This week is the 20th anniversary of the first night game at Wrigley Field. As everyone knows, the Cubs were the last team in the Major Leagues to install lights, and they were turned on for the first time on 8/8/88. That night ended a long journey that began 47 years earlier.

The Cubs actually purchased lights in 1941, but after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, owner Phillip K. Wrigley donated the lights to the War Department. Why didn't he buy more lights after the war?

"I think once he saw that everyone else was gonna beat him to it," Charlie Grimm said almost twenty years later, "he said 'then I'll be the only one who doesn't have 'em.' That's just the way he is."

It didn't really become controversial until the 1960s.

*In 1966, when the Cubs were one of the worst-drawing teams in the majors, one of the minority owners William Schlensky, actually sued Wrigley demanding that he put up lights so the Cubs would draw more fans. Wrigley won in appellate court in 1968.

*When the Tribune company bought the Cubs in 1981, they indicated they would seek to have lights added at Wrigley, and faced fierce opposition from the surrounding neighborhood. The City of Chicago even passed an ordinance banning night events at Wrigley Field. For the first few years of their ownership, this was the #1 legal and public relations struggle for the Tribune.

*It really got bad in 1984. That's when the Major League television contract and the playoff-bound Cubs team collided with reality. If the Cubs had made it to the World Series that year, Commissioner Ueberroth admitted that they would have had to play their home games at Comiskey Park or Busch Stadium in St. Louis because the NBC contract at the time called for all World Series games to be played at night.

*In the '85 and '86 seasons, it was announced that the Cubs would play their playoff games in St. Louis if they ever made it that far. They didn't bother with an announcement in '87..everyone knew it wasn't necessary. The team was terrible.

*The Cubs finally convinced the city and the neighborhood to accept a compromise for a very limited number of night games before the 1988 season, and they scheduled their first night game for 8/8/88. After 5,687 consecutive day games played by the Cubs at Wrigley, the lights were finally lit for a game with the Philadelphia Phillies.

*A 91-year-old Cubs fan who attended his first game in 1906 signaled the lights to be turned on. A record number of press credentials were issued. The Governor (Thompson) was there. The Commissioner (Ueberroth) was there. Billy Williams and Ernie Banks both threw out the first pitch. The fourth pitch of the game was hit for a home run by the Phillies (Phil Bradley vs. Rick Suttcliffe).

*Ryne Sandberg hit a homer and the Cubs were leading 3-1 when the rains began. In what can only be described as typical Cubs luck...the game was rained out.

*During the rain delay, Cubs players entertained the fans by sliding on the tarp (including Greg Maddux). They were fined by manager Don Zimmer for their antics.

*The next night ended up being the first official night game, on the uncool day of 8/9/88. The Cubs won 6-4.

How did this lack of lights affect the Cubs on the field?

*Between the day Wrigley donated the lights in 1942, and the day the lights were installed on 8/8/88, the Cubs made the playoffs exactly twice (1945 & 1984) in 46 years.

*In the 20 years since the lights were installed, the Cubs have made the playoffs 4 times (with the possibility of a fifth time coming this fall); 1989, 1998, 2003, and 2007.

*The winning percentage of the Cubs in the second half of the season between 1958 and 1988 was remarkably lower than the first half. (They were nearly .500 in the first half, and only .450 in the second half).

*When the team was terrible in the 1950s through the mid-60s, it simply didn't matter. But when they put together a terrific nucleus in the late 60s and early 70s (with three hall of famers--Jenkins, Williams and Banks--and a future hall of famer Ron Santo), one can only imagine how things might have gone differently if the players didn't have to lose several pounds of water weight every day playing in the sweltering heat.

*The Cubs were in first place on June 1st in 1967, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1977, and 1978 (and they were within striking distance in '68, '71 and '72). Isn't it likely that they would have won the division at least once during those years if they weren't so run down at the end of the season?

Isn't that a more likely explanation than a curse inflicted by a goat?