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:

1968 All-Star Game

The 1968 All-Star Game was the first All-Star game to be played indoors. During a season in which pitching dominated baseball, the All-Star Game was no exception. Willie Mays would lead off the game with a single, promptly stole second and eventually come around to score. This would be the only offense of the game.

One He Got at Shea

If I told you to name the Top 3 triples hitters in Cardinals history, I'd imagine at least one of those 3 names would include Lou Brock. If it did, you'd be wrong. Lou actually was 4th All-Time on the Cardinals triple list and as another testiment to his greatness, Stan Musial tops the list with 36 more in his career.

But this post is only about one of Lou Brock's triples, one he hit into the spacious right centerfield gap at Shea Stadium.

Sat down on 714

In order for Milo Hamilton to famously state that Hank was "sittin' on 714", Aaron would have to hit his 714th career homerun. He ended the 1973 season with 713 homeruns after taking Jerry Reuss deep on the second-to-last day of the season.

The REAL Tony C Comeback video

Thanks to my favorite tipster, the actual footage of Tony C's game was stumbled upon. The screengrabs shown have been cropped to protect the actual source.

I can tell you that this footage existed for over 20 years. After that, I have no knowledge if the original source footage is still there. As I said before, MLB appears to have hodge-podged the clip in their special together. That doesn't mean they DON'T have this footage, as in the past they've used poor quality footage or no clips at all to talk about games or events that they actually have broadcast footage for. What I do know is that this clip, which is part of another broadcast, still exists and is out there.

Tony C's comeback game

In the 4th inning of an August 18, 1967 game, Boston RF Tony Conigliaro was struck in the eye by a Jack Hamilton pitch. Conigliaro was having, what would have been, his best pro season on a team that would eventually find it's way into a 7 game World Series defeat.

Not for a season and a half later would Tony C play in a Major League Baseball game. His first game back would be Opening Day 1969 in Baltimore. Until now, I had not seen any footage of this game. What we have, though, is color broadcast footage thanks to MLB Network.

Hey! Hey! The Ken Holtzman no-hitter

With the death of Ron Santo, MLB.tv released a brief highlight video of the 3rd baseman's playing days. Included in it were clips from many games over the 1969-1972 seasons. One clip that stood out was a part of the Ken Holtzman no-hitter that I had never seen.

A big hat tip goes out to twib77 for bringing these clips to my attention.

In the past, I had seen clips of the 9th inning. We will get to that later. What I hadn't seen until a few months ago was the footage from the 7th inning. On top of that, what I hadn't seen until 3 days ago was the clip from the FIRST inning of that game.

All of this footage is WGN COLOR broadcast footage. I'll break it down after the jump.

Happy New Year and 1971 Cardinals

Happy New Year to all. This week, I'll be posting a few clips of 1971 St. Louis Cardinals broadcast footage. I will preface this as saying that MLB has already informed me that these come from highlight videos and that actual full game broadcasts do not exist. That's their official statement, take it for what it's worth.

First up, we have a clip of "Lefty" Steve Carlton at Wrigley Field. Before we get into other stuff, let's nail down a few parameters. First off, the two Cardinals in this clip are Joe Torre and Steve Carlton. Both were on the team together from 1969-1971. Furthemore, per uniwatch, the St. Louis Cardinals switched to the pullover tops that Torre and Carlton are both wearing for the first time in the 1971 season. So while Torre was with the Cardinals through the 1974 Season, Steve Carlton painfully was not.



With that in mind, let's get into the action.

1960 World Series Game 7 Live-Blog

Schedule:
Wednesday
7:30 EST - Bing and Baseball
8:00 - 11:00 EST - 1960 World Series Game 7
Thursday
12:30 EST - Bing and Baseball
1:00 - 4 am EST - 1960 World Series Game 7
2:30 EST - Bing and Baseball
3:00 - 6:00 EST - 1960 World Series Game 7

Thought lost forever, tonight the world (those who didn't order the DVD from Amazon.com) gets to see the game broadcast for only the second time in history. This broadcast marks the 2nd time in only a handful of years that one of the most significant games in baseball history was unearthed from oblivion.

Years ago when I started getting serious about really old classic baseball broadcast, there were only a handful of games to be known out there. The widely circulated ones like the 1952 World Series, 1965 and 1968 World Series, as well as the 1969 Fall Classic. Most of the content was scattered over a multitude of private collector's who feared confiscation, regional sports networks/broadcast partners who feared losing their claim to copyrighted content or was hidden away in the various team/MLB vaults never to be seen by fans.

With the advent of MLB Network, it seemed MLB became more focused on filling their network with content as well as doubling down on their efforts to catalog all their existing footage. Likewise, this brought more collectors out of the woodwork and made visable to non-collectors who had footage that there was someone out there looking for it.

Not to continue on from this little history jaunt, this 1960 World Series game ranks up there with 1962 World Series Game 7, 1951 NL Playoff Game 3 and Aaron's 715 game as defining moments in MLB history. And tonight, for those of us not alive when Bill Mazeroski punched his HOF ticket with a 9th inning shot over the brick wall at beautiful Forbes Field, we get to experience what it must have felt like seeing it live.

In this game, we get to see in live motion, not edited to only show their great feats some truely legendary figures. Maris, Mantle, Groat, The Great One, and Yogi.

I only have 1 major groundrule for tonight, if you normally don't post or even if you do, make sure you use a unique username. It makes it easier to put words to one particular poster. If it is a thread of anonymous, it'll seem like all one person.

If you've just been a fan in the past and never posted, jump in tonight. You might not get another chance to chat with fellow classic broadcast fans during one of the greatest events we could possibly have.

Announcement: MLB Network Presents 1960 World Series Game 7

Tomorrow night, I plan on live blogging the 1960 Rebroadcast. It won't be anything official in nature, more of a laid back dialogue between commenter and fans alike. Hopefully it will allow us more of a 'community' feel.

It is rare that a night like tomorrow night comes along. A year ago, if you asked me to come up with a top 5 Holy Grail baseball broadcast list, this game would be on it everytime. So, let's try to make the most of it.

Just drop by a little before 8 pm EST when the broadcast actually begins. At 7:30, MLB Network is airing a special on Bing Crosby and the discovery of this print.

So, I'll put up a post tomorrow afternoon and drop by during the broadcast and give a running commentary of what you think of the broadcast. Let's have some fun with it. Discoveries like this will become fewer and further between from here on out.

In the immortal words of the late Jack Buck: We'll See You Tomorrow Night!