Saturday, February 25, 2012

NBC's Game of the Week - 1960

I think the most common question I find in this hobby is "What games are out there?". For the most part, we all know what games are available from other collector's, DVD sets, etc. This post isn't about that.

What we rarely know is what games were actually kinescoped. However, thanks to a fan of the blog and his keen eye, we might have an idea of a series of telecasts that were recorded and have yet to see the light of day.

Thanks to old copies of the Sporting News, a reader was able to come across this blurb in May 11, 1960 edition of the publication:





When he brought this to my attention, I asked him if he could use his access to the other issues from that year to piece together a telecast schedule. Luckily, he could and this is the list he came up with.

4/16/1960
CIN (NL) PIT (NL)
4/17/1960 CIN (NL) PIT (NL)
4/23/1960
LA (NL) STL (NL)
4/24/1960 LA (NL) STL (NL)
4/30/1960 NY (AL) BAL (AL)
5/1/1960 DET (AL) CHI (AL)
5/7/1960 DET (AL) BOS (AL)
5/8/1960 CLE (AL) BOS (AL)
5/14/1960 PIT (NL) MIL (NL)
5/15/1960 PIT (NL) MIL (NL)
5/21/1960 SF (NL) PIT (NL)
5/22/1960 WAS (AL) CHI (AL)
5/28/1960 SF (NL) STL (NL)
5/29/1960 CLE (AL) DET (AL)
6/4/1960 CIN (NL) MIL (NL)
6/5/1960 CIN (NL) MIL (NL)
6/11/1960 CHI (AL) BOS (AL)
6/12/1960 CHI (AL) BOS (AL)
6/18/1960 NY (AL) CHI (AL)
6/19/1960 NY (AL) CHI (AL)
6/25/1960 LA (NL) MIL (NL)
6/26/1960 LA (NL) MIL (NL)
7/2/1960 LA (NL) PIT (NL)
7/3/1960 LA (NL) PIT (NL)
7/9/1960 CIN (NL) MIL (NL)
7/10/1960 CLE (AL) CHI (AL)
7/16/1960 NY (AL) DET (AL)
7/17/1960 NY (AL) DET (AL)
7/23/1960 CLE (AL) BOS (AL)
7/24/1960 CLE (AL) BOS (AL)
7/30/1960 CLE (AL) BAL (AL)
7/31/1960 CLE (AL) BAL (AL)
8/6/1960 SF (NL) PIT (NL)
8/7/1960 CHI (NL) MIL (NL)
8/13/1960 SF (NL) MIL (NL)
8/14/1960 STL (NL) PIT (NL)
8/20/1960 LA (NL) STL (NL)
8/21/1960 LA (NL) STL (NL)
8/27/1960 CHI (AL) BOS (AL)
8/28/1960 PIT (NL) STL (NL)
9/3/1960 NY (AL) BAL (AL)
9/4/1960 PHI (NL) PIT (NL)
9/10/1960 LA (NL) MIL (NL)
9/11/1960 LA (NL) MIL (NL)
9/17/1960 SF (NL) STL (NL)
9/18/1960 CHI (AL) DET (AL)
9/24/1960 PIT (NL) MIL (NL)

Now, there is no guarantee that every game was, in fact, kinescoped. However, these games were ticketed to be kinescoped for the Armed Forces. Which means, at some point these kinescopes existed and were shipped to Alaska, Hawaii or overseas. From there, they were either destroyed after viewing or tucked away by some forward (and sneaky) thinking film operator for their private collection.

If anyone has seen any clips from any of these games, please speak up.

4 comments:

  1. Wow! Very interesting how apparently wide-scale the kinescoping of baseball games was!

    So what physical form would the kinescopes have been in when the film operator was thinking about saving them? Something easily stored, or something very bulky?

    P.S. I tried to comment on some other posts below, but the "select profile" button didn't offer any choices, so I couldn't.

    My big question is, do we know of any DVDs out there that have the Major League Baseball better-quality broadcast of the 1968 All-Star Game, and where could I get this?

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  2. I just checked the comment options on the other posts and they seemed ok. I even logged out and checked is as if I was the admin.

    They would be in reels, just like all the other kinescopes. Could be anywhere from 3 to 5 reels, which isn't light nor easy to stash. However, it could have been done.

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  3. OK, the comments system seems freed up now.

    If you Google Armed Forces Television Service, it connects to a Museum of Broadcast Communications website, which has a phone number. I'm going to call that tomorrow and see if anybody knows whether these things are saved somewhere!

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  4. Just as long as Doak Ewing doesn't get his selfish hands on them....

    ReplyDelete