Baseball broadcasting history includes Carlton Fisk and Chicago’s very own WGN

On Oct. 21, 1975, Game 6 of the World Series was finally underway after three days of rain in Boston. The game ended just after midnight when Boston catcher Carlton Fisk smacked a solo shot in the 12th inning to beat a powerful Cincinnati Reds team, 7-6. It is one of the most famous home runs in World Series history, and it changed baseball broadcasting.

Not only did the Fisk homer force Game 7, it is remembered for the all-star’s dramatic body language as he did his best to wave the deep left field fly, barely, as fair. The Fisk histrionics were captured on television and preserved as an iconic World Series moment because a key cameraman situated behind the left field scoreboard followed Fisk and not the ball.

Before that moment, standard broadcasting procedure was to focus on the baseball. After all, the home run is what matters. And, to be sure, there is another shot from the same game that did follow the Fisk ball from a different angle. But, as it happens, the drama, action, and the human side of the home run suddenly became essential to successful baseball broadcasting.

Years later, the Fenway cameraman insisted his ground-breaking shot was accidental because he had been distracted by a rat at his feet. Perhaps. But it seems more plausible that he, too, was caught up in the moment and forgot about the ball, especially since his right-field vantage was ideal for capturing Fisk’s antics.

Baseball broadcasting, in which Chicago’s WGN played a role, has a long history that began before television and radio. The first rights deal was paid by Western Union in 1897 to transmit game status by telegraph. The company offered $300 in free telegrams per team. Another early baseball “broadcast” of sorts was a game re-creation using a large, patented “Playograph” board that displayed the diamond, the location of the runners, the inning, and the score in real time. It was large, often the size of a billboard, and was a crude early rendition of today’s smartphone “game tracker” apps. Used mostly for big games like the World Series, these boards could be found in dense public locations such as Times Square. The first ones appeared as early as 1912.

Pittsburgh’s new radio station KDKA broadcast the first regular season Major League game in August 1921. On Oct. 5, 1921, the World Series was carried on WJZ in Newark, a station that was only four days old at the time. Baseball owners largely feared early radio, thinking it would reduce live game attendance.

Wrigley, the Cubs and WGN’s ‘center field shot’

Chicago’s William Wrigley Jr., believed otherwise when he put his Cubs on the airwaves in 1925 and attendance actually skyrocketed. By 1935, the World Series radio rights were worth $400,000. And by 1939, all teams were finally on the radio.

The first televised Major League game was also in 1939, a contest between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers on Aug. 29 that exploited a newfangled “television” device featured at the New York World’s Fair. By 1947, nine stations carried either major or minor league games, including regular season Yankees games on the DuMont Network. And by 1949, most stations had begun using three cameras to broadcast games.

The most familiar television shot in baseball is the standard view where a camera behind the outfield captures the back of the pitcher while featuring the batter and catcher facing the camera. Appropriately called “the center-field shot,” it was invented by Chicago’s WGN television in 1951. It soon replaced the standard view behind home plate looking down on the batter’s back, although that angle has not disappeared altogether.

In 1976, emerging media mogul Ted Turner bought the Atlanta Braves to obtain cheaper programming that essentially produced itself for his small local TV station, WJRJ. That same year he became the first owner to sign a baseball free agent, Andy Messersmith, after the pitcher beat baseball’s infamous reserve clause in arbitration. To exploit the center field shot, Turner put the word “Channel” on the back of Messersmith’s jersey above his number 17 to promote Turner’s Channel 17 station. His WJRJ promptly became WTBS, and TBS, along with Chicago’s WGN, soon exploited cable to become the first “superstations.”

Today, Turner, Fox, and ESPN have substantial television rights deals with Major League Baseball. The ESPN share alone is worth $3.85 billion, mostly for Sunday night games. For its World Series coverage, Fox uses as many as 40 cameras. After all, no network wants to miss any of the hits, angles, close plays, or especially any of the human drama. Like walk-off homers, creative bat flips, and any spontaneous Fisk-like magic.

Eldon Ham is a member of the faculty at IIT/Chicago-Kent College of Law, teaching sports, law and justice. He is the author of five books on the role of sports history in America.

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