Four Hall Of Famers in the Lineup!

Or so says the label on the front of the upcoming MLB Productions release Essential Games of the Chicago Cubs .  The game referenced is the July 12, 1969 game between the Cubs and the Phillies at Wrigley Field.  This was a NBC Game of the Week with Gowdy doing the PBP.  While originally broadcast in color, the kinescope is black and white.  This game has been in the hobby for a considerable amount of time and in fact, was aired on MLB Network in 2009.  It also marks the oldest known complete NBC Game of the Week Broadcast.

image courtesy: amazon.com

Mr. Tiger and the Green Monster

When I first saw the title "Top 25 Team Killers All-Time" I DVR'd the program thinking that it'd be a show featuring Milton Bradley, Carlos Zambrano and Jeff Kent. Clearly, I was mistaken when on my screen I saw Stan Musial, Roy Oswalt and Albert Pujols.

Fast forwarding a bit, I stumbled upon some video taped footage. It was of a Tigers/Red Sox broadcast featuring Al Kaline doing what he did best: killing the Red Sox. The clip featured 'sound effects' which may or may not have been from the telecast, however it had a narrator speaking over the clip obscuring any play-by-play that might have existed in the clip.

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.