Night games summary

[Le Grande Orange]

12/8 UPDATE: The chart is now complete through 1968.


A little table for those of you who wonder when baseball teams began playing most of their home games at night. This should help you decide when to change the start times in the schedules for your historical or historically-based leagues.

Some background info: the first big change came in 1935, when the leagues first allowed each team to play up to 7 of its home games at night. The next change came in 1942, when the rules were changed to allow each team to play up to 14 home games under the lights, except for Washington, which was allowed to play up to 21. Finally, a few years later all restrictions were lifted and each team could schedule as many home night games as they wished. However, Sunday night games were not allowed until 1962, when they were finally permitted, at the request of the new Houston franchise.

SCHEDULED NUMBER OF NIGHT GAMES AT HOME PER YEAR

                 NATIONAL LEAGUE                            AMERICAN LEAGUE

            77 home games (1935-1961)                  77 home games (1935-1960)
            81 home games (1962-2002)                  81 home games (1961-2002)

      BSN                                                                   PHA         LAA
      MLN BRO         NYG                                                   KCA SLB WSH CAL WSA     SEP
YEAR  ATL LAD CHC CIN SFG PHI PIT STL HOU NYM MON SDP   BOS CHW CLE DET NYY OAK BAL MIN ANA TEX KCR MIL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1935    0   0   0   7   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --     0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --
1936    0   0   0   7   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --     0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --
1937    0   0   0   7   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --     0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --
1938    0   7   0   7   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --     0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0  --  --  --  --
1939    0   7   0   7   0   7   0   0  --  --  --  --     0   7   7   0   0   7   0   0  --  --  --  --
1940    0   7   0   7   7   7   7   7  --  --  --  --     0   7   7   0   0   7   7   0  --  --  --  --
1941    0   7   0   7   7   7   7   7  --  --  --  --     0   7   7   0   0   7   7   7  --  --  --  --
1942    0  14   0  14  14  14  14  14  --  --  --  --     0  14  14   0   0  14  14  21  --  --  --  --
1943    0   0   0   7   0  14  14  14  --  --  --  --     0  14  14   0   0  14  14  21  --  --  --  --
1944    0  14   0  14  14  14  14  21  --  --  --  --     0  14  14   0   0  14  21  42  --  --  --  --
1945    0  14   0  14  14  14  14  46  --  --  --  --     0  14  14   0   0  14  43  34  --  --  --  --
1946   20  14   0  14  14  14  14  38  --  --  --  --     0  14  14   0  14  14  42  32  --  --  --  --
1947   29  14   0  14  14  14  21  41  --  --  --  --    14  15  21   0  14  14  31  39  --  --  --  --
1948   32  14   0  14  14  21  23  45  --  --  --  --    14  21  25  14  14  28  38  38  --  --  --  --
1949   32  21   0  14  14  30  25  43  --  --  --  --    14  19  27  14  14  31  36  41  --  --  --  --
1950   37  21   0  24  14  30  25  54  --  --  --  --    14  19  29  14  14  32  38  42  --  --  --  --
1951   32  21   0  25  14  36  28  52  --  --  --  --    14  19  28  14  14  32  29  44  --  --  --  --
1952   28  20   0  25  15  43  28  55  --  --  --  --    14  20  29  14  14  38  41  46  --  --  --  --
1953   27  24   0  29  16  42  28  50  --  --  --  --    14  21  29  14  14  37  44  50  --  --  --  --
1954   33  26   0  32  19  46  27  53  --  --  --  --    14  21  30  14  16  37  38  45  --  --  --  --
1955   35  30   0  36  20  45  28  56  --  --  --  --    14  21  30  14  16  40  34  39  --  --  --  --
1956   37  35   0  37  21  45  31  43  --  --  --  --    14  23  30  14  16  44  42  45  --  --  --  --
1957   39  37   0  44  21  43  32  46  --  --  --  --    18  21  31  21  17  43  47  38  --  --  --  --
1958   38  42   0  44  21  47  33  44  --  --  --  --    18  24  30  21  20  47  48  42  --  --  --  --
1959   38  60   0  45  21  46  37  46  --  --  --  --    24  23  35  21  21  52  46  42  --  --  --  --
1960   38  62   0  45  24  52  42  48  --  --  --  --    19  34  35  24  22  54  59  45  --  --  --  --
1961   37  60   0  46  23  56  47  50  --  --  --  --    25  38  39  24  24  57  57  31  57  44  --  --
1962   42  59   0  51  24  52  49  52  61  23  --  --    24  35  33  24  24  50  58  29  50  50  --  --
1963   42  59   0  51  25  47  48  44  66  28  --  --    32  35  39  24  25  44  55  34  54  51  --  --
1964   38  59   0  53  25  53  48  51  75  29  --  --    34  35  43  30  31  51  56  32  57  45  --  --
1965   44  56   0  54  22  58  49  52  59  34  --  --    37  35  46  39  26  40  56  36  56  43  --  --
1966   53  59   0  53  23  59  51  57  61  41  --  --    33  35  46  45  33  44  55  35  56  44  --  --
1967   59  59   0  48  23  61  50  57  62  42  --  --    36  35  42  44  40  42  53  36  59  47  --  --
1968   64  58   0  57  23  60  53  56  61  37  --  --    36  42  42  42  35  46  54  38  65  47  --  --

As you can see, Washington and both St. Louis clubs were early enthusiastic adopters of night time baseball. The two Philadelphia teams were the next two to play many of their home games at night. Conversely, even by 1954, the Yankees, Tigers, and Red Sox remained conservative and still played a relatively small number of night games at home.

The most night games ever played was by Houston in 1964. They played a total of 75 of their 81 home games at night. The team scheduled just 4 day games at home; the other 2 games were twilight affairs.

Eventually I'll add more years to this table as I get the info from my schedule project. But that should be enough info to get you started for now.

[Le Grande Orange]

As noted, I added a couple of more seasons to the list.

[Le Grande Orange]

The chart has been updated again with some more seasons, and is now ready for the expansion of 1969.