On June 18, 1909, The Cincinnati Reds experimented with night baseball at the Palace of the Fans in a game between two amateur teams before a crowd of 3,000. The lighting system of the invention of George Cahill, who owned a floodlight manufacturing firm in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Reds president Garry Herrmann was intrigued by the idea of night baseball and had Cahill install the system. The amateur teams were from Elks lodges in Cincinnati and Newport. The local newspapers reported that the lights were sufficient to illuminate the infield, but the outfielders had trouble tracking balls hit both in the air and on the ground.

It would be another 26 years before a night game was played during the regular season between two major league teams.