For more than a century, baseball teams in Fairbanks have played a game on the summer solstice.
The first pitch is thrown around 10 p.m. and nine innings stretch past midnight.
In the never-ending lightness of the Alaskan summer, baseball at midnight needs no artificial illumination.
Fairbanks residents say the game symbolizes the emergence of light after a long, dark winter.
Since 1906, the Midnight Sun game has been played by gold miners, soldiers, lawyers and future major league stars.
ACROSS THE COUNTRY
Baseball in the Everlasting Light of Fairbanks, Alaska
For more than a century, baseball teams in Fairbanks have played at midnight on the summer solstice, illuminated only by the sun.
WHY WE’RE HERE
We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In Fairbanks, Alaska, they play baseball at midnight, because they can.
In the never-ending lightness of the Alaskan summer, baseball at midnight needs no artificial illumination. That’s good, because the lights towering over Growden Memorial Ballpark in Fairbanks don’t work anyway. They haven’t in more than 20 years — maybe because of a lightning strike, but no one can say for sure.
For more than a century, baseball teams in Fairbanks have played a game on the summer solstice, starting around 10 p.m. and playing through midnight.
Fans hoping to buy tickets for the Midnight Sun game lined up long before first pitch last Friday. As they waited, the E.T. Barnette String Band played nearby. Adorning a wall of the ballpark’s entryway were photographs of Barry Bonds, Dave Winfield and Jason Giambi, major league stars who once wore the red and gold of the Alaska Goldpanners.
First in line was Loretta Fogg, a bush pilot who takes tourists into the wilderness. She arrived a little after 4 p.m., pulled up a camping chair and cracked open a novel about witchcraft.