JUNE 9, 1963 | HOUSTON, TEXAS – The first major league baseball game played on a Sunday night was played on this date in 1963. Sunday night games were banned at the time, but the Houston Colt .45s (today’s Astros) asked for, and were granted, an exception because of the oppressive Texas heat. Sunday night lights soon became the norm.
"We would have been lucky to have drawn 4,000 fans if the game had been played in the afternoon."
This was before the Astrodome was built, in fact the sweltering heat was a primary reason for building it. At the time the Colt .45s were playing 
in open air Colt Stadium, which had virtually no shade for the fans.
The Houston ball club was ecstatic about the results of that first Sunday night game. The Colt .45s beat the San Francisco Giants 3-0 in 1-hour and 58 minutes. The paid attendance was 17,437. Executive director George Kirksey said, “We would have been lucky to have drawn 4,000 fans if the game had been played in the afternoon. You can’t expect people to pay their money to come to the ball park and suffer in the heat.”
The Associated Press in Houston reported the night game temperature was 79°. It would have been 95º had the game been played during the day.
Of the cities with major league teams at the time, the heat was an issue in Houston more than any other:
Average highs (from www.myforecast.com)
June July August
Houston 90 92 92
St. Louis 85 89 87
Kansas City 84 90 87
Washington, D.C. 84 88 86
Baltimore 83 87 85
Philadelphia 82 86 85
Cincinnati 82 86 85
Detroit 79 83 81
Chicago 79 84 82
New York 79 84 83
Cleveland 79 83 81
Minneapolis 79 84 84
Milwaukee 76 80 79
Boston 76 82 82
Los Angeles 72 75 76
San Francisco 71 71 72
The Houston club had to deal with the heat until 1966 when the Harris County Domed Stadium opened. Soon after the stadium name was changed to the Astrodome and the team name changed to Astros. Sunday night lights became common for every team.
CONTRIBUTING SOURCES:
June 9, 1963 box score/stats
Weather stats
Houston Astros
Associated Press, Houston, via The Hartford Courant, June 11, 1963
