Chicago’s First Night Game at Wrigley Field Scheduled for Aug. 8

After years of political fighting, the first of seven night baseball games at Wrigley Field will be played Aug. 8 when the Chicago Cubs face the Philadelphia Phillies, club officials said Monday.

The Cubs’ owner, the Tribune Co. of Chicago, has fought heated battles with city and state officials as well as neighborhood groups since acquiring the club and Wrigley Field in 1981.

Last February, City Council members approved eight regular-season night games in 1988--the Cubs will play seven this season--and 18 games each season for the next 14 years.

The first night baseball game was played May 23, 1935, at Cincinnati, and night games have been played regularly since World War II.

The Aug. 8 game will be televised by WGN-TV, the cable station owned by Tribune Co., and an Aug. 9 game against the New York Mets will be shown nationally by NBC.

Wrigley Field’s seating capacity is 39,012, and about 13,000 tickets remain for the Aug. 8 game. The remaining tickets will be sold through a telephone lottery.

Few signs of the neighborhood’s once-formidable community opposition, coordinated by a group called Citizens United for Baseball in the Sunshine (CUBS), were visible Monday.