Today’s word of the day, courtesy of Merriam-Webster, is limn. Limn is a verb with several meanings:

1. to draw or paint on a surface;
2. to outline in clear sharp detail: delineate;
3. describe. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/limn)

It’s pronounced / lɪm /, which means that it is an exact homophone of the word limb. The only difference is that they have a different silent letter at the end. Makes you wonder why the word has a silent n after the m, doesn’t it? Perhaps the answer is in the etymology.

According to Etymonline.com, the word first appears in English in the “early 15c., ‘to illuminate’ (manuscripts), altered from Middle English luminen, ‘to illuminate manuscripts’ (late 14c.), from Old French luminer ‘light up, illuminate,’ from Latin luminare ‘illuminate, burnish,’ from lumen (genitive luminis) ‘radiant energy, light,’ related to lucere ‘to shine,’ from PIE *leuk-smen-, suffixed form of root *leuk- ‘light, brightness.’ Figurative sense of ‘portray, depict’ first recorded 1590s” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=limn). So perhaps what we have here is an extended example of the application of Zipf’s Law, also known as the principle of least effort, in language change. We start with *leuksmen, then drop the –ks so that we have lumen, then eventually drop the m so that we are left with limn.

On this date in 1935, the first night game in the history of Major League Baseball took place in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Night baseball had been around for about 55 years before the Reds took on the Phillies on a cool night in May. Indeed, lighting up ball games became one of the first uses for electric lights after Edison made the incandescent light globe viable around 1879. But the use of electric lights for playing baseball at night was limited to minor league games and the Negro Leagues. But then came the Depression and the Cincinnati Reds.

The person responsible for this first night game in the Bigs was Larry MacPhail. MacPhail was a business person who served as the president of the Columbus Red Birds, a St. Louis Cardinals’ affiliate, in the early 1930s. He staged night games with the Red Birds as part of his effort to financially revive the AA franchise. Keep in mind that this was during the early years of the Great Depression. But MacPhail apparently didn’t see eye-to-eye with the Cards’ business manager, Branch Rickey, the man responsible for the Cards’ success in developing minor league affiliates. So MacPhail left the Cardinals’ organization to become the business manager of the Cincinnati Reds (https://www.mlb.com/news/first-night-game-in-al-nl-history).

In 1935, the Reds were not good. In fact, they hadn’t been good in some years. In an eight-team league, they had finished eighth the previous four seasons. And with losing came poor attendance, and with poor attendance came lower gate revenues. Something needed to be done, and Larry MacPhail was the guy to do it. And what he came up with was Major League Baseball’s first night game.

The attitude about night games among other baseball people was not exactly favorable. “Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith, dismissed the idea out of hand. He called night baseball a ‘poor substitute’ for the daytime game and said the air at night wasn’t as fresh as during the day. ‘There is no chance of night baseball ever becoming popular in the bigger cities,’ Griffith added. ‘People there are educated to see the best there is and will stand for only the best. High-class baseball cannot be played under artificial light’” (https://www.mlb.com/news/first-night-game-in-al-nl-history).

“Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis once told MacPhail that there will never be an AL or NL night game during either of their lifetimes. However, Landis did eventually cave to MacPhail’s request” (ibid.). In case you think you’ve heard the name before, Landis was the commissioner who banned Shoeless Joe Jackson from baseball for life for throwing the 1919 World Series, despite his .375 batting average. But that’s a debate for another day.

So the Reds spent a bunch of money “to construct a lighting system that contained 632 floodlights, each beaming out 1,500 watts. According to the Associated Press, the team demanded ‘lighting twice as brilliant as that of any other ballpark in the country’ and stated that ‘it will be possible to read print four blocks from the center of the glare’ once the lights are turned on” (ibid.). Furthermore, according to the MLB.com, MacPhail turned the entire evening into a massive spectacle: “Drum and bugle corps would entertain fans outside Crosley Field and then march from the center-field wall to home plate prior to the game. A fireworks display would follow. Baseball dignitaries such as Landis, NL president Ford Frick and AL President Will Harridge as well as the governor of Ohio and mayor of Cincinnati would be in attendance. And none other than President Franklin Roosevelt would help turn on the lights by pressing a key switch from the White House at 8:30 p.m, 30 minutes prior to first pitch” (ibid.).

The game was originally slated for May 23, but that game got rained out. So they played this first MLB night game on the 24^th. MacPhail had to wire Roosevelt to see if he would still be available; he was. And more than twice the usual number of Reds fans showed up for the game. The only sad part was that the Phillies lost to the Reds, 2-1.

But even with the success of the Reds’ first night game, it still took a while before the idea of night games was totally acceptable. The American League didn’t have its first night game until 1939, and the first World Series night game wasn’t played until 1971! I remember how the World Series was always something I missed growing up because the games were played while I was in school. And the first night game at Wrigley Field in Chicago wasn’t until August 9, 1988 (though that game was also originally the night before but was rained out). Now, approximately 2/3 of all MLB games, especially the World Series games, are played at night (ibid.). Nobody today is concerned that Edison’s invention will not properly limn a ballgame.

Today’s image is a photograph of Crossley Field, the site of the first night game in MLB history (http://onthisdayinsports.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-24-1935-first-ever-mlb-game-under.html).