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.

Check the Webbing: Reggie going deep on WHDH-TV (in COLOR)

Happy Opening Day 2018!  Much of the league saw their games played under gray skies (or even postponed) but hopefully this classic color footage will brighten your day!  

Here we have a clip uploaded by MLB.com to their YouTube channel.  As described in the video's info:

6/15/69: Athletics outfielder Reggie Jackson hits his 23rd home run of the season

That's exactly what we get.  Reggie Jackson, in the beautiful sleeveless A's uniforms, takes Sonny Siebert deep into the Fenway bullpen for his 23rd home run of the 1969 season.  This game was broadcast on WHDH-TV and we have Ken Coleman on the wet-blanket call.  

What makes this clip so particularly interesting is where it came from and what it represents.  This footage comes from the New England Museum of Sports.  We've talked about footage from the Sports Museum before. There is an extensive cache of clips and highlights that survived from when WHDH lost their license.  Up until now, it was not known whether MLB was in possession of all of this.  This clip makes it clear they do have it.

Which brings me to the most important point: this June 15, 1969 game survives as a pretty extensive partial.  Roughly 2 hours and 7 minutes of this game, in beautiful color, has been saved.  Sans for part of the top of the 3rd inning, the game is complete into the top of the 8th inning.  This is a pretty sizeable partial color broadcast, which seems to be missing the final reel/tape of the game.  

With this game having been in trading circles for years now, you're left with less hope that the final reel/tape will ever be found.  The full radio broadcast of this June game can be purchased on-line, which would allow fans to finish the game should this ever be offered through and official vendor.  Still, complete or not, this is one of those amazing finds that is the whole reason those of us that are always on the look for stuff continue to search!

When Campy Forgot the Number of Outs

Happy Opening Night!

MLB.com gives us a 17-second clip on their YouTube channel of some vintage color videotape footage.  The wonderful part of this color videotape is that it preserves the remarkable brilliance of Charlie Finley's golden A's vests. 

The green stirrups with yellow socks.  The yellow vests with green sleeves.  The white spikes.  Dressed to the Nines actually lists that this combo didn't exist.  The socks, with the yellow vests should have been white.  These uniforms continued to feature the big green A on them for the second season. The 1970 season would be the first season they were no longer known as the Athletics but as solely the A's.  Modern baseball vests are often a terrible look due to their fit but this look is perfect and timeless.  

As for the game itself, it took place July 19, 1970 at Fenway Park.  More on that, after the jump.

From Maz to Sandy to Gibby: Game 7s (Kinescoped)

To restate the old sportscaster’s adage: There are no two more exciting words in sports than ‘Game Seven’.  Tonight, we will be treated to only the second World Series Game 7 in 11 years.  The last one (2011) was personally a thrill for this Cardinals fan but certainly not the most dramatic of contests.    This prolonged drought of penultimate Fall Classic games is a far cry from how baseball seasons regularly concluded during the kinescope era.  From the inaugural broadcast in 1947 thru the dramatic 1975 tilt, there were 16 World Series that took all seven games. 

Some of these were defining moments for franchises or the sport as a whole, creating iconic images that are instantly recognizable.  Of these 16 games during this period, only 7 have survived.  Below is a look at the Game 7s, how they turned out and which ones we are lucky to still have.

The 1972 Season: What has survived?

The charm of baseball exists in the peaks and valleys of a full season.  If you catch a World Series or a playoff game, you are getting a truly small sample size.  The six month scale of a season is what allows sabermetrics to have almost enough data to be relevant and allows fans to develop an opinion of their team’s players.  The World Series or All-Star game does not tell us the narrative of the season.  Instead, we get to hear the opinions of writers and broadcasters formulated through the lens of history, rather than as it is seen unfolding.   If baseball broadcasts today were archived in the scattered manner of years past, fans 30 years from now wouldn’t get to appreciate the two month long phenomenon of Puig-mania from 2013 or other like stories that come and go during the marathon of a season. 

When trying to find the most complete sampling of the oldest baseball season, it becomes a tough task with surviving baseball broadcasts.  While there are a few seasons with the All-Star Game and the entire World Series (1965, 1968) very few regular season games exist to flesh out a season.   Rolling back through the years, the 1972 season stands out, if for no other reason, because of the high volume of retained broadcast footage.

The Monster and His "Hummer"

Dick Radatz was one of the first great power relievers in baseball history.  Dubbed ‘The Monster’ by opposing players, Radatz was a giant by baseball standards.  He had huge hands with a fastball that Curt Gowdy would dub a ‘hummer’.  From 1962-1965, Radatz was one of the best relievers in baseball and earned himself two All-Star Game appearances.    During a time when the Red Sox weren’t very good, Radatz was a star.   

In today’s post, we go sleuthing again to narrow down a date for some video broadcast clips of Radatz pitching against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium.

Check Your Local Listings (1971 games on TV) Part 1

For years this blog has devoted time to finding out where a clip came from or what station may have shown it.  Rarely do we take a look to see what COULD be out there and hasn't been found yet.  As we get into the early 1970s, we see the phasing out of kinescopes and the rise of videotape and satellite hook-ups.  It becomes easier for stations to broadcast games coast-to-coast and beyond.  

As a disclaimer, not a single regular season game from the 1971 season has survived (to my knowledge).  There a few partials that exist of regular season tilts. Also, we have the glorious color videotape of the 1971 All-Star game and various post-season games have survived.  However, 1971 featured quite a few historical moments and hopefully we can try to account for which of them actually made it on-air.  Once we have a true account of what games were broadcast, then we can take a look at some of the partials and get more in-depth into each of them.

Part One of this feature focuses on the American League and their distribution of their product. By the time we reached 1971, the American League was finally starting to catch up with the National League talent wise following a slow integration process.  While their approach to talent had been slow to change, let's take a look to see how their approach to television grew.

The Original "Game 162" (October 1, 1967)

First and foremost, Merry Christmas to everyone.  I hope Santa brings you lots of classic baseball on DVD this year!

With the airing of the MLB Productions special Fenway Park Centennial: 100 Years on MLBNetwork the other night, I thought it would be nice to compile a list of the entirety of known footage from the October 1, 1967 game between the Red Sox and Twins.

 
The best part about running this site is having to keep a constant eye out for new footage and try to catalog both in print and your mind what has been seen, while trying to piece it together to understand how much of a broadcast has survived.  With this new program, I got a brief glance at some footage I had never seen thus expanding on the amount of this game that was covered.  After the jump, I'll talk about this 'Game 162' and what we have.