1968 All Star Game Broadcast

As we approach the All Star break next week, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at a broadcast I recently picked up of the 1968 All Star Game.

The broadcast opens with a view of downtown Houston, and then focuses in on the Astrodome:


we see the classic NBC logo


and the intro to the 1968 All Star Game:


The announcers for the game were Pee Wee Reese, Curt Gowdy, and Sandy Koufax


who got a shout out from the Astrodome scoreboard:


The 1968 All Star Game was obviously the first to be played indoors, but it was also the first to be played at night.

As part of the pregame show, we get a tour of the Astrodome, including a look at some of the Suites:



We then move to the player introductions. The 1968 All Star Game was the first to have team captains, with Mickey Mantle being the AL team captain


and Willie Mays serving as the NL team captain:



NBC had a camera up in the gondola which they put to good use for shots like this of the lineups:


The National Anthem is performed, accompanied by fireworks on the scoreboard


Here is a color photo showing the lineups for the singing of the National Anthem with a full view of the fireworks on the scoreboard:


Then it is time for the lineups for the AL


and the NL


NBC shows off its high tech picture in picture capability with a cut in of Sandy Koufax talking about his old teammate Don Drysdale who is the NL starter


Leading off for the AL is Jim Fregosi, who is wearing the Angles batting helmet with the halo on the top:


Here is another view of the helmet that you don't see pictures of too often:


Fregosi doubles, but is stranded at third as Carew, Yaz, and Howard fail to bring him in. This was the biggest offensive threat the AL could put together all night.

Fortunately this broadcast has commercials, so we get to see the great new 1968 cars like this Dodge:


Going to the bottom of the 1st, we see AL starter Luis Tiant and his insane 1.24 ERA:


1968 was the Year of the Pitcher, and this All Star Game certainly drives that point home, with the almost impossible to believe ERAs that some of these pitchers had at the break as well as the fact that there was almost no offense at all in this game.

Willie Mays led off for the NL with a single, and would ultimately score the game's only run.


Here is the pitch from Tiant - check out Willie's pocket - there is something in there which we will see when he reaches first


After being safe at first, Willie takes off his batting helmet


flips it to the first base coach and reaches in his back pocket


and pulls out


his hat!


Willie didn't wear the batting helmet once he got on base. He also didn't wear his hat under the helmet. He simply would swap the helmet for the hat when he reached base. I had never seen that done before.


They try to pick off Mays, but the throw goes past Killebrew, so Mays goes to 2nd, and then ends up at 3rd after a wild pitch. Curt Flood walks, and then Willie McCovery grounds into a DP which scores Mays.

Unfortunately the cameras pick up the double play, and not Mays scoring the run, so the viewers never actually got to see the only run of the game score. All they could see after the DP was Mays walking off the field at the bottom of this screen shot:


That pretty much takes care of most of the offensive production for the rest of the game after only 1 inning. The NL would get two more runners as far as 3rd, but neither would score.

Even though the scoring was already done for the night, there were still some more interesting things to see, including an ad for Right Guard with who appears to be McLean Stevenson in a pre-MASH appearance:



In the bottom of the 3rd, Harmon Killebrew injures himself by stretching out just a little to far and does a split


that leaves him flat out on the ground with a pulled groin muscle


They have to put him on a stretcher


to carry him off the field


NBC did take advantage of the Astrodome gondola, and provided some great shots of Hank Aaron


and Willie McCovey from a perspective that viewers were not used to seeing


There were also nice shots like this from behind home plate, where we see Juan Marichal with his famously high leg kick pitching to Frank Howard


As some of the commercials remind us, the late 1960's were awesome. Name another time when girls in mini skirts and go-go boots just hung out on top of traffic light poles


or women would dance while a guy was shaving


We also get to see the grounds crew in their "Earthmen" outfits drag the infield


We get to see some younger guys who would be All Star regulars during the 1970's make appearances, like Tom Seaver, who struck out 5 in his two innings.


In the top of the 8th, Mickey Mantle came into the game and received a standing ovation


Its an interesting juxtaposition to see one New York legend at the end of his career facing off against a soon to be New York legend at the start of career. In the shot below, Seaver strikes out Mantle in his final All Star at bat:

In the top of the 9th, we see another 1970's All Star game fixture make his first appearance - Johnny Bench.


We also catch a glimpse of the batting helmet worn by Carl Yastrzemski - he is the only player in the game wearing an ear flap, and the announcers point this out.


Jerry Koosman comes in to get the last out, and heads off the field where the NL players congratulate each other:


The Astrodome Scoreboard goes through the "Home Run Spectacular" sequence




and then we see the final score: NL 1 AL 0


This was the first 1-0 game in All Star history. The AL didn't really have much of a chance going against 4 Hall of Fame pitchers in a row: Drysdale - Marichal - Calrton - Seaver. Oh, and by the way, Bob Gibson was warming up in the 9th if Koosman couldn't get the job done.

Willie Mays was named the MVP given he scored the only run.

Taking a look back at these old All Star Games is really a lot of fun. Its great to see so many Hall of Famers and other big stars from the time in one game. Having the commercials as well really makes it feel like you are back in 1968 watching on a B&W TV.

Two More Orioles Spotted in the 1968-1969 Vests

I recently came across two pictures of the 1968 - 1969 Orioles vest with players I had not previously seen in this rare uniform - Boog Powell and Eddie Watt:




I've been able to find pictures of many of the Orioles from 1968 - 1969 in this alternate jersey, including Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Mike Cuellar, Paul Blair, Mark Belanger, Dave Johnson, and Elrod Hendricks. Adding Boog Powell to the list now leaves me with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Earl Weaver as the last big Oriole names still to find.

Fortunately new pictures keep coming up for auction from The Baltimore Sun archives, so I'm hopeful that I can track down the remaining Orioles to have pictures of the entire starting lineup as well as the main starters from the pitching staff in this great looking uniform.

Half Way to 1 Million!

The blog hit a major milestone this past week as the stat counter passed the 500,000 page view mark!

I certainly never would have imagined the amount of interest in the site, but hitting the 500,000 mark earlier this week completely blows me away. When I decided to start the blog to catalog all the variations I had found over the years among the various Fleer sticker/patch/quiz card/iron ons/etc., I never would have thought that I'd still be posting more than 3 years later and have so many people stopping by to take a look.

It is extremely rewarding to see that there are other people who are interested in reading what I am interested in researching and writing about.

I'd like to say a sincere Thank You to everyone who follows the blog or just stops by to read a particular post about something that interests them. Seeing that people are reading the blog and posting comments is why I am still posting even after I've covered just about every possible Fleer issue that I could possibly research.

I'd also like to thank a number of people who have contributed to the blog over the years who have helped me with researching a number of the items, and allowed me to share that information on the blog:

Craig - for his wealth of information regarding Fleer stickers and his generous contributions of images for items that I did not have in my collection (as well as some great trades that helped me acquire many of the Fleer items that you've seen pictured!)

Steve - for his help with a number of different NFL related items that he has come across in his years of collecting and writing The Cowboys Guide (and some great trades as well!)

Dave - from the amazing The Topps Archives for help on some of the Topps sets I've covered.

Troy - for the great information he shared with me from hobby publications from the late 1960's through the late 1970's that I covered in the series of posts called The Troy Files. The information Troy provided answered a number of questions I had about some of the Fleer releases during that time period.

Randy - for sharing some of the items from his Cardinals collection to compliment some of the sets that I had covered.

Finally, I'd also like to give a huge Thanks to Paul Lukas, whose fantastic Uni Watch has linked to the site on so many occasions, and has helped provide incredible visibility to the blog. I really appreciate the number of times Paul has linked to something I've posted on the Uni Watch News Ticker and the many kind things that Paul has said about The Fleer Sticker Project.

Thanks to everyone for helping me reach this this very gratifying milestone!

Jim Palmer Pitching for the Marlins?

I came across this picture of Jim Palmer in a Marlins uniform:

The Miami Marlins, that is. This picture was taken in 1968 when Jim was working his way back from arm injuries that significantly limited his time with the Orioles in 1967 and 1968.

The Marlins were the Orioles' Class A minor league team in the Florida State League. Jim had played for the Marlins for part of the 1967 season (5 games), and returned for 2 games in 1968. It looks like Jim got to keep his #22 when he was down in the minors.

As the caption on back of the Sporting News photo indicates, in 1968 Palmer was considered a "former Baltimore hurler"


which was a long way from his World Series heroics only 2 seasons earlier:




Jim didn't pitch a single inning for the Orioles in 1968, which explains why he was not included on this card in the 1969 Topps set:


Fortunately Jim was able to rehabilitate his arm during his stint back down in the minors and went on be one of the best pitchers of the 1970's:

First Photo of Reggie Jackson in an Orioles Uniform?

With the large number of newswire photos that have surfaced through various archives such as from The Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune being sold on ebay, there has been the opportunity to see a number of "new" photos (or at least photos that haven't been seen since the picture appeared in a newspaper many years ago). Recently, a few photos of Reggie Jackson's short time with the Orioles have appeared, including what may be the first picture of Reggie in an Orioles uniform:


According to the information on the back of the photo, this picture was taken May 1, 1976 at the Johns Hopkins University Gym:


Why do I think that this might be Reggie's first picture as an Oriole? According to this news item, it wasn't until Friday, April 30 that Reggie agreed to play for the Orioles after having been traded 4 weeks earlier:

If Reggie agreed on April 30, May 1 would have been the very next day. The article says Reggie was scheduled to join the team that evening, but so far, no photos have surfaced of Reggie from that evening. Reggie did not appear in the game, so its not certain whether or not he suited up for the game.

So why was Reggie working out at Johns Hopkins instead of Memorial Stadium? It was due to a rain out on Saturday, May 1. Due to the rainout, the Orioles played a double header the next day against Reggie's former team the A's, and Reggie did not play in the opener, but did play in the second game.

Until a photo surfaces of Reggie in an O's uniform on April 30, I would have to say that the picture of him taking batting practice the day after he joined the team is the first picture of Reggie as an Oriole.

In addition to the picture above, two other photos of Reggie as an Oriole have also surfaced. This is a shot of Reggie looking over Lee May who has been hit in the head by a pitch against Kansas City:


and here is a shot of Reggie in his final month as an Oriole signing autographs:



Its interesting to note that The Baltimore Sun had this filed under "fans" instead of Reggie. The looks in the two kids' eyes are priceless.

The thing that stands out to me in the picture is the kid with the Orioles cap has the alternate orange panel and black brim cap that I had always wanted but was never able to find. The sporting goods stores around us only carried the standard white panel orange brim cap. A few kids I had known had gotten the alternate cap, but I was never able to locate one.

To me, that cap is one of those childhood items you wished you could have had, but never did.

For additional pictures of Reggie on the Orioles, please see my earlier post where I have tried to collect all available photos from Reggie's 1976 season.

The Mystery of the Missing Kansas City A's 1955 Post Sugar Crisp Cereal Patch

A while back I reviewed the 1955 Post Sugar Crisp Cereal Cloth Patches which included only 15 of the 16 teams that were in existence at the time. For some reason, there was no patch for the Athletics. Thanks to the watchful eye of Dave from the amazing blog The Topps Archives, we now have proof that an Athletics patch was at least initially planned:


This amazing uncut sheet was recently up for auction, and provides proof that originally all 16 teams were intended for release. If you take a close look at the A's logo, you will see that it has an "X" beside it, presumably indicating that this may have been a proof sheet.

The auction also shows the back of the sheet. The instructions on the back of the patches indicates that the set was to be 16 patches:


Here is a closer look:


At some point between the creation of this sheet and the actual release of the promotion however, the decision was made to remove the A's as only 15 patches were ultimately issued.

The auction included a full set of the patches that were issued, and as you can see below, it only included 15 teams and did not feature the A's:


There was also a Post Sugar Crisp Cereal box that was included in the auction, and it shows all the teams except the A's and indicates that a set of 15 patches (not 16) could be ordered through the mail:


The auction also features an ad, again with only 15 teams and excluding the A's:


So why were the A's originally included, and then removed? The only thing I can think of is that it is due to the fact that the Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City the year this was released, so either Post wasn't sure if they should still use the logo (since perhaps there was some thought that it might get changed), or perhaps they weren't able to negotiate for the rights to use the logo as the team was in the process of relocating.

Since this was well before the days of MLB Properties, it could be that each team would have had to have been negotiated with individually to license their logo, and with the team in transition there was no opportunity to work out a licensing deal, so the A's were taken out of the series.

The auction also features some of the artwork that was used to create the patches, including an alternative White Sox logo that was not used:




Its great coming across finds like this that provide some insight into the creation of a set. Now if only the memo would surface that explains why the Athletics logo had to be taken out of the series!

Thanks to Dave for letting me know about this auction!

The Curious Case of the 1970 Brewers Prototype Jersey

Thanks to the fact that a number of different archives of newswire photos are currently being auctioned on ebay, there are a number of fascinating images which are showing up for sale.

One of those images is a great shot showing the transition from the Seattle Pilots to the Milwaukee Brewers


The photo is dated April 3, 1970 and was taken at the Pilots/Brewers Spring Training home in Tempe, AZ. The Pilots had just found out that they were going to move to Milwaukee a few days earlier (March 31), so it looks like this was a photo-op to show the changing of the uniforms from the Pilots to the Brewers.

There was apparently at least one other photo taken that made the newswire showing the new Brewers jersey:


This photo was taken a few days earlier on April 1, and shows Marty Pattin in the same prototype jersey. The interesting thing about these pictures is that the Brewers jersey is not what they would wear when they started the season a few days later.

The letting on this jersey reminds me of the late 1960's California Angels jerseys (the "E"s look very similar):


There is one other photo which shows this prototype design, but in this case its not being worn by a player, but by a stewardess:


This picture is from the April 6 edition of The Milwaukee Journal (so the picture would have been taken on the 5th).

So for at least a week, this version of the Brewers jersey was being used to promote the team's move.

However, when the Brewers were warming up on April 6, 1970 (the day before Opening Day) , they were wearing the uniform that was their standard home uniform for the 1970 season:


Even though you can't make out the jersey entirely, you can see that the lettering is different and the stripes on the arm do not match the prototype.

For a full view of the jersey that was worn opening day, here is a picture of manager Dave Bristol after the Opening Day game


Here we can see that the Brewers were wearing the uniform on Opening Day that would be their uniform for the entire season.

If anyone knows why the Brewers jersey that was used for the first week after the Pilots became the Brewers had a different design than what they ultimately ended up wearing that first season, I'd be interested in hearing the story.

Obviously there was a very tight window to get the new Brewers uniform created in time for Opening Day since the Pilots didn't become the Brewers until March 31, so could it be that the company that created the uniforms for the Brewers (possibly based in Milwaukee?) wasn't the same company that designed the prototype (who possibly may have been based in Arizona since the team was just finishing up Spring Training).

That seems like the most logical explanation, but I'm wondering if that has ever been verified.

How Fleer Stickers Solved the Mystery of the Lost NFL Games

It seems like we can now find just about any piece of information that we want by searching the internet. However, I was surprised to find out that there was one area of information that until now was nowhere to be found - the list of NFL games that were canceled due to the 1982 players strike.

However, thanks to the 1982 Fleer Team Action Football stickers with the team schedules on the back


we now have the answer!

Earlier this year, I received an e-mail from Jon asking if I could provide scans of the backs of the 1982 Fleer Football stickers. He told me he had been trying to piece together the 1982 NFL schedule so that he could then figure out which games had been lost to the strike.

With so much information available online, you would think that the 1982 NFL schedule would have been something that you could find with a bit of research. Unfortunately, the only information that was available was on the games that had actually been played that season. He was unable to find information on the games that were originally scheduled, but never played.

In doing his research, he came across my post on the 1982 Fleer Football stickers, and decided to contact me to see if I would be willing to help him with his project by providing scans of the backs of the stickers so that he could reconstruct the full season.

I was glad to help, and after providing him with the scans, he sent me the link to the Wikipedia page for Canceled NFL Games where he has detailed the schedules for all the weeks that were lost in 1982, as well as listing all other known games that have been canceled over the years, including 1987 when the NFL used replacement players for a few weeks. Jon also created a web page where he talks about the project, and where he has posted the backs of all the stickers to show the complete 1982 schedule.

With the NFL labor situation seeming to change almost daily, hopefully things get worked out in time to avoid the current NFL lockout from adding any more games to Jon's list of canceled games.

I'd like to say Thanks to Jon for getting in touch with me so I could put those sticker backs to good use!