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In1960, ABC returned to baseball broadcasting with a series of late-afternoon Saturday games.Jack Buck[1] andCarl Erskine[2][3] were the lead announcing crew for this series, which lasted one season.[4] ABC typically did three games a week. Two of the games were always from theEastern orCentral Time Zone. The late games (nodoubleheaders) were usuallySan Francisco Giants[5] orLos Angeles Dodgers' home games. However, theMilwaukee Braves[6] used to start many of their Saturday home games late in the afternoon. So if the Giants and Dodgers were both the road at the same time, ABC still would be able to show a late game.
In 1957,[7] NBC started airing weekendGame of the Week telecasts[8][9] (Sunday telecasts were added in 1959) withLindsey Nelson andLeo Durocher calling the action. During this period, NBC (as rivalCBS had the rights to broadcast at least eight teams) typically broadcast fromPittsburgh'sForbes Field,Chicago'sWrigley Field orMilwaukee'sCounty Stadium. NBC purchased the rights to 11Milwaukee Braves games, 11Pittsburgh Pirates games, twoWashington Senators games, and twoChicago Cubs games. Leo Durocher was succeeded ascolor commentator byFred Haney in 1960, andJoe Garagiola in 1961, whileBob Wolff[10] replaced Nelson onplay-by-play in 1962.
From 1958 to 1960,[11] NBC aired a special regional feed of its games in thesoutheast, where the network had a different sponsor (such asNational Bohemian beer) than for the rest of the country. This feed featured its own announcing team, withChuck Thompson calling the games withBill Veeck (1958) andAl Rosen (1959–60). NBC never had a true backup game until 1966, when the network got exclusivity for theGame of the Week. In the process, NBC brought inCurt Gowdy andPee Wee Reese for the primary game, andJim Simpson andTony Kubek for the alternate game (which was always shown in the markets of teams playing in the primary game).
Jack Whitaker andFrankie Frisch announced the backup games on CBS from1959 to1961. They usually did games that took place inPhiladelphia,New York City,Washington, D.C. orBaltimore. Whitaker once said in three years, he would only broadcast three innings because CBS would not switch away from Dizzy Dean. However, he said that he learned a lot of baseball just sitting next to Frisch. CBS had other backup crews for games featuring theChicago Cubs andWhite Sox,Cleveland Indians andCincinnati Reds. In these cases, Bob Finnegan would handle the play-by-play duties with various analysts depending on the city. CBS did not haveGame of the Week rights from any other ballparks in those years.
Pee Wee Reese[12] replaced Blattner as Dean's partner in1960. That year,Jerry Coleman hosted the pregame show for CBS'Game of the Week broadcasts. A rather embarrassing incident for Coleman occurred when he was interviewingCookie Lavagetto when the "Star-Spangled Banner" started. Coleman later said, "Believe me, when the Anthem starts, I stop, whether I'm taping, talking, or eating a banana."[13]
One other note about ABC baseball coverage during this period. Despite temporarily losing theGame of the Week package in1961, ABC still televised several games inprime time (with Jack Buck returning to call the action). This occurred asRoger Maris[14][15] was poised to tie and subsequently breakBabe Ruth's regular season home run record of 60. As with all Major League Baseball games in those days, the action was totallyblacked out[16] of major league markets. As a matter of fact, as documented in theHBO film61*, the Maris family was welcomed into ABC'sKansas City, Missouri affiliateKMBC-TV so they could watch the in-house feed of the game, which was blacked out of Kansas City.
In1962, CBS dropped the Sunday baseballGame of the Week[17] once theNFLseason started, dropping the option clause foraffiliates to carry baseball or football in place since1957.
In 1963 and 1964, viewers in San Francisco were unable to see certain baseball telecasts aired by CBS onKPIX-TV locally, although the games aired on stations in markets adjacent to theBay Area. In 1963, KPIX pre-empted the July 13 game between theSan Francisco Giants–Philadelphia Phillies (at 10:15 a.m.),[18] and theLos Angeles Dodgers-Phillies game on July 14 (at 9:30 a.m.); in 1964, the station pre-empted theKansas City Athletics–New York Yankees game on May 16 (at 10:45) and theMilwaukee Braves–St. Louis Cardinals game on May 17. All four games did air on NBC affiliateKSBW inSalinas,KXTV inSacramento and ABC affiliateKHSL-TV inChico (the games also aired onKOLO-TV inReno, Nevada, however it joined the two July 1963 games in progress, at 10:25 and 9:55 a.m. on the respective dates).
By1964,[19] CBS' Dean and Reese called games from Yankee Stadium,Wrigley Field,St. Louis,Philadelphia andBaltimore. The New York Yankees got a $550,000 share of CBS' $895,000. Six clubs that exclusively played nationally televised games on NBC were paid $1.2 million. The theme music used on the CBS telecasts during this era was aDixieland styled rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".
On July 17,1964, a game out of Los Angeles between theChicago Cubs andLos Angeles Dodgers contest became the firstPay TV baseball game.[citation needed] Subscription television offered thecablecast to subscribers for money.[citation needed] (The Dodgers beat the Cubs by the score of 3–2, withDon Drysdale collecting 10 strikeouts.)
In1965, ABC provided the first-ever nationwide baseball coverage with weekly Saturday broadcasts on a regional basis. ABC paid$5.7 million for the rights to the 28 Saturday/holidayGames of the Week. ABC's deal[20][21] covered all of the teams except theNew York Yankees andPhiladelphia Phillies[22] (who had their own television deals) and called for two regionalized games on Saturdays,Independence Day, andLabor Day.[23] Each Saturday, ABC broadcast two 2 p.m. games and one 5 p.m. game for thePacific Time Zone. ABCblacked out the games in the home cities of the clubs playing those games.[24] Major League Baseball however, had a TV deal withNBC for theAll-Star Game andWorld Series. At the end of the season, ABC declined to exercise its $6.5 million option for1966, citing poorratings,[25][26] especially in New York.
According to ABC announcerMerle Harmon's profile inCurt Smith's bookVoices of Summer, in1965,CBS'Yankee Game of the Week beat ABC in the ratings in at leastDallas andDes Moines. To make matters worse, local television split the big-city audience. Therefore, ABC could show theCubs vs. theCardinals in the New York market, yet theMets would still kill them in terms of viewership. Harmon,Chris Schenkel,Keith Jackson,[27] and (on occasion)Ken Coleman[28] served as ABC's principal play-by-play voices for this series. Also on the network's announcing team were pregame hostHoward Cosell and color commentatorsLeo Durocher,Tommy Henrich,Warren Spahn (who worked with Chris Schenkel on a July 17Baltimore-Detroit contest), andHall of Fame Brooklyn Dodger greatJackie Robinson (who, on April 17, 1965, became the firstblack network broadcaster for Major League Baseball[29]). According toABC Sports producerChuck Howard, "(Robinson) had a high, stabbing voice, great presence, and sharp mind. All he lacked was time."
TheNew York Yankees, which, the year before, had played 21Games of the Week for CBS, joined NBC's package in 1966. The new package under NBC called for 28 games, as compared to the 123 combined among three networks during the 1960s. On October 19, 1966,NBC signed a three-year contract with Major League Baseball. As previously mentioned, the year before, Major League Baseball sold an exclusive league-wide television package for the rights to the Saturday-SundayGame of the Week to ABC. NBC covered only theAll-Star Game andWorld Series in 1965. In addition, a previous deal limited CBS to covering only twelve weekends when its new subsidiary, theNew York Yankees, played at home. As previously mentioned, before 1965, NBC aired a slate of Saturday afternoon games beginning in 1957.
Under the new deal, NBC paid roughly US$6 million per year for the 25Games of the Week,[30] $6.1 million for the1967 World Series andAll-Star Game, and $6.5 million for the1968 World Series and1968 All-Star Game. This brought the total value of the contract (which included three Monday night telecasts such as aLabor Day 1966 contest between theSan Francisco Giants andLos Angeles Dodgers) up to $30.6 million.
On April 16, 1966, in New York City, about 50 baseball, network, and advertising officials discussed NBC's first year with theGame of the Week. New York could not get a primary match-up between theDetroit Tigers andNew York Yankees with Curt Gowdy and Pee Wee Reese calling the action because of local blackout rules. Instead, that market received a backup game (or "'B' game") featuring Tony Kubek andJim Simpson calling a game between theCincinnati Reds andChicago Cubs. That rule would be eliminated after the 1983 season.
In replacing CBS, NBC traded acircus for a seminar. Reese said "Curt Gowdy was its guy (1966–75), and didn't want Dizzy Dean[31] – too overpowering. Curt was nice, but worried about mistakes. Diz and I just laughed."Falstaff Brewery hyped Dean as Gowdy in return said "I said, 'I can't do "Wabash Cannonball." Our styles clash --" then came Pee Wee Reese. Gowdy added by saying about the pairing between him and Reese, "They figured he was fine with me, and they'd still have their boy." To many, baseball meant CBS's 1955–64Game of the Week thoroughbred. A year later, NBC boughtABC's variant of a mule so to speak. "We had the Series and All-Star Game. 1966–1968'sGame meant exclusivity", said NBC Sports head Carl Lindemann, who added that "[Colleague]Chet Simmons and liked him [Gowdy] with theSox andfootball" also, getting two network sports for the price of one. As his analyst, Gowdy wanted his friendTed Williams. NBC's lead sponsor,Chrysler declined the idea when Williams, aSears spokesman, was pictured putting stuff in a Ford truck.
Before 1966, local announcers exclusively called the World Series. Typically, theGillette Company, theCommissioner of Baseball and NBC television would choose the announcers, who would represent each of the teams that were in the World Series for the respective year. For the1966 World Series, Curt Gowdy[32] called half of each game before ceding the microphone to Vin Scully in Los Angeles, andChuck Thompson in Baltimore. Scully was not satisfied with the arrangement[33] as he said "What about the road? My fans won't be able to hear me." In Game 1 of the 1966 World Series, Scully called the first4+1⁄2 innings. When Gowdy inherited the announcing reins, Scully was so upset that he refused to say another word.
As previously mentioned, before1966, NBC typically paired the top announcers for the respective World Series teams to alternate play-by-play during each game's telecast. For example, if theYankees played theDodgers in the World Series, Mel Allen (representing the Yankees) would call half the game and Vin Scully (representing the Dodgers) would call the other half of the game. However, in 1966, NBC wanted its regular network announcer, Curt Gowdy, to call most of the play-by-play at the expense of the top local announcers. So instead of calling half of every World Series game on television (as Vin Scully had done in1953,1955,1956,1959,1963 and1965) they would only get to call half of all home games on TV, providing color commentary while Gowdy called play-by-play for the remaining half of each game. The visiting teams' announcers would participate in theNBC Radio broadcasts. In broadcasts of Series-clinching (or potentially Series-clinching) games on both media, NBC would send the announcer for whichever team was ahead in the game to that team's clubhouse in the ninth inning in order to help cover the trophy presentation and conduct postgame interviews.
In 1967, mainGame of the Week broadcasts wereblacked-out in the cities of the two participating teams. In some cases, those games were aired by way of the teams' respective local flagship stations, with their local announcing crews – for example, the May 27,Dodgers–Giants contest in San Francisco was not carried by either KRON-TV in the originating city orKNBC in Los Angeles. The game was, however, telecast in Los Angeles over the Dodgers' flagship stationKTTV, withJerry Doggett and Vin Scully providing play-by-play. At the time, Dodgers' broadcasts over KTTV were limited to road games in San Francisco. Conversely the Giants' broadcast partner,KTVU, did not broadcast the team's home games in 1967.[34] Viewers in theSan Francisco Bay Area may have been able to view this game on one of two NBC affiliates from nearby areas,KSBW-TV inSalinas and KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California.
The June 8, 1968Game of the Week broadcast was cancelled due to coverage of thefuneral/burial ofRobert F. Kennedy.Cleveland atDetroit andAtlanta atChicago Cubs were the games scheduled to air on that date. Both games were canceled as well, due to Kennedy assassination.
Tony Kubek initially had trouble adjusting to the world of broadcasting. Although he had a lot to say, he was gangling, he tended tostutter, and he talked too fast. Curt Gowdy soon suggested to Kubek that he should work in the off-season to improve his delivery. Kubek bought a tape recorder and took to reading poetry aloud for 20 minutes a day. In 1968, Kubek wowed as aWorld Series field reporter. Pee Wee Reese, who was soon fired by NBC (and replaced by Kubek as the top analyst) said of Kubek "He wormed his way around, but I wasn't bitter. I just think if you don't have anything to say, you should shut your mouth."
In the early years of the League Championship Series,[35] NBC typically televised a doubleheader on the opening Saturday, followed by a single game on Sunday (because ofNFL coverage). They then covered the weekday games with a 1.5 hour overlap, joining the second game in progress when the first one ended. NBC usually swapped announcer crews after Game 2. From1969 to1983, the Major League Baseball television contract allowed a local TV station in the market of each competing team to also carry the LCS games. So in 1969, for example,Mets fans inNew York could choose to watch either the NBC telecast orLindsey Nelson,Bob Murphy andRalph Kiner onWOR-TV.
Games 3, 4, and 5 of the1969 World Series are believed to be the oldest survivingcolor television broadcasts of World Series games (even though World Series telecasts have aired in color since1955). However, they were "truck feeds" in that they do not contain the original commercials, but show a static image of theShea Stadium field between innings. Games 1 and 2 were saved only as black-and-white kinescopes provided by theCBC. CBC also preserved all seven games of the1965 and1968 World Series (plus the1968 All-Star Game) in black-and-white kinescope.