1977 05 31 This Week in Baseball first ever episode

This is baseball, Major League Baseball. And this is Mel Allen saying, get set for baseball personality. Swing into baseball action. Catch on to the excitement of another big week in baseball. Let's bring it all home as Major League Baseball presents This Week in Baseball. Sir, we all know Mobile One is the oil that saves you gas. Give me another good reason to buy it. Well, it lasts. And lasts. How long will Mobile One last? We drove it 15,000 miles without an oil change. And after all that, found Mobile One still protects as well as new ordinary oil. Lasts. Mobile One, the oil that saves you gas, saves you oil changes. I'm Kathy Davis, model. I'm Jan Jordan, actress. I'm Debbie Shelton, Miss USA 1970. I'm Mickey Mantle, executive. Mickey's very successful and he looks good. He uses a natural conditioner every day. Brill cream, regular or anti-dandruff. Those hair look healthy, alive, naturally terrific. Tell them, Mick. Brill cream, a little dab will do you. Or a man will use their heads about their hair. Hello there, everybody. This is Mel Allen and here are the defending American League champion New York Yankees going up against the Red Sox of Boston in a classic rivalry. You know, ever since I can remember, New York and Boston fans have said the season doesn't start till the Sox and Yankees meet. Last week, the Red Hot Red Sox came to Yankee Stadium and got right down to business by beating the Yankees in their first meeting. Fact is, as soon as someone yells play ball, these two teams always get down to business fast. Take the next game they played. Rick Burleson jumps on Ken Holtzman's first pitch of the game for a leadoff double. Next up, Fred Lynn also hits the first pitch. And just like that, the Red Sox have a run. See what I'm talking about? Designated hitter Jim Rice knows this is serious business. His single to right field sends Lynn the third and sets up the second run of the inning. Starter Ken Holtzman doesn't know what hit him. While his manager, Billy Martin, wishes the Sox would show a little mercy. But in the third inning, George Scott, the boomer, was in no mood for mercy. There's a long drive deep to right field, and it's going to be out of here. Scott and the Sox do this to everyone. They lead the American League in home runs, but somehow they're always sweeter against the team in pinstripes. And when it came time for a seventh inning stretch, Boston led five to two. The stadium crowd grows impatient. They want their team to start really playing ball. The Bronx Bombers get the message. Defending home run champ Greg Nettles leads off the seventh with one of his specialties. And it's over the fence for a home run. The crowd liked that. And Carlos May liked it so much, he decided to try. It's deep to right field. It's going, going, it's gone. That makes it five to four. The Yanks on the march. But the Sox didn't heed the distress signal. Louis Tiont was left in. And after Bucky Dent singled, Willie Randolph lays down a sacrifice and he almost beats it out. Now it's Boston's turn to worry. Mickey Rivers rips one to left. Dent rounds third and stumbles. But Carl Yastrzemski didn't see it. He fires to second, but it's too late to catch Rivers. And quicker than you can say Mick, say Thurm. As Thurman Munson rings the register with a line drive base hit that sends Rivers scampering home. That puts the Yankees on top six to five, and that's how the game ended. Thurman Munson would like to catch his breath, but these two teams are a little room to breathe. Last Monday night up at Fenway Park, the Yankees were holding a slim 5-4 lead, bottom of the ninth. Denny Doyle lines a hit the center. Mickey Rivers charges the ball. Butch Hobson wants to score the tying run. Watch. Look out. How about that? That gave the Yankees another victory. But Munson can tell you they don't come easy. He wants to know when will any of this end, but he could probably guess the answer. The Red Sox won the next game, evening everything between these two old rivals and the way things are going. Looks like it'll take all summer to settle the issue. While the Yanks and Red Sox kept climbing over each other, an old nemesis was climbing also, the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles lost three superstars this winter, but that hasn't stopped them from climbing all the way to first place in the American League East. Last weekend, the Orioles battled the Western Division leaders, the Minnesota Twins. Lyman Bostock and the Twins have been winning ballgames with their bats. The Orioles last in the league and run scored, used their bats also, although not quite as intimidating. Mark Belanger lines one over first and makes the most of it. Should he try it? Why not? Well, like we said, busting fences isn't Baltimore's or Belanger's bag, but this is. Watch. Belanger's been doing this for years. Another bird trademark, solid pitching. In the first game, Rudy Mays shot out the Twins with a little defensive help from Rudy Mays. The birds play him close, but that's the way they like him. The next day, Jim Palmer held the Twins to one run. That was his seventh win. No surprise from a three time Cy Young Award winner. The birds are relaxed. Let the Red Sox and Yankees do the worrying. Baseball is fun. But in Sunday's game, the Orioles may have relaxed a little too much. Roy Smalley, not famed for his power, lifts one to deep left. Watch Pat Kelly go all the way back. Whoops. Where did he go? Now, that's something that can really discourage a guy. Kelly says, please just tell me this didn't happen. But it did, as all can plainly see. A home run for Smalley with an assist from Kelly. In the eighth inning, it was manager Earl Weaver's turn to offer the Twins assistance. With first base open, he ordered his team to intentionally pass Larry Heisel. The Orioles started to oblige when the manager suddenly called time. You see, Weaver hadn't realized that the man at the plate was Dan Ford. Larry Heisel bats next. So who's on first and who's on deck? Well, Ford was soon on first because the Orioles wound up walking him unintentionally. Thank you, Mr. Weaver. And now that brought up Heisel, the man who should have walked. Instead, he swings, and that hurts. The hit knocked in the winning run for the Twins. But that won't ruffle the birds feathers. They'll just play him one at a time and see who's on first come October. Hey, you can work all day on this heap. It still won't be worth being. It'll look terrific in no time. I got Kit. It's soft. Yeah, Kit's pretty soft. Slides on easy. Kit liquefies as it hits the finish. Deep cleans, wipes off easy. There's no easier, faster way to get a long lasting paste wax shine. Unless somebody else does it for you. Hey, how much did you say you want? Jaywax Kit. No wonder it's number one. Welcome to a living monument, a monument to a team, a family and summer days. Wrigley Field on a summer day in beautiful Wrigley Field. You might catch an usher dancing and you're sure to catch a lot of good baseball. That's only on a summer day, because unlike any other big league ballpark, Wrigley Field has no lights, just a very famous wall dressed in green ivy, a game that has changed little since it began. And the Wrigley faithful, fans who enjoy baseball at a fair price and enjoy it in the sunlight, a place that hasn't changed, which is a tribute to this man, Philip Kingsley Wrigley, owner of the Chewing Gum Empire and the Chicago Cubs. Since his father, William Wrigley, signed over his ballclub to his son in 1932, PK always considered baseball a matter of tradition and civic care. During his 42 years of ownership, the early years probably were the sweetest with the help of his friend and manager, Charlie Grimm or Jolly Jolly, as he's remembered, penance were a frequent occurrence at Wrigley Field. The people of the north side of Chicago still remember those years, years of winning, of celebration and of some great players. Catcher Gabby Hartnett, who once hit a homer at dusk to win a pennant and Hack Wilson knocked in a record breaking 190 runs one year. Second baseman Billy Herman recently inducted into the Hall of Fame. These faces and many others are not forgotten, nor are the smiles shared by town and its beloved team. But the last pennant came in 1945. Since that time, the Cubs have suffered baseball's longest drought without a flag, 32 years. All the same, PK Wrigley in Chicago's north side never really lost the sunshine, especially with Mr. Cub Ernie Banks around to spread his enthusiasm. In August of this year, Banks will be inducted in the Hall of Fame. Here's Ernie's 500th home run seen in this historical piece of film. To Banks, it came on a day like hundreds of others in his splendid career, or as he would say, on a beautiful day to play baseball, that beautiful Wrigley Field. On April 12th of this year, PK Wrigley died at the age of 82. It's a loss to Chicago, a loss to baseball. It's a shame he couldn't live to see his Cubs right now. He may not have believed it, and some still can't believe it. The Cubs are sorry. Some may think the Cubs are due for a stumble. Others would point out that so far they haven't dropped the ball very often. John Candelaria and the Pittsburgh Pirates found that out the hard way last week in Chicago. The Pirates came to Wrigley Field riding high in first place, but the Cubs shot them down. Home runs by Bobby Mercer and Manny Trio sent Candelaria down with his first loss of the season as the Cubs won the first game of the series and edged closer to first place in the National League East. In the second game, Willie Stargell and the Pirates fell victims again. Stargell booms one to left. Bobby Mercer tries a leaping catch, but can't get it. Stargell round second, steams for third. But Mercer says, hey, man, what's the rush? The ball's lost in the ivy. And you know what? That's a ground rule double. That's one way to stop a runner, and here's another. Credit Yvonne DeJesus, the little shortstop who came to Chicago in a trade with the Dodgers and has been brilliant all year. The play killed a Pirate rally and set the stage for a big Cub rally. Jerry Morales steps in with the bases loaded in the sixth. The Cubs trailed two to one. One swing and everybody's off as Al Oliver chases the ball down. All three runners score easily. And now it's the Cubs who are in the driver's seat. And somehow this just wasn't your normal beautiful day to play baseball at beautiful Wrigley Field with the capacity crowd cheering on every pitch. Relief ace Bruce Suter came in to wrap it up. Suter saved Friday's game and Saturday's game. And with two out in the ninth, the team leading three to two. It was Suter again Sunday. This time he got spectacular help from another Cub whose play has been unbelievable. Manny Trio, the second baseman. And these are the fans of Wrigley Field. Many thought the Cubs would finish last. But last Sunday, the Cubs were first in the National League East and first in the National League West. The Los Angeles Dodgers. Capacity crowds came out to Dodger Stadium last weekend, but they were soon haunted by an all too familiar sight. The smooth power of missile launches. The sure speed of turbines. The mention of its name can be an act of deterrence. It's the big red machine. Winner of two straight world championships and laying sites on a third. It's been that way for two years. But this year, chinks keep coming up in the Cincinnati machinery. Things just haven't been falling into place. This year, the Dodgers have taken the Reds place, which is first place and in so doing, have been stealing all that Cincinnati glory. Tommy Lasorda and his men in blue have gotten off to the best start in the majors. And in the first game of a three game series, they kept it all going with an eight to one victory over the Reds. With the victory upping their lead over the Reds to 13 and a half games, record crowds turned out over the weekend to see how much further the Dodgers could push that lead. But as Joe Morgan said, the Reds had nowhere to go but up. And up they went. Starting Saturday, George Foster drove one to left and Dusty Baker didn't get it. Ron Say drove one to center. And Cesar Geronimo did. Steve Jaeger hits one up the middle and Joe Morgan just tossed it back. Little things falling into place and the red machine seemed to be humming again. Red artillery, which included a grand slam by Johnny Bench, blitzed the Dodgers in both weekend games and trimmed two games off the Dodger lead. It's still a steep hill to climb for Cincinnati, but the Dodgers couldn't help hearing the red alert. They say no news is good news, but here's some great news. The bird is back. At Tiger Stadium, Mark Fittredge came back from a knee operation last week and a flock of 44,000 bird watchers were there. The bird was at the top of his act, smoothing out the mound and pitching great baseball. Unfortunately, his teammates didn't rise to the occasion. Ron McClure misjudged the fly ball, which set up Seattle's first run. And Tito Fuentes booted another grounder, which led in the second run. The Mariners beat the birds two to one. The loss may have been bad news to Fittredge, but his return is great news to the Tigers and bird lovers everywhere. So spread the word the bird is back. Just like law or politics, baseball is often a matter of interpretation. That's why umpires and managers enjoy holding so many conversations. This week, a familiar topic of discussion involved different interpretations of interference. Toronto Blue Jays manager Roy Hartsfield is discussing the subject with umpire Ron Luciano. Here's how it all came about in the game against the Oakland A's last week. Rodney Scott was on first when Jerry Garvin picked him off. There's no getting out of this. Or is there? It seems that Ron Farrelly couldn't get out of Scott's way. But Ron Luciano says, over here, son, you belong on second base. OK, says Scott, as we watch it again. Naturally, this did get an argument from the Toronto manager, but Ron Farrelly did get in the way of Scott, who was trying to get away from everybody. So there you have it, Roy, a case of a fielder obstructing a runner. Now we'll show you the reverse in the game between the Yankees and the White Sox. Alan Bannister, the runner at second. Bucky Dennett, short. Hey, hold it right there. This is supposed to be baseball, not football. The umpire calls interference by the runner on the fielder. Bannister can't very well argue about that one. He goes back to the dugout, but his thoughts are still with football. Well, getting back to baseball and the topic of interference, here's one we're sure you won't see often. It came about when the Cubs were playing the Expos. Jerry Morales hits a drive with the bases loaded, and now everybody's running. One man comes in to score. Two men, three. No, wait a minute. Hold everything. What happened? Well, the runner is out, and I will tell you why. Coach Peanuts Lowry stopped Bobby Mercer by grabbing. And according to the rules, a coach cannot at any time physically detain a runner while the ball is in play. So that's a no-no, Peanuts. A little later, manager Herman Franks is still trying to explain the facts of life to Peanuts. That's the way you do it. You don't just grab the guy. Take me out to the ballgame. There's no telling what you might see. Take our play of the week, which comes to you this week from Cleveland. A modest crowd of 13,000 came out to see the Indians play the Angels last Monday night, and they saw a treat of a lifetime, a no-hitter by Cleveland's 22-year-old Dennis Eckersley. The score was tight, one to nothing. The tension hung on each pitch. Baseball can't get much better than this. But the beauty is that it can happen any time. Strike three. It's a no-hitter. How about that? See you next week, folks. A fee paid in promotional consideration provided by Canada Dry. Next party mixed with the best. Canada Dry Club Soda, Tonic Water and Ginger Ale. Canada Dry Mixers, famous for quality. True Temper, put on a happy yard with True Temper lawn and garden tools, including the new cordless electric weed whip, all finest quality from True Temper. And DuPont, the makers of Rally Car Wax in liquid paste and handy new tube. Rally shines deep because it cleans deep.