Posted on 01/09/2015 7:11:36 PM PST by gusopol3
The date Jan. 9 is significant insofar as baseball is concerned because the objectively wonderful TV show "Home Run Derby" first took to (s)wing.
In commemoration of this important day, let us take a look back at the first episode, which featured Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, who, as it turns out, were both good at baseball-related tasks and duties. Come with us, won't you?
Mickey Mantle spoke at our High-School assembly back in 1969 at Sammamish High School in Bellevue, WA.
It was awesome, don't remember how he came to our school though.
A favorite movie of mine is “61”, about the ‘61 Yankees and the Maris/Mantle homerun competition.
I’m surprised how much at ease he seems, as the story has been told that public speaking drove him to drink to steady his nerves, leading to his cirrhosis and early death. Mays looks more tense, acts like he developed a blister on his hand.
Thanks for the tip! I remember Jack Lescule (I’m sure I butchered the spelling) on Jim Garroway’s Today Show using the computer to project whether Maris would best Ruth.
Mantle was the man, he could swing that bat.
He still holds the record for running to first base both left and right handed. He was really fast until he hurt his knee on an outfield sprinkler head during a sprint to catch a ball. Had shoulders like Charles Atlas.
The booze ruined him early on in his career out partying with the other party Yanks.
At the time of this film, neither one of them was making $100k; nobody had made that much since Ruth, as I recall. And the federal budget blasted through $100b just about then.
I’ve got a dozen or more matches of home run derby on tape somewhere around here.
Fun to watch, but neither of them seemed glad to be there. Just didn’t look like they were having fun.
No offense to Willie May. Mantle was better. May have been the best ever.
Willie Mays. No offense to a great ballplayer.
Home runs ensue. A few grounders and fouls.
I will say, Mantle had a gorgeous swing. Just pure power. I was stepping through it frame by frame, and he looked like spring uncoiling, just pure power, in balance, face ahead.
Just remarkable.
Sad. When you watch him, something isn’t right. He doesn’t seem at all comfortable. I know part of that is due to us knowing now what he was like then. Mays looked oddly tense, too.
If curling is in the Olympics, this is edge of the seat competitive drama.
Mantle was perfect. Perfect ballplayer. Perfect city. Perfect team. Perfect time. Never be able to capture that time again.
Great show. Unfortunately, the Ross Porter prelude named several players who were not the ones pictured. Poor production.
Both were great, 5 tool players. The separating factors over time were speed and longevity. Mays carried the Giants with constant excellence year in, year out. Nobody covered the outfield or ran the bases better. He was a great, pure power hitter, as good as any who played. He also lost out on 2 of his best years to military service.
Mantle had the tools and could’ve been the best ever, but he wasted it. He himself admitted that in his dying days. Great, but not as great as Willie.
I wish McCourt had not dumped Porter.
This was big money for the winner and loser.
Hank Aaron's baseball salary was 45k that year.
He earned 13k+ on home run derby alone.
That show was kinda creepy.
Absolutely silent except for the crack of the bat and scott the announcer and an occasional ball\strike call by the ump
Batting in the shadows.
3 Umpires
3 outfielders
Pitcher\Catcher and 2 batters.
courtesy of WIKI
show lasted 7 months. it gets canceled after scott dies of a heart attack.P
Two of the very best.
If you were doing it today, who would you feature in Episode 1?
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