Programming Alert: Mr. Tiger and the 1968 World Series TONIGHT (4/7/20)

With the passing of MLB HOF'er Al Kaline, MLB Network will be showing both Game 6 and Game 7 of the 1968 World Series.  As you may remember, the Motor City Kitties came back from being down 3-1 in the Series and 3-2 in the 7th inning of Game 5 to eventually become World Champions.

Game 6 begins at 8 pm. This game originally took 2:26 minutes to play.
Game 7 begins at 10 pm. This game originally took 2:07 minutes to play.

In Game 6, Kaline would go 3-for-4 with a homerun in the 5th inning off of fellow HOF'er Steve Carlton.  Kaline would go hitless in Game 7 but Jim Northrup 2-out triple in the 7th would be all the Tigers would need as they defeated the Cardinals and HOF pitcher Bob Gibson.  You can currently watch Game 7 unedited in high definition on the Tigers YouTube page.

For more 1968 Tigers content, you can check previous posts here and here.

For more on Al Kaline content, you can see read it here.

Clinching the Old Fashioned American (League) Way

There was a time when pennants weren't decided in a best-of-7 game series.  Or best-of-5, either.  Teams used to win their league's pennant in a winner-take-all best of 162 game series known as "having the best record in your league".*  Of course, this is also when there were only 20 teams in baseball.  With the advent of divisional play in baseball, the game forever changed with the expansion of the playoffs to include 4 teams (and eventually to today's number of 10 teams).

*until divisional play, the AL had seen only one playoff series in 1948.

There was also a time when the New York Yankees seemed to be the only team to win the American League pennant.  From 1949 to 1964, the New York Yankees were AL Champions all but twice ( '54 Indians, '59 ChiSox).  Much like the Iron Curtain, this too did pass.  When it did, with the Twins representing the American League in 1965, we saw a different team win the pennant each year from 1965 until the creation of divisions in 1969.

What we also have is a bit of a serendipitous collection of the final outs (or seconds after) of the final 4 American League pennants before divisional play in 1965, '66, '67 and '68.  More about each after the jump.

REVIEW: 45th MLB All-Star Game (1974)

As Major League Baseball gathers in Minneapolis for the 85th annual All-Star Game, I wanted to take a look back forty years ago at the 45th installment of the Mid Summer Classic.  Even in 1974, Major League Baseball used the All-Star Game to showcase their new (publicly paid for) ballparks.  Taking the field at three year old Three Rivers Stadium, the game was carried by NBC for the 29th straight time (25 years with 2 games in 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962).  

After the jump, we will take a walk through the broadcast and recap some of the important moments that transpired in The 'Burgh.