Once considered a passing fad, night baseball more and more is cementing itself as a regularity that is here to stay in Major League baseball. Here the Boston Red Sox finally turn on the lights for the first time ever at Fenway Park against the Chicago White Sox and leaving the Detroit Tigers as the only remaining American League team without home night games.
The Red Sox started installing seven light towers in all in the first week of 1947, the same year that their left-field wall went through dramatic changes in removing its add and resulting in the color we see today in what we call the Green Monster.
The Red Sox won the memorable night by a 5-3 score despite 13 White Sox hits. Ted Williams had two hits and two runs knocked in and Boston scored two unearned runs on a throwing error by the usually reliable White Sox Hall of Fame shortstop Luke Appling. Chicago never did help their own cause going just 2-14 at the plate with runners in scoring position and leaving 11 runners on base.
Red Sox burly pitcher Dave Ferris, a 25-game winner in 1946, would earn his fifth win of the season despite giving up 11 hits in just over five innings work.
And after their first historical night game that evening, Boston would play an additional 13 games that season under the lights, embracing the concept of night baseball in full and forever.
