More renovation – and a round of controversy – came after the 1938 season when Mack sought to install light towers for night play, which local residents were against. They objected in general to the light, noise and traffic that night games would bring to the neighborhood, and objected specifically to the danger of home run balls hitting them as they sat on their porches and to the ability of fans in the upper decks to peer into their bedrooms at night.Westcott, p. 114 The matter went to court, and Mack hired a young Philadelphia lawyer to plead his case. The presentation of young Richardson Dilworth, future mayor of the city, carried the day: the A's won the case and the light towers went up in time for the 1939 season.The neighbors' reluctance was not unfounded. Author Rich Westcott interviewed 20th Street residents of the time who reported the lights were so bright, even pulling down the windowshades did not make for a dark room. The light was indeed prodigious: there were two freestanding light towers and six towers perched on the pavilion roofs, totaling 780 lamps of 1,500 watts each–1.2 million watts, or two billion candlepower, "enough to light a highway between Philadelphia and Cleveland." Westcott, p. 114 The first night game in the AL was at Shibe Park on May 16, 1939: the Indians beat the A's, 8–3.Westcott, p. 153
