Every year about this time, the week of the all-star game, Major League Baseball puts on a “Home Run Derby” at the site of the game. This year’s Home Run Derby was Monday in Atlanta.
This event always takes me back to my childhood, when the original “Home Run Derby” was a weekly event in the summer of 1960. I was only seven but I remember it like it was yesterday.
The black & white TV show pitted sluggers of the day against each other at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. The stadium was the home of the AAA Los Angeles Angels before a team of the same name became an expansion team in the American League.
This venue was chosen to host the event because its fence distances were symmetrical, favoring neither right-handed nor left-handed hitters. However, the left field wall was actually a few feet higher than the right field wall, which slightly penalized right-handed line-drive hitters. That wasn’t a big deal since of the 19 players who participated only two were lefthanded hitters, Duke Snider and Eddie Mathews. Mickey Mantle was a switch hitter but batted righthanded for the competition.
The rules were simple. Each batter had nine innings to hit as many home runs as possible. Each inning consisted of three outs, and any ball not hit for a home run, including called strikes, would be recorded as an out. If the two batters tied, extra innings would be played until the tie was broken.
Competition was one-on-one and, if you won, you got to come back the following week against a different challenger. Each week the winner would get a check for $2,000 and the loser got $1,000. If you hit three home runs on three pitches you got an extra $500, and wouldn’t that be an extra incentive for Ronald Acuna or some other modern day slugger making millions of dollars?
A man named Mark Scott, who was an actor and broadcaster, was the host of the show. He would chat with the participants prior to the event, and when one player was batting he’d talk to the other about baseball related stuff. It was great to see the stars of the day in a situation where they looked like real people instead of just faces on a baseball card or a black & white imagine on a small TV. Back then the players weren’t up-front and in-your-face like they are today, and they probably enjoyed it. No internet, no camera phone in everyone’s hand.
The 26 episodes were filmed in 1959 and broadcast during the summer of 1960. Mickey Mantle hit the most home runs on the show, 44 total in five appearances with a 4-1 record. Hank Aaron won the most money, a whopping $13,500 in seven appearances with a 6-1 record. Of course, a dollar went a little farther in those days.
Some other stars you may recognize who participated were Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew and Ernie Banks. There were only 20 major league teams at the time and every club was represented but the White Sox, who actually won the American League pennant in 1959. Some participants who weren’t as famous included Wally Post of the Phillies, Gus Triandos of the Orioles and Bob Cerv of the Kansas City A’s.
Sadly, the original “Home Run Derby” only ran for one season. Mark Scott died of a heart attack in July of 1960, at age 45, and instead of replacing him they just canceled the show.
The show was rerun by ESPN in 1988 and ’89 and proved to be a popular item. In fact, it’s credited in part for the establishment of a classic sports network which would eventually become ESPN Classic. You can buy the three-volume DVD on the iTunes Store.
I never missed an episode when I was a kid, and “Home Run Derby” was a fun game to play with the folks in my neighborhood. Wiffle Ball was a popular game in my crowd and when we didn’t have enough boys to play a regular Wiffle Ball game you needed just two for a game of Home Run Derby, a pitcher and a hitter taking turns.
Down the street and a half a block over the Cole family of Telford, PA had two boys and a great backyard. They had a garage behind their house and a big yard behind the garage, which lined up perfectly as a leftfield wall. You had to hit the ball on the garage roof for a home run, and if you really got ahold of one a shot over the roof entirely was a home run to remember.
There was also a small stretch of driveway about 10 feet between the leftfield foul line and the garage. We lined up our bikes on the driveway to make a short “wall” and if you hit one right down the line over the bikes you could get a “cheapy.”
In right field there was a wash line(remember those?) between the edge of the garage in deep center all the way over to a tree that served as the rightfield foul pole. You had to hit it over the wash line in right for a home run, and we threw a couple blankets over the line so there was no question if it went over. Then again, everyone in the neighborhood was righthanded so that rarely came up. No one pretended to be Duke Snider or Eddie Mathews when we played Home Run Derby. Personally, I usually imitated Willie Mays.
Do the kids still play Home Run Derby these days? Do they play Wiffle Ball? We didn’t have cellphones or video games back then and a competitive morning of Wiffle Ball before heading to the community pool on a hot summer day was about as good as it would get. And that was pretty darned good.
My mind always goes back to those days when I watch the current Home Run Derby. I hope they have it forever.
