THE 25 GREATEST WORLD SERIES TELECASTS

It's the middle of October, now, and yes I haven't blogged since June. That would have meant reliving the annoying summer of '11, with its jury duty, Smog Tests, fifteen hundred dollar car-parts, and more that makes me melt down. I promise an update befoee the year ends.

It turned out to be a better summer at Chavez ravine that I thought it would be. Yes, L.A. played before mostly janitorial staff, and the owner should be driven out of the city on a runaway rickshaw, but by summer's end, things we're looking up. Clayton Kershaw deserves the Cy Young Award, and Matt Kemp slugged and stole his way to an MVP-worthy campaign. Dodger fans can only hope the team will be in new hands by spring, ready to compete in post-season, again.

Elsewhere in Major League Baseball, 2011 couldn't have been more exciting. Three teams clinched play-off spots in extra-innings on the final day of the season. It doesn't get any better than that. We can only hope that a compelling World Series will follow. That hasn't been the case since 2002. What old-time network booth-announcers used to call, "...thrilling World Series action!" has eluded us, especially over the last five years.

If you're a true, traditional baseball fan, and want to see classic "thrillers," they are actually available on video. That couldn't be said, years ago, but now I can put together a list of the greatest series games since the birth of television, preserved in their entirety.

THE 25 GREATEST WORLD SERIES TELECASTS

1952 GAMES 6 & 7 NEW YORK YANKESS AT BROOKLYN DODGERS

The World Series was first telecast over four, east coast stations in 1947. The initial coast to coast classic was beamed via the co-axial cable in 1951. These are the earliest preserved, series telecasts, kinescoped for Gillette off WNBT, New York. The Dodgers had the Yanks down 3 games to 2 in Game 6, but the pinstripers fought back. In Game 7, the Mick homers, and Billy Martin makes a spectacular late-inning catch to disappoint Brooklyn fans, yet again. It's available on home video, or you can view it at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills. You'll marvel that the play-by-play men say very little--the style at the time was to provide captions for the pictures.
Announcers: Mel Allen and Red Barber, NBC


1956 GAME 5 BROOKLYN DODGERS AT NEW YORK YANKEES

It's the missing gem that collectors searched years for. In the early 1990's Doak Ewing, of Rare Sports Films, finally found a kinescope of Don Larsen's perfect game. Thought to be lost forever, from an age when NBC regularly burned film they had no room to house, all but the first inning of baseball's only post-season perfecto are here, Gillette commercials and all. A real World Series Thriller, one of the greatest games ever played.
Announcers: Mel Allen and Vin Scully, NBC

1960 GAME 7 NEW YORK YANKEES AT PITTSBURGH PIRATES

The hunt for this game ended sheerly by accident. Bing Crosby was part owner of the Pirates. Heavily superstitious, he left the country for vacation, as a wildly exciting 1960 series careened toward the concluding Game 7. In that age long before VCRs and DVRs, Bing ordered the game kinescoped by a a San Francisco-based production company. He watched it upon his return, knowing by then of it's unprecedented climax. Then he stored it in his wine cellar. There it stayed for half a century, until it was discovered, some 33 years after Bing's death. Like Larsen's perfect game, this has been high on the wish list of everyone who never saw it, live. Count me as one of those people. One of the earliest baseball stories I ever read was about the bad-hop that took down Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek, setting up Bill Mazeroski's eventual series ending heroics. It's available at MLB.com, and is one of the most exciting games I've ever seen. Those of us not old enough at the time (I was a year old) are surprised when Mel Allen tells us, "this World Series game is being brought to you live and in color on NBC."
The kinescope is black nad white.
Announcers: Mel Allen and Bob Prince, NBC


1965 GAME 7 LOS ANGELES DODGERS AT MINNESOTA TWINS

It would be great to see how NBC captured Bobby Richardson grabbing Willie McCovey's line drive to end the series in '62, Sandy Koufax striking out fifteen Yanks in 1963, or the Mick hitting a walk off shot against St. Louis in '64, but there's a huge gap in what's been found. Thanks to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which aired NBC's coverage, we have all seven games of the '65 series, kinescoped in black and white...the best of which is Game 7. The greatness of Sandy Koufax is displayed, on two days rest, minus his knee-buckling curve, using fastballs to completely shackle the powerful Twins. He gets some great defensive help from Jim Gilliam in the 8th. NBC Instant-replays are a feature, here. It was also the last year that announcers for both teams handled all the play-by-play. That means vintage Scully!
Announcers: Vin Scully and Ray Scott, NBC


1968 GAME 1 DETROIT TIGERS AT ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Once more, the CBC did what NBC did not do: keep copies of all seven games, albeit in black and white, and on kinescope, not color video tape. In Game 1, at a scorching Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Bob Gibson mows down the Motor City Kitties with a series-record 17 strikeouts. Pay special attention to the work of Harry Carey, then the Cardinals number one voice. In his final years, he digressed a lot during broadcasts, but in '68 he was at the top of his game--a SUPERB play-by-play man.
Announcers: Curt Gowdy, Harry Carey, NBC


1969 GAME 3 BALTIMORE ORIOLES AT NEW YORK METS

Another milestone: the earliest World Series game on color tape...in fact, what is called the "truck feed," minus commercials, but with all Tommie Agee's game-saving catches, first inning to last. Someone at NBC must have noted the historic nature of what was going on. The once woeful Mets turned it around on a Baltimore team that won 109 games, and then shocked the country by taking the series in 5 games. The contrast to previous games on monochrome kinescope is equally stunning.
Announcers: Curt Gowdy and Lindsey Nelson, NBC


1971 GAMES 4 & 7 BALTIMORE ORIOLES VS PITTSBURGH PIRATES

Game 4 is the first night game in World Series history. The Pirates' 14 hits and 4-3 victory tied the series at two games apiece. I remember watching this game. Previously, a mid-week game meant smuggling a transistor radio to school, if you were brave enough. Until this night, series games played on the east coast started at either 9 or 10 in the morning, Pacific time. If you lived in L.A., you watched the fall classic with oatmeal and toast, not peanuts and Cracker Jack. Game 7 gleams with the play of Roberto Clemente and the pitching of Steve Blass, who shut down the O's on that Sunday in Baltimore.
Announcers: Curt Gowdy and Chuck Thompson, NBC (both of whom looked stricken during the post-game wrap up, unable to hide their distress that the Bucs had prevailed)


1975 GAME 6 CINCINNATI REDS AT BOSTON RED SOX

We've gotten to what is considered by many the best game ever played. In Boston, it's thought of that way, for sure. The classic replay of Carlton Fisk rooting for his extra-inning blast to go fair was made possible when a camera man in the outfield wall was spooked by a rat. True story. The game is so much a part of baseball history, you'd think the Sox had won the series: They didn't.
Announcers: Curt Gowdy, Dick Stockton, Joe Garagiola, Tony Kubek, NBC



1977 GAME 6 LOS ANGELES DODGERS AT NEW YORK YANKEES

The 31st televised World Series was the first seen on a network other than NBC. A new TV package gave ABC the rights to the series every other year. Thus ended the policy of a home-team announcer as part of the telecast. Reggie Jackson's historic three-homer barrage was even harder to take because Howard Cosell was yammering all through Reggie's trip around the bases on tater number three. Each game is in a DVD package from MLB.com, the first Dodger-Yankee series since '63. The Reggie-straw stirred the drink, alright...to my everlasting chagrin.
Announcers: Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, and Tom Seaver ABC



1978 GAME 2 NEW YORK YANKEES AT LOS ANGELES DODGERS

Shades of the '50's, with a Dodger-Yankee series in successive years. Same result: Yanks in 6. Game 2, however, gave us a thrilling stand-off--two on and two out in the 9th, Dodgers up 4-3, Reggie Jackson at the plate and 21-year old Bob welch on the mound for L-A. You could cut the tension with a knife. One of the greatest Fall Classic moments.
Announcers: Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek, NBC


1984 GAME 5 SAN DIEGO PADRES AT DETROIT TIGERS

There was really no competition in this series. Detroit started the season 30 and 5, and rolled on from there. But Game 5 showcased a bravura performance by the Tigers' Kirk Gibson. He belted two home runs, the second a three-run job in the 8th, after the Padres pulled to within a run the previous inning. It was a preview of Gibson World Series heroics to come, and a great, great game. Also the first televised series called by Vin Scully since 1974.
Announcers: Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola, NBC


1986 GAME 6 BOSTON RED SOX AT NEW YORK METS


A Mets comeback so stunning it still takes your breath away. It took Boston 22 years to forgive Bill Buckner for the error that cost the Sox Game 6, and subsequently the series. Boston was one out away from their first World Championship since the end of World war I, when fate interceded. It still brings New Englanders to tears, but reigns as one of baseball's epic games, bar none. Again, Scully's poetry augments what was already high drama.
Announcers: Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola, NBC


1988 GAME 1 OAKLAND A'S AT LOS ANGELES DODGERS

The swingin' A's were supposed to sweep through Chavez Ravine with a broom, and it looked like they'd do just that until the 9th, when a gimpy-legged Kirk Gibson stepped into the box with two-out, one on, and the A's ahead, 4-3. As usual, Scully's description of the improbable conclusion was masterful, but Jack Buck's CBS Radio call is historic, as well: "I can't believe, what I just saw!!" Also worth a look is Jose Canseco's steriod-fueled grand slam in the second inning, which actually put a dent in NBC's centerfield camera. Gibson, though, is the story--one of the most sensational homers in the history of the sport.
Announcers: Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola, NBC


1991 GAME 7 ATLANTA BRAVES AT MINNESOTA TWINS

One of a small handfull of out-and-out-classic, seven game sets. Both teams had finished last in 1990. Each team's wins had come on its home field. Game 6 had gone 11 innings before Kirby Puckett won it with a homer, setting the stage for a heart-stopping Game 7. Jack Morris of Minnesota pitched ten shutout innings, and then the Twins finaly pushed across a run to capture the Series. It was a Sunday night to remember.
Announcers: Jack Buck and Tim McCarver, CBS


1993 GAMES 4 AND 6 TORONTO BLUE JAYS AND PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

The fourth and final Series Televised by CBS was the first with a representative from Canada, and the last played entirely on astro-turf. Game Four was the longest in World Series history, at 4 hours and 14 minutes, a tub-thumping slugfest that ended in a 15-14 victory for Toronto. The Jays scored 6 runs in the 8th to stun the Phils. This awe-inspiring, offensive tour de force proved significant: In Game 6, the Phillies were leading 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th. A win would force a Game 7. With two on, Joe Carter crushed a Mitch Williams fast ball, and a World Series ended with a walk-off homer for only the second time. I missed it, but heard Vin Scully's call on CBS Radio, while driving to a night club.
Announcers: Sean McDonough and Tim McCarver, CBS


1996 GAME 4 NEW YORK YANKEES AT ATLANTA BRAVES

MLB had weathered a strike that effected two seasons and cancelled the '94 series. The Yanks were back in the fall classic for the first time since the last strike year, 1981. The Braves were the reigning World Champs, and looked like they'd dominate the game for years to come. After blowing out the New Yorkers in the first two games, the Bravos were poised to take a 3-games-to-1 lead in Game 4. His team down 5-3 in the 8th, Yankee catcher Jim Leyritz blasted a three run-jack that turned the series on its ear. It would be the Yanks who won the series and started a dynasty, not the Braves. It was the first series televised on the ten year-old Fox network. Since '96, only the '97 and '99 series were on a network other than Fox.
Announcers: Joe Buck, Bob Brenly, and Tim McCarver, FOX


1997 GAME 7 CLEVELAND INDIANS AT FLORIDA MARLINS

The Indians were in seventh heaven. They had a four-year-old, state-of-the-art ball park, were in their second series in three years, and boasted a hard-hitting team that could blast their way through snow, sleet or steam. They'd have to do all that, because there were flurries in Cleveland during the series, and steamy humidity in Miami. The Marlins began play in 1993--they were only one year older than the Tribe's stadium! Game 7 was all a fan could ask for: The World Championship was settled on the last at bat of the 11th inning. This would be the second to last World Series ever televised by NBC.
Announcers: Bob Costas, Bob Uecker, and Joe Morgan, NBC


2000 GAME 2 NEW YORK METS AT NEW YORK YANKEES

The first series of the 21st century (or the last series of the 20th...it depends on how you look at the year 2000), was the first Subway Series since Dodgers-Yanks,1956.
The Yankees ruled baseball like lords at the turn of the century. They won three straight series. Game 3 in 2000 would inflict their only loss. Game 2 is a classic, however, because Roger Clemens and Mets catcher Mike Piazza nearly came to blows. The Mets scored 5 in the ninth to make it exciting, but to quote the title of Joe Torre's subsequent book, these were "The Yankee Years." Outside New York, there was as little interest as there's ever been for a World Series on television. The 2000 classic drew the lowest ratings since they started playing the Series at night.
Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX


2001 GAME 7 NEW YORK YANKEES AT ARZIONA DIAMONDBACKS

Like the Marlins before them, the D-Backs were an expansion team enjoying their first series after a very short time in existance. The Yankees were in pursuit of their fourth straight series title, harkening back to the '30's, '40's, and '50's, when the Pinstripers were Kingpins of the diamond. This uber-exciting, seven game set helped draw the country out of its pawl, following the events of 9/11. After winning two heart-stopping extra-inning thrillers in New York (with walk-off homers), the Yanks strode into Arizona for Game 6 needing one win to wrap it up. The D-Backs crushed them 15-2, behind the picthing of Randy Johnson. Next evening, the teams played the third series game ever played in November. Roger Clemens vs Curt Schilling. There was no score after 5 innings. Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the 6th, The Yanks came back with a run in the 7th and another in the 8th. Leading 2-1, they rode the arm of only the greatest closer in the history of the game, Mariano Rivera, into the 9th. One out, a run in, Jay Bell on third for the D-Backs, Luis Gonzales at the plate...I think the slogan was born that evening: I live for this>
Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX


2002 GAME 6 SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS AT ANAHEIM ANGELS

The Angels were one of a handfull of teams that had never been to the World Series. The Giants had not held a world title since they fled Manhattan. San Francisco was in control, leading the series 3 games to 2, and Game 6, 5-0 in the bottom of the
8th, when all hell, and rally monkeys, broke loose. It was as close to a ring as Barry Bonds would get. Needless to say, a game seven would be played, and the Angels would win their first-ever series--but it's Game 6 that shook the Richter Scale all the way from the Big A.
Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX


2004 GAME 4 BOSTON RED SOX AT THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

We're getting to that point in history where the series itself starts taking a back seat to the LCS. The Sox, with their tortured history of caticlism and collapse, had been down to the Yankees, 3 games to none in the ALCS. Then they did something no baseball team had done in the post-season: they won four staright and took the pennant right out of those greedy Yankee hands! Then they overwhelmed a St. Louis Cardinal team that had won 105 games in the regular season. Game 4 in the 2004 Series is a classic because it culminated in the cloud finally lifting for the Sox, and the dream coming true at last: The first Boston World Series win since 1918. It were as if anguishing defeats in 1946, '67, '75 and '86 were finally avenged. A great story, if not a great series.
Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX


2005 GAME 4 CHICAGO WHITE SOX AT HOUSTON ASTROS

Lost in the commotion over Boston shedding its jinx and winning a World championship in the era of electronic media, was the fact the Chicago White Sox hadn't won a series since 1917 . The Chisox hadn't even been in a series since 1959, when the Dodgers beat 'em in 6. So Game 4 in 2005 brought relief to another long-standing American League stalwart. The pride of the South Side swept Houston (in its first series) clinching the title with a 1-0 win. Historic, in that Chicago had not won a World Series since the advent of broadcasting. Thus, the 1-zip classic that ends our list of 25 Great World Series Telecasts.
Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX


Where are those other great moments, you may ask? Billy Martin knocking in Hank Bauer with the series ending run in game 6, 1953. Willie Mays' sensational catch in Game 1 of the 1954 series? Sandy Amoros equally spectacular catch and throw that preserved a lead and helped Brooklyn win their first series in 1955? Eddie Matthews amazing grab that ended the '57 classic? How about a pan of the L.A. Coliseum through NBC color cameras in '59? Jim Lonborg's near no-hitter over St. Louis in Fenway Park, Game 2, 1967?

I could say they're all gone, but there's always a chance they could be laying around, somewhere. NBC, which held exclusive rights to World Series telecasts from 1947 to 1975,and radio broadcasts 1957 to 1975, did not save copies of the games. To save expenses, because they had no room and/or saw no use for them, kinescopes were routinely destroyed. When video tape came into use, it was two-inches wide, and very expensive--close to a thousand dollars a reel. NBC always had the poorest archives of all the networks. Somehow, ABC, with its lean earnings in the 60's, managed to house copies of Wide World Of Sports, and classic NCAA College Football games, like Notre dame-MIchigan State in 1966, and USC-UCLA in 1967. Had those games been televised by NBC, you wouldn't be able to enjoy the highlights on You Tube, today.

CBS was best at archiving because of a system their fastidious president Frank Stanton put into place. Their news and entertainment archives are nothing else than outstanding. It also helped that entertainers like Ed Sullivan made enough money to store the tapes of his shows. That's why all those classic rock and roll performances can be seen today. At NBC, they erased nearly a decade of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, much to Johnny's chagrin. After 1970, when he took over ownership of the program, Carson had each tape stored deep underground in Kansas. His nephew now oversees the library. It's computerized so that a key word can bring up any particular interview or performance.

So that's why the list stops at 25. I have a fan's daydream, though...that there's a 90-year-old, retired Chief Engineer from an NBC affliate somehwere, with two dusty spools of color video tape in his basement. And that his grandson will run across them, only to discover Sandy Koufax in the sunshine of October 6, 1963,in Game 4 of the World Series, vanquishing the Yankees, in living color.

POST SCRIPT, OCTOBER 23, 2011

Make it 26 Greatest games...

2011 GAME 3 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS AT TEXAS RANGERS


Albert Pujols got five hits, four in consecutive innings. More importanly, he hit three home runs, as The Cards kept Texas at bay in a slugfest that ended, 16-7. An egregiously bad call in the fourth inning opened the flood gates for St. Louis. ranger first baseman Mike Napoli made a sensational leaping tag that everyone saw except the umpire. A footnote: there were at least four sensational College football games on the air against this broadcast--which means fewer people saw Pujols hitting exhibition than will admit in the future. It's a shame it was played on a Saturday. There wasn't the finality of Reggie Jackson's three dingers in '77 to end the series...but then, this one 's not over, yet.
ANNOUNCERS: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX


2011 GAME 6 TEXAS RANGERS AT ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

Delayed one day by a dire weather forecast, The Rangers came within a strike of the World Championship in the 9th and 10th innings. The Cards David Freese ended a four and a half hours of mortal combat with a homer to center in the 11th. The game started off with both teams a little edgy, defensively, but the teams went mano a mano, homer for homer into the chilly St. Louis night, setting the statge for the first climactic Game 7 since 2002.
ANNOUNCERS: Jack Buck and Tim McCarver, FOX