Cosmic Baseball?

I know the Florida Panthers beat the New York Rangers tonight, but there was something extremely cool happening in Colonial Heights, Virginia last night. The above image came from the game between visiting Greenbrier Knights and the host Tri-City Chili Peppers where they turned the second game of their double-header into "cosmic baseball". The glow-in-the-dark elements were illuminated by black lights set up around the stadium, and the entire game was played in the dark in what looked like one of the coolest experiences one could have at a baseball game for both teams and the fans in attendance!

According to reports, "[t]he Chili Peppers worked alongside local lighting company J.W. Electric and Federal Lighting manufacturer's rep Chad Lawson to make Cosmic Baseball happen. Eighteen 500-watt black lights were installed at the team's home stadium, Shepherd Stadium, and the total cost of the project exceeded $100,000." That's pricey for a team in the Coastal Plain League where average attendance is about 1000-1100 people per game, but this promotion seemed to sell itself as all 2000 tickets were bought within a 24-hour period of the game being announced on May 2.

Jason Foster of MLB.com spoke with Chris Martin, owner of the Tri-City Chili Peppers, about the conception of this game. Martin told Foster that it started with a glow sticks promotion in 2023 that got the wheels turning for Martin.

"I'm watching it, and I'm like, 'Hey, this is really cool, but it's also kinda not very cool because the lights are on," Martin said. "I was like, 'It would be really cool if we could turn the lights off, and then you would actually see everybody's sticks waving around and having a little bit of fun with it."

With the idea stuck in his head, Martin began looking into the idea of turning the lights off and found no instances of baseball having been played under black lights. In fact, there were no instances of any sport being played totally under black light, so Martin decided to really see if there was any way this could be done. His initial conversations with J.W. Electric and Federal Lighting were less fruitful, with the lighting experts telling Martin, "It's not possible."

Logistically, the number of lights and positioning was the main issue identified by the lighting company, but Chad Lawson, a manufacturer's rep with Federated Lighting of Virginia in Richmond, saw it differently. Lawson found a manufacturer to develop a single prototype black light, and he delivered it to Martin, though nobody involved had any idea what to expect. Lawson even warned Martin, "This really hasn't been done before, so I can't make any promises."

Instead, what they got was game-changing.

"The results were astounding," Lawson told Foster, noting that the one light was more than sufficient to cover an entire section of infield bleachers. After consulting with J.W. Electric and Federal Lighting who looked at angles and lighting coverage to eliminate shadows, the team "installed 18 500-watt black lights around the field, using brackets to attach them to the normal light poles".

You might be thinking that playing in the dark is a huge safety issue, but Martin told Foster, "It's actually a lighter atmosphere than what most people would think. You can see everything extremely well."

That sentiment was backed up by the players after their first practice under the new lighting scheme.

"It's darker, but it's not as dark as you think it would be, just because you have that kind of ambient light at all times," said catcher Jacob Lee. "And the ball actually glows a lot, so it's pretty easy to see it."

What about playing the game? It's gotta be harder playing under the black lights than playing in normal light, right?

"I thought it was going to be really hard," Lee said about adjusting to the darkness. "I thought there was going to be no way. You were just going to be guessing up there trying to hit the ball, and even catching it. But I was actually really surprised that it was easier than I thought it was going to be to get used to it."

The only major change that the players noticed was that the glow of the ball made it nearly impossible to pick up the spin of the ball once the pitcher released it. Judging fastballs versus curveballs versus sliders reportedly became that much more difficult, but the players weren't complaining about not seeing the spin when it came to the potential for this game.

You're probably asking what the game looked like, right? Well, the Chili Peppers streamed the game via YouTube for everyone to watch, and it looked absolutely incredible as players got into the action!

Say what you want about a minor-league baseball gimmick, but this might be one of the coolest promotions I've seen in a long time. If you didn't bother to watch the whole game above, the Chili Peppers scored the win with a 9-4 victory over the Knights, but this won't be the last time you'll see "cosmic baseball". The Chili Peppers will turn the lights off and fire up the black lights three more times this season - June 15, June 28 and July 20 - as they get their money's worth out of those black lights. Frankly, I think it already has paid off.

For me, I see all sorts of options in hockey that could work with black lights. White already shows up well under black light, and the only real struggle might be finding a way to make the puck glow without compromising how it slides on the ice. If an ECHL team did something like this, I have a feeling that team would sell out its building in a heartbeat just like the Chili Peppers sold out Shepherd Stadium. Are there any minor-pro hockey teams brave enough to try this?

Huge kudos to Chris Martin, Chad Lawson, and the Tri-City Chili Peppers for their innovative idea and seeing it through to reality. It may have cost Martin more money than most teams spend in the Coastal Plain League each season, but this is such a cool way to play and watch baseball. In saying that, congratulations to the Chili Peppers for inventing "cosmic baseball". It's literally out of this world!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!