Major League Baseball on DuMont refers to the now defunctDuMont Television Network's coverage ofMajor League Baseball. More specifically, DuMont broadcast theWorld Series (during its very early years as a televised event) from1947-1949.

Gillette,^[1] which produced World Series telecasts^[2] from roughly1947-1965 (before1966, local announcers, who were chosen by the Gillette Company, theCommissioner of Baseball, andNBC television, exclusively called the World Series), paid for airtime on DuMont'sowned-and-operated Pittsburgh affiliate,WDTV (now KDKA-TV) to air the World Series. In the meantime, Gillette alsobought airtime onABC,CBS, andNBC. More to the point, in some cities, the World Series was broadcast on three different stations at once. For example, the1947 World Series (for which DuMont only televised Games 2, 6–7 withBill Slater on the call)^[3] was only seen in four markets^[4][5] via coaxial inter-connected stations:New York City, New York;Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;Schenectady, New York;Washington, District of Columbia; and, environs surrounding these cities. Outside of New York, coverage was pooled.

For the1948 World Series, games inBoston were only seen in theNortheast. Meanwhile, games inCleveland were only seen in theMidwest andPittsburgh. The games were open to all channels with a network affiliation.^[6][7] In all, the 1948 World Series was televised to fans in seven Midwestern cities: Cleveland,Chicago,Detroit,Milwaukee,St. Louis, andToledo. By1949, World Series games could now be seen east of theMississippi River.^[8] The games were open to all channels with a network affiliation.^[9]

By the start of the 1950s, Major League Baseball was, for the most part, still in the province of the local market television stations. Outside of these markets, however, televised baseball (unlike onradio) was rare. DuMont's sports programming head, Thomas McMahon^[15] was working with individual owners to televise Major League Baseball's first regular season national games in the summer of1953.^[16]

McMahon planned (as far back as January 1953) to set up a corporation to sell the national MLB telecasts meanwhile, giving stock shares tominor league teams. More specifically, McMahon's plan was to negotiate with individual teams rather than Major League Baseball as a whole. This way, McMahon could avoid a potentialantitrust suit from theDepartment of Justice. In order to counter the possible negative effect on the minors (whichWestern League presidentEdwin C. Johnson most predominately feared), McMahon would offer them a piece of the national television pie. Furthermore, McMahan argued that since the planned DuMont games would be held onSaturday afternoons,^[17] the minors that scheduled most of their games in the evening wouldn't have been greatly affected.

Ultimately, however, the first nationalGame of the Week package didn't air on DuMont, but on ABC. In April 1953, ABC set out to sell teams rights but instead, only got thePhiladelphia Athletics,Cleveland Indians,^[18] andChicago White Sox^[19][20] to sign on.^[21] To make matters worse, Major League Baseball barred theGame of the Week from airing within 50 miles of any ballpark.^[22]

DuMont'sowned-and-operated stations arehighlighted in yellow. TheParamount owned-and-operated stations, which did not carry DuMont programs but were ruled DuMont O&Os by theFCC, areshown in pink. Franchises that were laterrelocated are listed initalics.

• Searchable Network TV BroadcastsArchived July 6, 2015, at theWayback Machine

• Major League Baseball on television
• 1947 American television series debuts
• 1949 American television series endings
• DuMont sports programming

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