In an effort to fill the void of National League baseball in New York City, the Phillies agree to televise 78 games in the metropolitan area

ByThis Day in Baseball

In an effort to fill the void of National League baseball in New York City, the Phillies agree to televise 78 games in the metropolitan area, which is without a Senior Circuit team for the first time since the league’s inception in 1876. The Pirates and Cardinals will also beam games into the Big Apple, but their contests will only feature the departed Dodgers and Giants as opponents.

Branch Rickey raves about Roberto Clemente In today’s issue of The Sporting News

Branch Rickey raves about Roberto Clemente In today’s issue of The Sporting News

ByThis Day in Baseball

1957 – In today’s issue of The Sporting News, former Pittsburgh Pirates GM – and current Pirate batting instructor (at least while George Sisler recuperates from a recent operation), Branch Rickey, – raves about Roberto Clemente, who will be seen as Rickey’s most illustrious Pirate hire. The article features a classic example of bandwagon-jumping, coming in the wake of Clemente’s dramatically improved sophomore showing, as Rickey radically revises his initial, considerably more pessimistic prognosis made in January but which won’t be made public until years later. Moreover, he shamelessly inflates his own role in acquiring Clemente, in effect stealing the credit from his longtime subordinate, pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth, the man who actually discovered Clemente last year while on assignment from Rickey to scout demoted Dodger hurler Joe Black. Ironically, just as Rickey has jumped on the bandwagon, Clemente, thanks to an off-season back injury which has somehow escaped the “Mahatma”‘s omniscient eye, is about to embark on the worst season of his career.

A Boston newspaper claims that Ted Williams never paid his $5,000 fine for spitting at the crowd. It refers to him mockingly as the “Splendid Spitter.”

A Boston newspaper claims that Ted Williams never paid his $5,000 fine for spitting at the crowd. It refers to him mockingly as the “Splendid Spitter.”

ByThis Day in Baseball

1957 – A Boston newspaper claims that Ted Williams never paid his $5,000 fine for spitting at the crowd. It refers to him mockingly as the “Splendid Spitter.”

1953 – U.S. Senator Edwin C. Johnson offers a bill to give clubs the sole right to ban radio-TV broadcasts of major league games in their own territory. The antitrust division of the Justice Department outlawed this practice in 1949. Johnson believes that it started the decline of baseball in small towns and cities throughout the country. His bill aims to restore the equity between large communities and the small areas.

ByThis Day in Baseball

1953 – U.S. Senator Edwin C. Johnson offers a bill to give clubs the sole right to ban radio-TV broadcasts of major league games in their own territory. The antitrust division of the Justice Department outlawed this practice in 1949. Johnson believes that it started the decline of baseball in small towns and cities throughout the country. His bill aims to restore the equity between large communities and the small areas.

Vin Scully Brooklyn Dodgers
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The Giants and Dodgers play the first Nationally Televised Game

ByThis Day in Baseball

The Giants’ 3-1 victory over the Dodgers in the first game of the National League playoffs is the first major league contest to be televised coast-to-coast. CBS, who obtained rights to the game, transmits the picture from Ebbets Field but has to get the signal from ABC, who had made previous arrangements with WOR-TV, the New York station which carried Brooklyn’s regular season games.

MLB signs a six-year All-Star Game pact for TV and Radio rights calling for $6 million

MLB signs a six-year All-Star Game pact for TV and Radio rights calling for $6 million

ByThis Day in Baseball

1951 – Major League Baseball signs a six-year All-Star Game pact for TV and Radio rights calling for $6 million. A number of owners criticize Commissioner Happy Chandler, believing that in a couple of years, the broadcast rights will be worth much more than a million per annum.

1Major League Presidents Ford Frick (American League) and Will Harridge (National League) vote to deposit $950,000 received for World Series TV and radio rights into the player’s pension fund.

ByThis Day in Baseball

1950 – Major League Presidents Ford Frick (American League) and Will Harridge (National League) vote to deposit $950,000 received for World Series TV and radio rights into the player’s pension fund.