Sports History On This Day: August 2

August 2, 1938 – In an effort to help with player safety by allowing better vision of hit balls during night games, the MLB conducted the first test of bright yellow baseballs during the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the St Louis Cardinals twin bill.

The players, fans, and the press all had fun with the test balls calling them by names such as “stitched lemon” and “canary-colored horsehide.” The idea of this new yellow ball came from New York color engineer Frederic H. Rahr, who developed it after Mickey Cochrane was severely beaned by a pitcher the previous season.

Rahr told reporters that the idea was that white is the hardest color for the human eye to focus on while in motion, especially when there are many white objects in a baseball stadium background. Bright yellow is one of the easiest to follow with the eye according to Rahr’s findings.

National League President Ford Frick told the press that he allowed the test games in order to find out whether the scientists know what they were talking about. In December 1938, the National League voted to permit the use of the yellow baseball as long as opposing managers agree to the use of the ball before such games. Unfortunately, no one really gravitated towards the idea and they were seldom used again in the MLB.