Re: Red Sox on WHDH

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Sun, 3 Aug 1997, Dan Strassberg wrote:

> Anyhow, in those days, it was customary to "re-create" away games from a
> (Western Union?) ticker. This scheme also made it possible to delay the
> broadcast of one game when the two teams played at the same time. Since
> night baseball wasn't nearly as popular in those days as it is now, there
> must have been many days when both teams played at the same time.
> Presumably, though, having both teams simultaneously at home in Boston
> didn't occur very often.

I remember hearing one of those games with a ticker.  You'd hear the
ticker on the air, after which the announcer would announce the play.  My
father explained to me that the announcer was sitting in Boston, reporting
on the game somewhere else by means of the ticker.  And, though I hadn't
heard of Morse Code at that point, I somehow assumed that the announcer
could understand the ticks.  I didn't realize that the ticker just printed
out information on paper.

I would assume that having both teams simultaneously at home in Boston
occurred hardly at all.  I don't know how things are scheduled now in New
York and Chicago, where there are still two teams in the city, but I
suspect team owners would not want to have both teams scheduled in town at
the same time.  The turnout is smaller if there's another major-league
game a few blocks away.

I seem to recall that sometime in the 1970s, while Yankee Stadium was
being rennovated, the Yankees played at Shea Stadium.  I think the Dodgers
and Angels once used the same ball park for a few years in the 1960s.
That must mean that the teams were not scheduled to be in town at the same
time. 

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  A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                          617.367.0468
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