More about Baseball at Night

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Baseball at Night brings America's favorite pastime out of the dark.


Night games actually didn't even happen in the Majors until 1935, a year after this painting was created. Clark Griffith, National League president, didn't seem to have any plans for lights either, stating "Night baseball is just a step above dog racing." BUUURN! Minor Leagues, the Negro League, and exhibition stadiums used temporary lighting, which allowed the working class to attend games after work, but more importantly brought in much needed revenue during the Depression.


Here is America's favorite pastime being played at the Clarkstown Country Club Sport Centre in West Nyack, New York. The Sport Centre also held various events for boxing matches, the herd of elephants that lived there, and yoga retreats. The buildings are now a part of Nyack College.


One of the clubs' most famous residents was Oom the Omnipotent, or Perry Arnold Baker from Iowa, America's first Yogi. Oom learned yoga from his neighbor Sylvais Hamati and became the most famous yoga teacher America had ever witnessed. His luck would soon run out however, when WASP-y America decided his hippie-dippie antics were too much and was chased out of town (San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City to name a few) by its xenophobic residents.


This baseball field is definitely NOT regulation size. All those different perspectives have skewed the diamond turning a homerun into more of a homewalk. Kantor seems determined to fit every single aspect of a ball game into this one moment.


The painting was donated to the museum by his wife Martha Ryther, a fellow painter.


 

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Here is what Wikipedia says about Baseball At Night

Baseball at Night is a 1934 oil painting by the artist Morris Kantor. The artist had taken in a night game held at the Clarkstown Country Club in West Nyack, New York, which was then a rare novelty.

Check out the full Wikipedia article about Baseball At Night