1965 World Series or "only losers use relievers"

'Tis true. The 1965 World Series, the first of which to be played in an expansion city, featured the winning pitcher in every game throwing a complete game.

In the kinescope era, there are a handful of pre-1965 World Series games available. Most of these consist of Yankee games. A few games from 1952 and 1955 vs Brooklyn. We discussed before the 1957 series Yankees vs Braves, in which most of Game 3, 4 and 7 are available with snippets of Game 6 as well.

However, 1965 marks the first World Series in which we know that the entire series is available via kinescope recordings. In fact, after 1965, 1968 is the next oldest complete series available. We will discuss that another time.

Today, I wanted to just quickly put up some information about the 1965 Series. MLB Network later this month will be broadcasting Game 7 from that series in it's entirety. That is the game that I too, have in my collection. When they show it, I'll post comparison shots to see what my seemingly 5th generation transfer looks like stacked up against what they have in their archives.


Anyways, the 1965 Series is the series in which the fabled story of Koufax refusing to pitch because of a Jewish holiday stems from. For Los Angeles, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as even though Drysdale was roughed up and Koufax got no run support in Games 1 and 2, it allowed Koufax to come back in Game 7 with Drysdale available in relief. Outside of Bob Gibson, there was no other elite World Series pitcher better than Koufax.


The game was broadcast on NBC, like every other World Series of the era. Ray Scott and Vin Scully did the broadcasting and Gillette did the sponsoring.


This series featured various camera angles. We were treated to the behind homeplate, behind the pitcher from CF, the pressbox angle and two baseline cameras that provided close up shots of the pitchers and hitters between pitches. NBC also rolled out replay, not just instant but also canned shots from earlier plays in the series.


All screenshots are from Game 7.

Games like these, featuring a popular franchise like the Dodgers should be released officially on DVD. The entire series is available in collector's circles. I have to imagine MLB has them as well. I know they have an aversion to releasing B&W broadcasts as it appears they believe fans have the attention span of a gnat but it's a crime that the general public can't see Drysdale and Koufax pitching in all their glory.

For Twins fans, it must be a blessing to have every World Series game the franchise in Minnesota played recorded for posterity. Of course, as a bitter Cardinals fan, that's not necessarily a good thing.

Most Hated Villians

The team I hate the most. Logically they must be as they destroyed the destiny of the team I loved the most, the 1968 St. Louis Cardinals. If Flood catches that ball in CF, Gibson unquestionably goes down as greater than Koufax, Flood isn't run out of town the next year and St. Louis doesn't go into a 15 year downward spiral. I'll even irrationally blame them for the Carlton-Wise trade.

Anyways, part of why I love the launch of MLB Network is that MLB has to fill their programming schedule and that means footage they've been hoarding away is finally seeing the light of day.

Which brings us to these clips of the 1968 Detroit Tigers. What is most interesting about these is that they are a) in color and b) aren't kinescopes. In fact, they appear to be sourced from tapes. This are the best quality images I've seen from any season before 1969.

We have three games and it's time for more detective work.

Game 1

This one was rather simple. The footage included the scoreboard, which shows a Yankees player caught in a rundown. The scoreboard tells us that #41 Jake Gibbs batting. Earlier in the clip we see the batter is lefthanded, which fits Gibbs. It is the 6th inning with 2 outs. I could delve further into when and why it could be but honestly, this one is fairly easy.

It's September 17, 1968.

Game 2

This one was more Quincy than the last one. We've got a game with the Tigers in which the opponent isn't easily clear. It shows runners at 2nd and 3rd and a left-handed batter up. The left handed batter hits a 3 run HR (despite the audio MLB Network uses in the clip saying the score increases to 2-0. That's simply not possible if you are showing a player hitting a 3-run HR.)

Let's focus on the batter. Left handed hitters for the Tigers that year were:

Norm Cash - 25

Tom Matchick - 2

Eddie Mathews - 7

Dick McAuliffe - 3

Gates Brown - 26

Lenny Green - 30

Jim Northrup - 5

We only get a brief glimpse of the batter's backside, and while we can't make out exactly what the number is, we can see that it is double digits. It also appears to begin with a '2' but we'll leave that out because we can't know for sure. That narrows the list to:

Norm Cash - 25

Gates Brown - 26

Lenny Green - 30

To put it bluntly, there is something else right away you notice about the batter, he's white. Gates Brown and Lenny Green, not so much. That just leaves Norm Cash. I had a sneaking suspicion it was Norm Cash anyways because of the way he swung and ran.

So, now that we know it's Cash and we know it's 1968 (something MLB Network isn't always accurate about either but that is for another blog entry) we can focus on what game it is.

In this game, Norm Cash will need ATLEAST 3 RBIs because despite Ernie Harwell's bad math in the audio a 3-run homerun gives you 3 runs batted in. Norm Cash's game logs from that year show that 6 times that season he had 3 or more RBIs in a game. It also shows that 2 of those games he had 2 homeruns, thus making them impossible.

The games are:

June 6 - Boston

August 17 - Boston

September 14- Oakland

September 16 - Yankees

On August 17th, Cash hit the HR with only 1 on. So the list is down to 3.

With that in mind, the pitcher in the clip is left-handed. The 3 pitchers Cash hit the 3-run HRs off of were Steve Barber - LH, Chuck Dobson - RH and Lee Strange - RH.

We've got the game now: September 16, 1968 vs the Yankees in the 2nd inning. Two on, 1 out and the ball was hit to RF (as the video shows). Just to make sure, let's look at the last piece of data...who was on base and who was up next.

Waiting at homeplate for Cash are #5 - Jim Northrup, #24 - Mickey Stanley and # 11 - Bill Freehan. Freehan has a bat in his hand while Northrup and Stanley follow Cash towards the dugout. The game log shows that both Stanley and Northrup walked to start the 2nd inning, advanced to 2nd and 3rd on a Wild Pitch in an at-bat that Willie Horton struck out. Cash hit the HR and the next batter was Freehan who singled.

Game 3

Again, simple game to figure out. This is a clip of Denny 'Inmate #: MI23526434' McLain recording the last out of the ballgame.

He covers first on a groundball to the Second basemen (a right handed player). The opponent is clearly the Twins (the firstbase coach's chest shows that) and the scoreboard shows the Tigers beat the Twins 8-3.

What is odd about this clip is WHERE IS NORM CASH? Cash is seen moments after McLain covers as congratulating him on the victory. Yet the 2B (McAuliffe) clearly is the one that gets the groundball and McLain is the one covering. Strange but true.

Anyways, it checks out and actually the audio on this one is correct: McLain did indeed win his 28th game that day.

September 6, 1968.

Conclusion

So, why do these video clips exist? Some of them are rather bizarre clips of nothing really important (not milestones) so where did they come from? Does MLB have FULL BROADCASTS or even over 50% broadcasts of these games in question? If they do, please, please, please show them!

A Snip here, a Snip there

So, in heartbreaking news, it appears that the WPIX clip of Mickey Mantle's 500th HR is just that, a clip:

He hit his 500th at Yankee Stadium on May 14th, 1967. Wednesday night, I showed some tape of the historic homer on the 11 p.m. news.

The back story: Several years back, an NBC technician came to my office. He said he used to work at Channel 11. He was working that day when the Mick hit his milestone homer. And the technician took a pair of scissors and physically cut off the chunk of tape (two-inch tape at the time) and shoved it into his locker. He wanted to know if I wanted the tape.

Wanted it? It was the mother lode -- the actual portion of the broadcast on WPIX that was long forgotten. It was 40 years ago, and that brief chunk of tape looks like the Middle Ages by comparison.

http://www.wnbc.com/sports/13808006/detail.html

And just like that, hope evaporates.


Hat tip goes to twib77, whoever this mystery man is, for bringing this to my attention.

Mickey Mantle's 500th Homerun

As Yankee Stadium comes to a close, the YES ESPN Network has been highlighting the greatest moments in The Stadium's history. For me, and many baseball purists, Yankee Stadium was closed over 30 years ago when the iconic features and dimensions were destroyed and the entire playing surface was rotated slightly.

But, that doesn't take away how historic Yankee Stadium has been in baseball and how depressing it will be to see it go.


During the kinescope era, the 500 HR plateau was broken 9 times. While the last of the 9 times (and probably the two before it) more than likely came during the videotape era, it is worth noting. They are as follows:

Ted Williams - 06/17/1960
Willie Mays - 09/13/1965
Mickey Mantle - 05/14/1967
Eddie Mathews - 07/14/1967
Hank Aaron - 07/04/1968
Ernie Banks - 05/12/1970
Harmen Killebrew - 08/10/1971
Frank Robinson - 09/13/1971
Willie McCovey - 06/30/1978

Known partial broadcasts exist of a handful of these, one of which I will touch on today.

Mickey Mantle muscled his 500th career Homerun into the lower bowl of the right field corner off of Sam Miller in the 7th inning vs the Baltimore Orioles.

This game was originally broadcasted on WPIX CH 11. The clip of the homerun has been reshown on HBO's special 'Mantle', during ESPN's retrospective of Yankee Stadium and I believe part of it was involved in the Yankeeography on Mickey Mantle.



The full broadcast is not known to be in existence. That isn't to say that WPIX doesn't have the recording. It isn't to say that Mickey Mantle, the most idolized star during the kinescope era, who also played in the biggest, richest city on the planet did not have a stary eyed fan out there recording the feat.


In fact, Mantle's HR appears to not be on kinescope but rather video tape. The footage we see is not from a collector's home stash but a video master that at one time was recorded by WPIX. Here is a video retrospective on Yankees on WPIX which holds the video clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Y0hKB2dqo



Screengrabs from 'Remembering the House that Ruth Built' commercial on ESPN.

Clemente/Cubs Game - A new twist?

Well, how do you like that. Who said a rain-delay was good for nothing (except erasing a beating your teams starting pitcher may have taken)?

While watching the Yankees-Pirates game tonight, I stumbled across some footage that may have just further muddled the mystery from this post: http://kinescopestealshome.blogspot.com/2007/11/clemente-vs-cubs-regular-season.html

The Footage comes from theClemente bio movie put together in by Fox Sports Films.

In the original post, we had concluded that the footage was of the July 2nd, 1971 game between the Cubs and Pirates at Wrigley Field. Bob Moose had been the pitcher, Paul Popovich and J.C. Martin both played important parts in the scene we had. This also featured a fantastic catch by Clemente in right-centerfield, falling backwards.

Well, apparently Clemente bedeviled the Cubs that entire series.

On July 3rd, the Cubs and Pirates locked up for Game 2 of that Series. In the 8th inning, Billy Williams would hit a 1 out single to CF, advancing Glenn Beckert to 3rd. Joe Pepitone, the next batter, would single to RF and with Billy Williams running...the following unfolded.






Now, I'm not 100% that this is the July 3rd game. Originally I thought I had uncovered more footage from the July 2nd game until I couldn't find an instance of Williams being thrown out at 3B. I'll continue to roll through the various boxscores from the 1971 and 1972 seasons to find another instance of Williams being gunned out by The Great One but I can't imagine anyone would be silly enough to try it twice.

The 'Perfect' Father's Day Gift

It's a widely known fact that no Pond Scum Mets pitching has ever thrown a no-hitter let a perfect game. In this final year of Shea Stadium, the days are running out in which a Mets pitcher can perform such a feat in he teams stench filled storied venue.

However, that is not to say that a pitcher has never thrown a no-hitter in Shea Stadium. Bob Moose threw one in 1969 for the Pirates (I never thought Bob Moose would ever come up twice on this blog). The more important or notable no-hitter was thrown by (now Kentucky Senator) Jim Bunning.

Jim Bunning was not one of the more overpowering pitchers in baseball history but he was certainly one of the smartest. He is also known imfamously for his role in the 1964 collapse of Gene Mauch's Phillies. Bunning and Chris Short were the golden arms of that team, helping to push them to their large lead late in the '64 season. However, Mauch became consumed by the hard charging Cardinals and began to overuse (and abuse) both Bunning and Short. In fact, in the final 21 days of the season, Mauch used Bunning and Short 13 times!



In a bright spot of that 1964 season was Father Day, June 21st. Some 44 years ago today, Bunning took the mound in Shea Stadium for the first part of a double header and retired 27 straight Mets hitters. He did so in striking out 10 batters.
Boxscore: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN196406211.shtml

Philadelphia never trailed in the game and extended their lead to 6 in the 6th, leaving Bunning without the extra pressure of preserving a small lead.

As far as the kinescope goes, not much is known. From what I have gathered, only the bottom of the 9th inning and the postgame interview remains. This is common place for most 'spontaneous acheievement' games during the kinescope era. A station manager or club employee would take note of what was happening and begin to hastily record the final pitches of the game.


The kinescope of the 9th in black and white (per usual) and the transfers I've seen are in pristine condition. The broadcast is the WOR-TV broadcast with Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy. At the conclusion of the 9th inning, Ralph Kiner hosts 'Kiner's Korner' on the field, interviewing Jim Bunning about the feat.

What is remarkable is how receptive the New York fans and broadcasters are to Bunning's performance. The crowd stands and cheers his every pitch, Kiner seems giddy at what Bunning had just done.

Of note, in the second half of the DH, Rick Wise (another reference!) and Johnny Klippstein would hold the Mets to 3 hits over 9 innings (allowing 2 runs and 3 BBs). The Mets would go 11 innings over the DH before getting their first hit with 2 outs in the 3rd.


Hopefully, somewhere out there exists more footage of this game. If you had to ask me which games (known to have parts exist) from the 1960's I would wish to have a full broadcast of, this is one of them.


A truly Happy Father's Day for Senator Bunning.

Clips provided by "Unhittable" DVD.

1985 Cardinals

I know I haven't updated in awhile but there is some stuff coming. It's alittle hard to hunt down content but I'm pushing forward.

Anyways, on a personal note, I wanted to use this posting to make an open call to anyone with copies of 1985 St. Louis Cardinals games. In my collection, I currently have:

09-April St. Louis vs New York

21-May Atlanta vs. St. Louis

1-Jun Cincinnati vs. St. Louis

21-Jun Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis

6-Jul Los Angeles vs. St. Louis

9-Aug St. Louis vs. Philadelphia

23-Aug St. Louis vs. Atlanta

25-Aug St. Louis vs. Atlanta

13-Sep St. Louis vs. Chicago

14-Sep St. Louis vs. Chicago

21-Sep Montreal vs. St. Louis

28-Sep St. Louis vs. Montreal
01-Oct New York Mets vs. St. Louis
02-Oct New York Mets vs. St. Louis
05-Oct Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis

I'm mostly interested in Regular Season games. Please, don't hesitate to contact me if you have any games from that season other than of these.

Rick Wise = Babe Ruth

There was a day in which Rick Wise beat the Cincinatti Reds by himself. Sure, he had some fly catchers parading in the outfield and some speedbumps in the infield to catch the ball but Rick Wise could have taken the mound June 23, 1971 with a bounce-back screen behind homeplate and 6 well trained golden retrievers and handed the Big Red Machine the loss.

For on this day, Rick Wise would throw up this line from the mound:

Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
R Wise	9	0	0	0	1	3	0

While seemingly a special moment for the Philadelphia Phillies organization and Mr. Wise himself, it was the 175 No-Hitter in baseball history up until that point.

What set this day apart from most of the others was what Wise did at the plate:

Name	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	DETAILS
R Wise	4	2	2	3	0	0	2HRs

Wise took his Wonderboy with him to the plate that day, taking both Ross Grimsley and Clay Carroll deep.

Between 1960 and 1976, roughly 54 no-hitters were thrown in Major League Baseball. I'm not really going to get into the other no-hitters that video still exists of however, generally speaking, only small snippets of the ends of the games still remain. What would generally happen is someone would begin to realize that a no-hitter was being thrown and whether it was a station manager, fan with a kinescope at home or maybe someone with the team would begin to record the final 12 or so of the 27 outs.

If lucky, today we can find maybe the last two innings of the game have been preserved.

That is what appears to be the case with Mr. Wise's special day.

Thanks to the video footage found on the MLB Productions DVD Unhittable, we are shown clips of (using detective work again) the final 2 innings. Placing the clips in chronological order:

Above we see Wise smacking his 2nd homerun, this one off of Clay Carroll. Thanks to retrosheets again, we know that this happened in the Top of the 8th inning.

Next, as the legendary baritone voice of Harry Kalas tells us (why do I suddenly feel like eating soup?) , Wise retires Tommy Helms with a groundball to the shortstop...which was the 3rd out of the 8th inning.


There is nothing shown that would indicate the Top of the 9th inning was recorded but it would seem rather odd for someone to stop the recording while the Phillies were batting.

Finally, Pete Rose lines out to the Golden Retriev...er, John Vukovich at 3rd base for the 27th out of Rick Wise's remarkable day. The dogpile (pun intended) that ensued with Phillies players was all captured in this recording as well.


Like most no-hitters during this time period, being a regular season game...it would have taken either sheer luck that someone was recording the game that night or foresight by the Phillies, Reds or the station manager to keep a copy of this recording on file.

We have no idea if any of these things happened. What we do know is that MLB has in their possession at the very least the final 6 outs (both Home and Away) of one of the most remarkable games a pitcher has ever had. We also know that there was an actual television broadcast of this game recorded and aired by the Philadelphia Phillies.

As for what else exists? Ask MLB.

1957 World Series: Milwaukee vs New York

With the 1957 Milwaukee Braves World Championship team wrapping up their 50th Anniversary, it seems like as good a time as any to look at just what is available from that game.

Over the past 2 years, Doak Ewing, the President of Rare Sportsfilms has opened up his archive (which rivals that of MLB) and allowed rarely seen full broadcasts of the Series to be displayed.

Firstly, there was the pentiultimate Game 7. For some time, Rare Sportsfilms has had available a DVD that included the majority of the first 5 innings of the clinching game. Little was known about a complete broadcast. However, this year, through an agreement with the SABR Keltner Chapter, a full broadcast of Game 7 appeared:

On Saturday, February 3, 2007, The Ken Keltner Chapter, Milwaukee, WI, of The Society For American Baseball Research presented Game 7 of the 1957 World Series in its entirety. Doak Ewing, President of Rare Sportsfilms, Inc., shared the only known copy of the game at the Chapter's quarterly meeting.

http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/bernieclemente/61571


Sometime, during the past year, Ewing added a new DVD to the available titles on the Rare Sportsfilm website, that included Game 3 of the Series in almost entirety:

1957 World Series Game #3 at County Stadium, Milwaukee - Bob Turley vs Bob Buhl - the entire game, missing only Kubek’s second home run! It was the first World Series game ever played in the state of Wisconsin! It was also the first time that centerfield and behind-the-plate cameras were used for telecasting a World Series game, a new idea that brought NBC rave reviews from fans around the country! Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron and Tony Kubek (2) hit home runs! The game sets a W.S. record with 19 walks and the Braves leave the bases loaded four times! Mel Allen and Al Helfer. 3 hours, 1 minute, Kinescope.

Finally, it seems Game 4 of the 1957 World Series has poked its head out. Again, with another meeting of the SABR Keltner Chapter:

Our next meeting will take place on Saturday, February 2, 2008, 11 AM, at Long Wong's Chinese-American Sportsbar, 5230 W. Bluemound Road. This meeting will feature, courtesy of Doak Ewing, President of Rare Sportsfilms, a showing of the ENTIRE game 4 of the 1957 World Series. You know what happens, but this will be great to watch. We'll also have a 50-50 raffle, raffles for neat items, and memorabilia for sale. Reservations are recomended.
[…]
Don't forget to circle Saturday February 2nd, 2008 on your calenders! The meeting that day will feature a showing of the ENTIRE game 4 of the 1957 World Series. Thanks again to the President of Raresports Films....Mr. Doak Ewing! If you're interested in the films Doak has available...visit his website at http://www.raresportsfilms.com/

http://www.quicktopic.com/34/H/g6gAVs5S6rqCj


I was able to find another rumor on an internet message board that Ewing had a completely copy of Game 1, but was unable to confirm the existences of that kinescope.

The games known to exist in practical totality are:

1957 World Series Game 3 – (available on DVD)
1957 World Series Game 4 – (to be displayed Feb. 2, 2008)
1957 World Series Game 7 – (displayed February 3, 2007)

For an idea of what these games entail, see the link:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1957_WS.shtml

Clemente vs Cubs Regular Season Broadcast (1970-1971)

I’m going to start today with a game that I don’t know if it exists or not. Not exactly the right foot to start off on. However, my whole hope of this blog is to archive the available games that may be out there in hopes of a) wriggling them away from MLB’s oppressive grip or b) making sure that the fans know what actually does exist, either in MLB’s rarely opened vaults or from collector’s scattered across the globe.

This brings me to the game in question. In Ken Burns' Baseball, Burns profiles Roberto Clemente’s tumultuous 14 month span in which he solidified his legacy as both a baseball player (1971 World Series, 3000 Hits) and as a human being (dying on a humanitarian relief effort to Nicaragua). In this ‘9th Inning’, as a montage of highlights are shown to sweet guitar strumming of Carlos Santana’s ‘Oye Como Va’ of Clemente’s out of this world performance, a brief clip of a sliding grab at Wrigley Field is shown.



Let’s start with the basics: The uniforms. Based on the NBHOF’s Dressed to the Nine’s exhibit, The Pittsburgh Pirates during Clemente’s lifetime only wore the road grey pullovers with the yellow cap from part of 1970 until Clemente’s death following the 1972 season. So, for this game, we’ve narrowed it down to 3 seasons, 1970, 1971, 1972. To further narrow it, using the same DTTN source, the Chicago Cubs would switch to the pullover home pinstripes with blue collar in the 1972 season. So this game broadcast had to have taken place in either 1970 or 1971.

Now, let’s try to fill out the players that are on the field. In the first part of the clip, a Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed pitcher #38 is pitching. If we are to believe Ken Burns' accuracy on using footage from Clemente’s 1970 or 1971 season (and really, should we since this scene is from the regular season and the piece is discussing his postseason attack) then the pitcher pictured is Bob Moose. According to Baseball Almanac, Bob Moose pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1967 to 1976 and wore the #38 every one of those seasons.

The batter’s number is unclear. What is apparent is that the final number on his uniform is ‘2’.

• For the 1970 Cubs, players who had uniform numbers ending in 2 were: Jim Cosman (32), Jim Dunegan (32), Milt Pappas (32), J.C. Martin (12), and Paul Popovich (22).
  
  
• For the 1971 Cubs, players who had uniform numbers ending in 2 were: Milt Pappas (32), J.C. Martin (12), and Paul Popovich (22).
  

To further narrow this down, the hitter in the video clip is batting left-handed. The pitchers Cosman, Dunegan and Pappas all bat right handed, eliminating them. Whittling down the list to Martin (a catcher) and Popovich (backup infielder), both players hit from the left side of the plate during the 1970 and 1971 seasons, both are white so none of that helps narrow things down.



Before we move on using the games that Moose and Clemente were involved in, let’s look at the final person in the footage. The centerfielder for the Pirates in this scene is left handed. The 1970 Pirates the only left-handed outfielders they had were Matty Alou (18), Al Oliver (16) and Willie Stargell (8). For the 1971 Pirates, the only left-handed outfielders they had were Vic Davalillo (18), Al Oliver (16) and Willie Stargell (8).

We know it ain’t Pops. The outfielder has a double digit number on the back. It’s pretty obvious the number is 16, but I won’t rule out my failing eyesight and I’ll leave in Davallilo/Alou. In 1970, Alou played 152 games in CF for the Pirates. In 1971, Al Oliver played 116 games in CF for the Pirates.

To recap:

• Day game at Wrigley Field.
  
• Game during 1970 or 1971 season based on uniforms (Thanks Dressed to Nines).
  
• Pirates RHP #38 Bob Moose is the pitcher on mound (Thanks Baseball Almanac).
  
• Cubs hitter is either J.C. Martin (12) or Paul Popovich (22) (Thanks Baseball Almanac).
  
• Pirates CF is left-handed, most likely Al Oliver (16) but could be 1970 Matty Alou (18) or 1971 Vic Davalillo (18)
  

Now, let’s dig into Bob Moose’s (or is that Meeces) game log.

1970
In 1970, Bob Moose pitched 2 games in Chicago against the Cubs.

May 27 – Complete Game
September 12 – 8 innings

May 27th - both Matty Alou and Clemente started. Both Popovich and Martin pinch hit. In Popovich’s at-bat, he got a single to RF. JC Martin hit a flyball to RF. So, we’ve met some criteria. One small oversight that I hadn’t brought up yet; there were no runners at 1st or 2nd base. When Martin hit his flyball in this game, Cleo James should have been standing on 1st base.

Likelihood: 7 out of 10.

September 12th - Clemente didn’t play.

Likelihood: 0 out of 10.

1971
In 1971, Bob Moose pitched 3 games in Chicago against the Cubs.

June 9 – Complete Game (8 innings)
July 2 – Complete Game (9 innings)
September 14 – Relief appearance (5th thru 9th)

June 9th - Clemente and Oliver started as Davalillo would pinch hit but not play the field. For the Cubs, Martin sat and Popovich walked, grounded out, popped out on the infield and singled to RF.

Likelihood: 4 of 10.


July 2nd - Clemente and Oliver started. Popovich and Martin both started. Popovich in the 1st lined out to RF with no one on. In the 3rd, Martin flew out to RF to lead off the inning. In the 7th, Martin would leadoff with a lineout to CF and Popovich would flyout to CF with a runner on 1st.

Likelihood: 9 out of 10.

September 14 - Davalillo would start in CF with Clemente in RF. Popovich would play the whole game at 2B. Moose would pitch in relief from the 5th inning on. Popovich faced Moose twice, popping out to the shortstop and grounding into a force out.

Likelihood: 1 out of 10.

All Boxscores provided by Retrosheets.com.


And then there were 2. May 27th, 1970 and July 2nd, 1971. If my eyes are to be believed, this is a no brainer. It is the July 2nd, 1971 game in which Al Oliver started in CF, Clemente in RF and Clemente caught a ball hit by Popovich in the 1st and Martin in the 3rd. Now, the interesting part comes in deciphering which at-bat or inning this was.

To bring this whole study to conclusion, based on the tint of the color of the footage and the camera setup used, this appears to be an NBC Game of the Week. The July 2nd Game was on a Friday. Without access to a 1972 schedule, it is almost impossible to determine if this is the game in question.

Anyone with a schedule or access to archived TV listings, please share.

Ultimately, it is unknown whether this full broadcast exists or not. Without being able to directly ask Burns or without finding a collector with this broadcast in their collection, it becomes increasingly difficult to track down. A quick Google, Ebay and various listing sites shows no copies of ANY regular season games in 1971.

Perhaps this game too has vanished.