this summer after a lengthy battle with neighborhood residents who complained night games would destroy the tranquility of their neighborhood.
The City Council eventually passed legislation making night games possible after Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth said Wrigley Field would be the site of the 1992 All-Star Game -- if lights were installed.
The decision to light up Wrigley Field also came after Ueberroth warned after the 1984 National League East playoffs that if the Cubs made it into the playoffs again they would have to play the games at night -- so Major League Baseball could live up to its television contracts for those lucrative games.
Under the agreement with the city, the Cubs will play eight night games this season followed by 18 night games a season the next 14 years.
Harry Caray, the WGN broadcaster who is nearly as popular as the Cubs, was among those who opposed the installation of lights at Wrigley Field because of his love of day baseball.
But Caray, who like many fans realized if Wrigley Field was not lit up it would probably mean the ivy-covered ballpark would face certain extinction with the Cubs moving to a new stadium, eventually warmed up to the lights.
'I think what made the Cubs what they are today is day baseball,' Caray said. 'I honestly hoped the commissioner of baseball would have been more of a romanticist. A romanticist would have kept day baseball.
'But responsible people made this decision. They want this ballpark to live forever. It's going to be a beautiful site here Monday night.'
