Editor's Note: 'Check the Webbing' will be short posts about broadcast clips found on the Web. These types of clips either do not need extensive explanation or research, or are updates to posts already written.
Billy Williams Day, a doubleheader from June 29, 1969, is a topic that has been discussed on numerous occasions. Three years ago, we saw a brief clip of the final out of Game 1 from that double header at Wrigley. Our original post back in 2012 focused on color video tape footage from the 8th inning of that first game.
The description of the events of that clip were:
The
clip seen here is of Ernie Banks driving in the 1st run of the game
with an RBI single up the middle. This clip, as well as the other
Gibson shots, come from Revisiting the 1969 Cubs , a WGN produced clip that (judging by onscreen graphics) was put together in the 1990's.
On January 31, 2017, MLB.com uploaded an extended video clip of Banks' single off of Gibson in the 8th inning. This clip can be found on their YouTube channel. The footage is color videotape and is complete with the Jack Brickhouse call.
Without speaking to MLB, the source of this clip most likely comes from the WGN highlight reels that were compiled throughout the season. Many of these survived from the late 60's and early 70's. They often times represent the only broadcast footage that remains from WGN.
July 10, 1962. On the same day that the NBA agreed to let George Steinbrenner’s ABL Cleveland Pipers join as an expansion team, Major League Baseball played the first of two Midsummer Classics.
It would be the final year that the two leagues would play more than one All-Star exhibition game. For the past 3 years, the Players Association had used the two All-Star games to help support the players’ pension fund. The American League had argued that they would no longer participate in two exhibitions during the previous winter; however the two leagues came to an agreement to go ahead with both contests in 1962.
These long lost kinescope reels (which constitute the most complete All-Star Game broadcast prior to 1965) give us a glimpse into Midsummer Classic that features a sitting President, an All-Star Game legend, an exciting game and a rare glimpse into a classic stadium.
On a day in which Billy Williams would tie and pass Stan Musial in a doubleheader against Stan's old team, we've been treated over and over again with bits and pieces of beautiful WGN color video footage. While I have never been able to track down (through many attempts) how much of this footage WGN held on to, I'd like to mark the anniversary of Billy Williams Day by showing you footage that doesn't contain Billy Williams!
As I pointed out in this post nearly 2 years ago, Billy Williams Day featured one of the greatest of Wrigley treats: A Gibson/Jenkins duel. The two would both throw the entire game with Gibson giving up the lead in the bottom of the 8th.
After the jump, we get some of the 9th inning action.
Joining the 500 Homerun club is hard enough, but often it seems getting from 499 to 500 can be the hardest part. Players will often go through an extended stretch before reaching the milestone event. That is what made Albert Pujols hitting 499 and 500 in the same game (not just the same day) all the more rare. Sadly, the last 25 years of the homerun deluge took value away from reaching those counting number milestones. You would think, in 2014 with at least 4 cable channels carrying games nationally weekly, that the game would be carried outside of the local markets. However, much like when Mays or Aaron hit their 500th, coverage was as minimal as it could get.
As was pointed out in this post a few years ago, nine players hit their 500th homerun between 1960 and 1980. During that time, many owners still saw television broadcasts as cutting into their attendance. A few did not. Thanks to major markets like New York and Chicago, some of these events were televised. In the case of Ernie Banks, WGN actually preserved homeruns 498, 499 and 500.
Ernie Banks ended the 1969 season needing three homeruns to become the 9th member of the club. In speaking with Jack Brickhouse during Spring Training, Banks said that he'd hoped the number 500 would come on April 14th at the home opener "in the friendly confines of beautiful Wrigley Field". Banks would be right about hitting 500 at Wrigley, but would be off by nearly a month.
A treasure trove of color broadcast clips come from what WGN has saved over the years. What exactly they saved as far as just clips or full length games, no one really knows. However, there have been a plethora of video clips in the trading community that people have seen so often, they just take for granted. However, the other day a clip caught my eye that I had never seen before.
That man standing on the mound, in beautiful color video tape, is Bob Gibson. He is standing in the middle of the field at Wrigley Field, pitching against the 1st place Chicago Cubs. What game this is and what the rest of the footage shows, after the jump.
