12. The World Series was America’s premier sporting event in the 1930s and 1940s
For the decades of the 1920s – 1940s, no other sporting event on the American calendar approached the World Series in popularity. Baseball stood unchallenged as America’s game, and the annual Fall Classic crowned its undisputed champion. Baseball fans both rabid and casual followed the games as they were played on weekday afternoons, at work and in schools. Wherever the games were played fans packed the ballparks. Many of the parks of the day installed extra seating for World Series games. During the 1930s World Series games were broadcast on all three national radio networks, each with its own broadcasting team after 1935. In a time when most American cities had afternoon newspapers, regular editions published the status of that day’s game at deadline. The games were closely followed on the air, box scores were parsed by fans. Interest in other sports waned. Professional football remained relatively unknown.
In 1935 the Cincinnati Reds, anxious to increase ticket sales during a period of fielding woebegone teams, installed lights at their home park, Crosley Field. In 1939 the Reds hosted the New York Yankees for two games of that year’s World Series. The light towers looming above Crosley Field were a curiosity to the Yankees, though all of the World Series games continued to be played in the afternoon. The Yankees did not install lights at Yankee Stadium until 1946. Baseball made it clear that although night games were alright for the regular season, their show piece, the World Series, would continue to be played in the daytime. That remained the case until 1971 when the Pirates hosted the Orioles in game 4 of the World Series. By then the handwriting was on the wall. In 1973, all weekday World Series games were played at night.