The 1959 Homerun Derby

Filmed in December 1959, “Home Run Derby” was a groundbreaking weekly television series that pitted baseball’s top sluggers against one another in head-to-head battles for long ball supremacy. The show took place at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles (home of the Pacific Coast League’s Angels), chosen because of its near-symmetrical dimensions. Unlike modern derbies, hitters were allowed three outs per inning (any pitch in the strike zone constituted an out); the player with the most homers after nine frames was declared champion. Winners received $2,000, with an additional $500 going to anyone who hit three consecutive big flies (another $500 was awarded for a fourth straight home run; anything beyond that was worth $1,000). Though it sounds like chump change today, remember that in 1960 the average big-league salary was around $17,000 a year.