Day-by-day account of night lights battle // `No plans' to big plans for Cub after dark

In the beginning: God creates day and night, setting the stagefor night baseball.

June 16, 1981: Tribune Co. acquires the Chicago Cubs, settingthe stage for night baseball at Wrigley Field.

Sept. 1, 1981: Tribune Co. says there are no plans "at thistime" to install lights at Wrigley.

Dec. 13, 1981: The Chicago Sun-Times discloses the Cubs havetaken the first step toward lights, ordering a feasibility study. Asource reports general manager Dallas Green is convinced lights are anecessity and Green "is prepared to weather the storm of negativeresponse."

Aug. 23, 1982: Gov. Thompson signs legislation passed by theIllinois General Assembly that imposes noise pollution standards onany pro sport played in a city with more than 1 million inhabitantsin a facility in which night sports were not played before July 1,1982. The only such facility in Illinois is Wrigley Field.

Sept. 27, 1983: The Chicago City Council enacts an ordinancethat bars night athletic contests in any playing field that is nottotally enclosed, has more than 15,000 seats and is within 500 feetof 100 dwelling units. The only such field in Chicago is Wrigley.

Oct. 2, 1984: Having won their division, the Cubs open theNational League playoffs against the San Diego Padres in the first oftwo home day games at Wrigley Field. They win both games, then flyto San Diego - where they lose three games and the playoffs. If theyhad had lights, they could have played three home games instead oftwo.

Dec. 18, 1984: Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth tells theCubs to install lights or face the threat of having home playoffgames played elsewhere if they make the playoffs or World Series.

Dec. 19, 1984: The Cubs file suit asking the Cook County CircuitCourt to enjoin the City of Chicago and Gov. Thompson from enforcingthe city and state laws that ban night baseball at Wrigley.

March 25, 1985: Circuit Judge Richard L. Curry rejects the Cubssuit in a whimsical 64-page opinion that scolds the team's managementfor placing their business interests above community interest. Currysays the previous ownership had "worked relentlessly to shape publicopinion and to inculcate unwavering support among their fans in favorof the `no lights' theory of baseball." He says one "Homer in theGloamin' " is worth a hundred hit into the blackness of night, and"future generations should not be deprived of seeing the shadowscreep across the infield." He says lights would trash a residentialcommunity to enrich sports moguls and would be "repugnant to commondecency." The Cubs appeal the ruling.

April 11, 1985: The Illinois Supreme Court announces it willhear the Cubs' appeal.

May 30, 1985: Baseball commissioner Peter V. Ueberroth announcesthat all 1985 World Series games must be played at night to satisfynetwork television commitments.

May 31, 1985: Cubs attorney Don H. Reuben asks the IllinoisSupreme Court to toss out the lights ban.

June 7, 1985: The Sun-Times discloses Tribune Co. has launched alobbying campaign in the Legislature to repeal the anti-lights law.

June 20, 1985: Both the Illinois Senate and House rejectproposals to repeal the laws against Wrigley lights.

June 26, 1985: A Tribune Co. lobbyist, Lawrence Gunnels, warnsthe Cubs are "seriously considering" abandoning Wrigley Field for asuburban home if the Legislature won't permit night games. "To stay,we have to be able to play," he says. "It's as simple as that.Anything else is unacceptable."

June 27, 1985: Mayor Harold Washington says he will guardChicago's border "like Horatio at the bridge" to prevent the Cubsfrom moving to the suburbs.

June 30, 1985: The House refuses to allow limited night baseballat Wrigley after the Senate also rejects limited play.

Oct. 3, 1985: The Illinois Supreme Court, without dissent,upholds state and city laws prohibiting Wrigley lights. "Simply, theCubs have failed to meet the burden of showing theunconstitutionality of the legislative actions," writes JusticeDaniel C. Ward. "One more nail in the coffin," says general managerDallas Green. "When we keep getting banged around by the courts, theLegislature and the neighborhoods, we have to look at alternatives."

May 9, 1986: The National League announces if the Cubs win theirdivision, they must play their home playoff games at Busch Stadium inSt. Louis. The situation does not arise.

March 23, 1987: Cubs executive Don Grenesko tells an IllinoisSenate committee the Cubs are willing to make a long-term agreementto limit night games to post-season play and to 18 regular seasongames.

June 29, 1987: After an earlier 106-0 vote in the House, theIllinois Senate votes 55-1 to exempt playoff and World Series gamesfrom the state's noise pollution law. Cubs officials say it wouldnot be economically feasible to install lights only for postseasongames, and they oppose temporary lights as unsuitable for majorleague play. Gov. Thompson signs the measure Sept. 24.

July 2, 1987: Mayor Washington says the proposed 18-game limiton regular season night baseball at Wrigley seems "a reasonableadjustment." The mayor had set up a task force to work out acompromise between the Cubs and Wrigleyville residents.

Oct. 16, 1987: A city-sponsored survey indicates a majority ofWrigleyville residents and 83 percent of all Chicagoans favor Wrigleylights if regular season night play is limited to 18 games.

Nov. 13, 1987: Mayor Washington endorses installation of lightswith an 18-game regular season limit on night baseball. He says hewill ask the City Council to repeal the city ordinance banning nightgames at Wrigley. A Sun-Times survey of aldermen indicates more thanenough votes to win passage.

Nov. 25, 1987: Mayor Washington dies unexpectedly of a heartattack.

Dec. 3, 1987: Newly installed Mayor Sawyer endorses limitednight baseball at Wrigley. But hearings on the 18-night gameproposal bog down in the Council.

Jan. 25, 1988: Cubs officials again threaten a move to "anothermunicipality."

Feb. 10, 1988: A Chicago Tribune editorial lashes out atpolitical "boneheads" and "political bums" who are blockinginstallation of Wrigley lights. The editorial accuses politicians oftrying to use the lights issue to soften Tribune criticism of them.And it says some old Washington supporters who were for lights arenow against them because they don't want to make Mayor Sawyer lookgood. The editorial concludes: "If the Tribune editorial board hadany say in Cub policy, the team would long since have had enough ofpolitical rebuffs and runarounds, and be ready to move into a newWrigley Field replica in the suburbs. And the opponents of lightswould be trying to figure out whether to pave over the hole in theground left at Clark and Addison." Angry aldermen accuse the Tribuneof "putting a gun to their heads" and threaten to kill the lightsproposal.

Feb. 25, 1988: Aldermen vote 29-19 to approve a 14-yearagreement that will let the Cubs install lights and play eight nightgames in 1988 and 18 starting in 1989.

Feb. 26, 1988: Officials say the Cubs have agreed to sign acontract promising to stay at Wrigley Field until 2002, with anescape clause in case the precinct that includes the field is voteddry.

March 15, 1988: Wrigleyville residents, in an advisoryreferendum, vote 3-1 against night baseball.

April 7, 1988: With the help of a helicopter, workers attachsteel girders that will hold lights on the roof of Wrigley Field.

April 29, 1988: The Sun-Times discloses the Cubs have hiredformer Illinois House Majority Leader Gerald W. Shea to lobby for anexemption in the state law that permits neighborhood residents tovote dry their local precincts. Such a vote could ban beer sales atWrigley.

July 7, 1988: Wrigley lights are turned on for the first time at9:10 p.m.

July 25, 1988: Wrigley lights illuminate a dress rehearsal teampractice attended by 3,000 spectators who each paid $100 to charity.Andre Dawson hits the first homer under the lights - a drive into theleft field bleachers off coach Larry Cox. The ball will be sent tothe Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Aug. 8, 1988: The Cubs play their first Wrigley Field nightgame, against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Oct. 17, 2045: Wrigley Field hosts its first night World Seriesgame. The St. Petersburg Yankees take the opener and go on to sweepthe next three. Cubs fans declare: "Wait'll the next millenium!"