T.W.I.B. September 13, 1977: "Rookies With Power" (Eddie Murray)

o

I just came across this on youtube.

It's a This Week In Baseball episode from September of 1977.

At the beginning (which includes that great introductory song), Mel Allen narrates a couple of lines:

"Rookies with power," followed by a clip of a 21 year-old Eddie Murray going deep for the Orioles, who were locked in a 3-way pennant race with the Yankees and the Red Sox at the time.

Immediately following, Allen chimes in with "Rookies With Speed," and then show a clip of Murray's R.O.Y. rival, the late Mitchell Page, stealing a base for the Athletics:

There is a 2 and-a-half segment on the Orioles at the 3:30 mark, which features Jim Palmer, Rudy May, Ken Singleton, Eddie Murray, and Terry Crowley.

At the 12-minute mark, they talk about Murray again, followed by one-time Oriole prospect Bob Bailor, who was having an excellent rookie season for the expansion Toronto Blue Jays.

Like Moose Milligan, I was bored, and was hoping that the mods would let this have some air time on the main board before transferring it to the "ORIOLES HISTORY" section. 

Again, the introductory song at the beginning of those "T.W.I.B." episodes alone is worth a click on the video.  ) 

o

o

I just came across this on youtube.

It's a This Week In Baseball episode from September of 1977.

At the beginning (which includes that great introductory song), Mel Allen narrates a couple of lines:

"Rookies with power," followed by a clip of a 21 year-old Eddie Murray going deep for the Orioles, who were locked in a 3-way pennant race with the Yankees and the Red Sox at the time.

Immediately following, Allen chimes in with "Rookies With Speed," and then show a clip of Murray's R.O.Y. rival, the late Mitchell Page, stealing a base for the Athletics:

[video=youtube;oBquBD0V35c]

There is a 2 and-a-half segment on the Orioles at the 3:30 mark, which features Jim Palmer, Rudy May, Ken Singleton, Eddie Murray, and Terry Crowley.

At the 12-minute mark, they talk about Murray again, followed by one-time Oriole prospect Bob Bailor, who was having an excellent rookie season for the expansion Toronto Blue Jays.

Like Moose Milligan, I was bored, and was hoping that the mods would let this have some air time on the main board before transferring it to the "ORIOLES HISTORY" section.

Again, the introductory song at the beginning of those "T.W.I.B." episodes alone is worth a click on the video.

THAT was a joy to watch--thanks for posting it.

How about the shout out by Allen re Singleton having the best OBP in baseball. More proof that people weren't as ignorant in the past as many today seems to believe.

Great stuff. Thanks for posting.

"OK Google"

"Remind me to watch more This Week In Baseball"

"Thanks"

I loved that team. Everyone contributed, from Palmer and Singleton to Billy Smith and Dave Criscione. Wild Bill became our cheerleader. Hank Peters and Earl seemed to be miles ahead of their counterparts. The season wasn't capped off with a division title, but Thanks Brooks Day on September 18 was almost as good. The beer was pretty cold in 1977.

Very smart base running at 18:18...Lou Pinella 15:38...I had no idea harry Carey did White Sox games 14:30..14:20, O's funny. This is all so enjoyable. Thanks Brewster...from New Milford. There is a lot of great O's stuff here.

But the best of all is straight from Mel at 20:25...

"Roys bat helped the expansion BlueJays give the Yankees their worst clobbering at the stadium since 1925."

Small pleasures. And of course the ending music defined my youth, when that music stopped it was time to go out and play ball.

And of course the ending music defined my youth' date=' when that music stopped it was time to go out and play ball.[/quote']

Absolutely right. I would watch that show religiously as a kid, and then afterwards either go out to the backyard where the pitchback was set up, or ask to get a ride to the nearby batting cages which also had a speed gun set up -- you threw three pitches for $2, and if you guessed the speed of your third pitch correctly, you got a replica batting helmet from any team. I must have had a half-dozen of those helmets after one summer alone.

Before there was ESPN, before there was SportsCenter, before there was Baseball Tonight, before there was MLB Network....there was This Week in Baseball. And if you were a baseball fan in the '70's and '80's, it was your TV lifeline to the baseball world. You watched it religiously and hoped they'd show some highlights of your team or a feature on one of your players, all while thoroughly enjoying the coverage of everyone else and, of course, the bloopers and silly moments in the dugout. The narrator, Mel Allen, had been the Yankees' broadcaster during the 40's, 50's and '60's, and listening to his easy Southern drawl and old style delivery ("how about that?"), you really felt you were watching history as it was unfolding -- and in hindsight, that's exactly what was happening on that show. It really fed my love of baseball.

Now that brings back memories. A pitch back. Got one of those in about 71' for a confirmation present. The net attached to a frame with stakes in the ground to keep it from moving. Same thing?

That's the one. Some had two angles (one to return the ball your way, and a lower section angled upwards to help you practice fly balls and pop-ups). But I remember the strike zone box shown in thread in the middle. Those little silver stakes were incredible ineffective at keeping it firmly anchored once you threw with any strength at all, especially if you were using a real baseball. The worst part was when you had it set up in the middle of the yard and would miss it completely, since you'd have to then go track down and fetch the ball you just threw as hard as you could.

Frobby said:

 

Before there was ESPN, before there was SportsCenter, before there was Baseball Tonight, before there was MLB Network .... there was This Week in Baseball. And if you were a baseball fan in the '70's and '80's, it was your TV lifeline to the baseball world. You watched it religiously and hoped they'd show some highlights of your team or a feature on one of your players, all while thoroughly enjoying the coverage of everyone else and, of course, the bloopers and silly moments in the dugout. The narrator, Mel Allen, had been the Yankees' broadcaster during the 40's, 50's and '60's, and listening to his easy Southern drawl and old style delivery ("how about that?"), you really felt you were watching history as it was unfolding -- and in hindsight, that's exactly what was happening on that show. It really fed my love of baseball.

 

o

That, and getting the newspaper on Sunday mornings to read all of the batting and pitching statistics for each respective league.

For me, it was the NY Daily News.

My mommy would bring home the paper, and I would grab it and immediately flip to the back page (the sports section for the NY Daily News), and then skim quickly to the statistics page.

For the first couple of months of the 1977 season, I remember being very excited about Billy Smith being at or near the top of the league in batting average. That spring was the first time that I had ever heard of him (Billy Smith), and I would brag to my brother Mark (Yankee fan) about Smith, and also eventually about Singleton and Bumbry when they went to the top 3 in the league in batting average as the season wore on.

I have numbers seared in my psyche forever, such as Singleton beating out Mickey Rivers by two points (.328 to .326) for the bronze behind Road Carew (.388) and Lyman Bostock (.336), respectively, Eddie Murray's 27 HR and 88 RBI's, and Lee May just missing another 100 RBI season (27 HR, 99 RBI.)

I was also glad that Eddie Murray was awarded the A.L. Rookie of the Year award, although deep in my heart, I felt that Oakland's Mitchell Page deserved it.

o

That, and getting the newspaper on Sunday mornings to read all of the batting and pitching statistics for each respective league.

For me, it was the NY Daily News.

My mommy would bring home the paper, and I would grab it and immediately flip to the back page (the sports section for the NY Daily News), and then skim quickly to the statistics page.

For the first couple of months of the 1977 season, I remember being very excited about Billy Smith being at or near the top of the league in batting average. That spring was the first time that I had ever heard of him (Billy Smith), and I would brag to my brother Mark (Yankee fan) about Smith, and also eventually about Singleton and Bumbry when they went to the top 3 in the league in batting average as the season wore on.

I have numbers seared in my psyche forever, such as Singleton beating out Mickey Rivers by two points (.328 to .326) for the bronze behind Road Carew (.388) and Lyman Bostock (.336), respectively, Eddie Murray's 27 HR and 88 RBI's, and Lee May just missing another 100 RBI season (27 HR, 99 RBI.)

I was also glad that Eddie Murray was awarded the A.L. Rookie of the Year award, although deep in my heart, I felt that Oakland's Mitchell Page deserved it.

I remember that in the Fall of 1967, our 5th grade teacher was teaching us the concept of dividing a larger number into a smaller number, which is a fairly complicated concept. To do it, she photocopied the final list of 1967 baseball statistics that appeared in the Sunday paper, and had us divide the at bats into the hits to calculate the batting averages. That is the event that started my lifelong fascination with baseball statistics, and to this day, I can rattle off the 1967 batting averages of dozens of players (Bob Aspromonte -- .294!). I used to love poring over the Sunday stats every week.

I love that in 1977 Mel Allen mentions that Ken Singleton is leading the league in OBP (around 4:10 in the clip).

Loved watching this. As many of you have said, TWIB and the Game of the Week were lifelines to me in those days of three networks (Truth Disclaimer: We could turn the ol' antenna and get stations from Philly and Baltimore as well as WBOC in Salisbury on a good day, but Only Three is more impressive in a "walked uphill both ways to school" kind of way ) so seeing the guys I'd only heard and read about was a treat.

And, figuring batting averages and ERA prompted me to see and love what could be done with numbers. I'd give credit to sports for any interest in geography I had as well ("Where the heck IS Green Bay? Let's see.") so it was an educational time-waster.

Regarding Eddie's ROY, I remember listening to WWWE radio in Cleveland at work late at night, and there was an old blowhard there who was annoyed that his guy, Super Joe Charboneau, didn't get it! Homer.

caesarod said:

 

Loved watching this. As many of you have said, TWIB and the Game of the Week were lifelines to me in those days of three networks (Truth Disclaimer: We could turn the ol' antenna and get stations from Philly and Baltimore as well as WBOC in Salisbury on a good day, but Only Three is more impressive in a "walked uphill both ways to school" kind of way ) so seeing the guys I'd only heard and read about was a treat.

And, figuring batting averages and ERA prompted me to see and love what could be done with numbers. I'd give credit to sports for any interest in geography I had as well ("Where the heck IS Green Bay? Let's see.") so it was an educational time-waster.

Regarding Eddie's ROY, I remember listening to WWWE radio in Cleveland at work late at night, and there was an old blowhard there who was annoyed that his guy, Super Joe Charboneau, didn't get it! Homer.

 

o

Actually, Charboneau did win the A.L Rookie of the Year for the Indians in 1980 ...... 3 years after Murray won it in 1977.

o