"...remember the stance, remember the swing..."

Those are the words Harry Caray uttered as Stan stood in against Jim Maloney of the Cincinnati Reds on September 29, 1963.  That would be Stan Musial's final day as an active player in Major League Baseball.  That season, with it known to be Stan's last, the Cardinals made a furious dash towards the pennant.  They would win 10 straight games to put themselves 1 game out of first place with 10 games to play and starting a 3 game home series vs the first place Dodgers.  They would be swept, losing 8 of their last 10, to finish 6 games out of first.

Stan played most of his career on newsreels.  The Cardinals won the pennant 5 times during Stan's career, all before KSDK in St. Louis ever went on the air.  What survives of his career in the form of television broadcasts is an abbreviated game vs the Dodgers in 1959 and segments of his final game in St. Louis from 1963.  That is what I will show here.

Stan Musial, 1920 - 2013

To paraphrase Ford Frick:

" [There goes] baseball's perfect warrior, [there goes] baseball's perfect knight..."

"...a ballplayer who gave all he had to give."

One of the great things about classic broadcasts surviving is that it allows our minds to be adjusted properly to the actuality of how history unfolded.  For all the times someone from an earlier generation says, "no one could hit 'em like the Mick" or "hitters were afraid of Hoot", the footage speaks for itself.  The deification of players long gone must face the eye test.

That is in respect to their accomplishments in the game.  For some men, their legend grows not just because of how they played the game but rather how they lived their lives.  In that respect, Roberto Clemente deserves every bit of praise he has heaped on him.

While he spent much of his career lambasted as a 'whiner' about physical ailments, Clemente as the player was as great as they come.  Hidden in baseball siberia, the Pirates OF'er was a four time batting champion and NL MVP.  He twice won the World Series and was such a superb defensive OF'er that he won the Gold Glove every year from 1961 until his death.   There is no questioning Clemente's talent.

His legacy as a man is far greater.  Clemente tragically died 40 years ago this past New Year's Eve in an overloaded supply plane headed for Nicaragua that crashed shortly after take-off.  A national hero in Puerto Rico, Clemente was often long winded and full of fire when talking about a whole variety of things related to the game of baseball.  As proud as a man humbled by God could be, Clemente was a ballplayer who embraced his adopted city of Pittsburgh so much so that according to Myron Cope's 1966 Sports Illustrated feature, he pushed his teammates to play better because he felt "we owe these people another pennant."

Clemente truly was a one of a kind player and his baseball legacy, as well as that of a good man, deserves to live on.

Listed below are the known (mostly) complete games of Clemente's career:

The Original "Game 162" (October 1, 1967)

First and foremost, Merry Christmas to everyone.  I hope Santa brings you lots of classic baseball on DVD this year!

With the airing of the MLB Productions special Fenway Park Centennial: 100 Years on MLBNetwork the other night, I thought it would be nice to compile a list of the entirety of known footage from the October 1, 1967 game between the Red Sox and Twins.

 
The best part about running this site is having to keep a constant eye out for new footage and try to catalog both in print and your mind what has been seen, while trying to piece it together to understand how much of a broadcast has survived.  With this new program, I got a brief glance at some footage I had never seen thus expanding on the amount of this game that was covered.  After the jump, I'll talk about this 'Game 162' and what we have.

"McCarver Pops Up" (in color)

Following defeat in the 2012 NLCS, Mike Matheny joined an elite group of Hall of Fame Cardinals mangers in one aspect.  Up 3 games to 1 in a best-of-seven series, Tony LaRussa (1996), Whitey Herzog (1985) and Red Schoendist (1968) all ended up losing their series.  It is the last of those we talk about today.  

As I've made clear before on here, as a Cardinals fan 1968 is one of my greatest disappointments.  Two of my favorite Cardinals teams throughout history were the 1985 and 1968 Cardinals and both eventually blew near certain World Series championships.  More frustrating is that we have a full kinescoped set of the 1968 World Series, with pre and postgame footage and yet nothing for the 1967 series the Cardinals actually won.

Most all of you know, Gibson pitched on short rest in Game 7.  In the 7th inning, Gibby got 2 quick outs before giving up 2 soft single.  Curt Flood fell down on a hard hit liner to CF and Jim Northrup ended up with an RBI triple.  Bill Freehan would double in Northrup to make it 3-0.  In the 9th, the Tigers tacked on a 4th run and Shannon would homer in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs to get the score to 4-1.  McCarver stood in as the potential last out and that is what we are going to talk about.

The 1975 NLCS (a brief celebration)

With the regular season coming to an end, we are beginning to get the 'list' programs by MLB Network.  This is good for picking out bits and pieces of old broadcast footage that may not have been seen before or may be expanded on in their clip shows.

One such clip popped up during their broadcast of "The 40 Greatest Teams of All Time".  Listed as the 2nd greatest team of all time, the Cincinnati Reds met up with the Boston Red Sox as what is widely regarded as the greatest World Series of All Time.  However, before the Reds could head of to Beantown, they would have to dispatch of the other NL powerhouse of the 70's, the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

1970 WS: Kine vs Video

It is rare that we get to compare both videotape and kinescope but MLB.com afforded us that luxury recently with a montage videotaped clip from the 1970 World Series.

Well known as the 'Brooks Robinson Series', the video clip seen here offers a glimpse at what the 1970 World Series looked like in color on NBC.  The series, as it exists to collectors, is in the form of Games 1 thru 4 in black and white kinescope and Game 5 in color videotape.

After the jump, I'll show some side by side shots of the kine against the videotaped footage.

Pops "pops" #400

I know this one is outside the range I traditionally write about, but this clip involved both a historic milestone and the St. Louis Cardinals, so I couldn't pass it up.

Willie Stargell, it is said, had atleast 100 career homeruns suppressed by spending his early career in Forbes Field.  With a 20 foot high chainlink fence protecting RF and a 457 fence in left-centerfield, many believe that he would have at the very least reached the 500 Homerun plateau should he have played in a more neutral park.

Whether or not this is all true, Stargell was well regarded as one of the most prolific power hitters of the late 60's and entire 70's.

 On June 29, 1977, Stargell hit his 400th career homerun off of Eric Rasmussen of the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Bob Gibson in COLOR! (and Billy Williams Day)

A treasure trove of color broadcast clips come from what WGN has saved over the years.  What exactly they saved as far as just clips or full length games, no one really knows.  However, there have been a plethora of video clips in the trading community that people have seen so often, they just take for granted.  However, the other day a clip caught my eye that I had never seen before.

That man standing on the mound, in beautiful color video tape, is Bob Gibson.  He is standing in the middle of the field at Wrigley Field, pitching against the 1st place Chicago Cubs.  What game this is and what the rest of the footage shows, after the jump.

Four Hall Of Famers in the Lineup!

Or so says the label on the front of the upcoming MLB Productions release Essential Games of the Chicago Cubs .  The game referenced is the July 12, 1969 game between the Cubs and the Phillies at Wrigley Field.  This was a NBC Game of the Week with Gowdy doing the PBP.  While originally broadcast in color, the kinescope is black and white.  This game has been in the hobby for a considerable amount of time and in fact, was aired on MLB Network in 2009.  It also marks the oldest known complete NBC Game of the Week Broadcast.

image courtesy: amazon.com