Home Run Derby Hank Aaron appearance

[brianhenke]

Since EOTVGS considers the 1960 series Home Run Derby as a game show, it should be noted an episode featuring Hank Aaron against Ken Boyer aired today on ESPN Classic in a daylong salute to Aaron's 715th home run being hit 30 years ago.

    Brian

    Iowa is the North Star State?

    We want some more pro wrestling (STILL) and NASCAR questions!

[GS Warehouse]

[quote name=\'brianhenke\' date=\'Apr 9 2004, 12:02 AM\'] Since EOTVGS considers the 1960 series Home Run Derby as a game show, it should be noted an episode featuring Hank Aaron against Ken Boyer aired today on ESPN Classic in a daylong salute to Aaron's 715th home run being hit 30 years ago. [/quote]
I was going to mention this earlier.  But it wasn't just one episode.  They showed all six of Hammerin' Hank's wins, against Al Kaline, Duke Snider, and then-Milwaukee-Braves-teammate Eddie Mathews, among others.  With six wins and $13,500 in winnings, Aaron was the (ObGS) Thom McKee of Derby.

Game show or not*, the closest we'll see to a revival is the annual Home Run Derby played the night before the MLB All-Star Game, but it was interesting to see.  The players, the camera angles (you never see a close-up of a fly ball nowadays)...they even restored the original credits (which were missing from when ESPN ran it in 1989)!  I doubt MGM would put this 26-episode series on DVD, but if they did, I'd consider getting it.

And it wasn't quite an all-day salute.  It actually ran for 755 minutes (clever).

* Personally, I wouldn't classify HRD as a game show, but it fits the basic definition: a televised competition for monetary rewards.  The money won went to the ballplayers themselves.

[Don Howard]

Oh, shoot. I wish I'd known about this sooner. I used to stay up late in the late 1980s and check out Mark Scott and company when ESPN showed this. Maybe next time.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'GS Warehouse\' date=\'Apr 8 2004, 11:16 PM\']Game show or not*, the closest we'll see to a revival is the annual Home Run Derby played the night before the MLB All-Star Game, but it was interesting to see.  The players, the camera angles (you never see a close-up of a fly ball nowadays)...they even restored the original credits (which were missing from when ESPN ran it in 1989)!  I doubt MGM would put this 26-episode series on DVD, but if they did, I'd consider getting it.[/quote]
Classic Sports Network, ESPN Classic's predecessor, always showed the original credits (with the MGM logo added to the end).  Since ESPN policy is always no credits, except for "Playmakers" and original movies (and since the original credits on "Sports Challenge" are never shown on its ESPN Classic showings), I'm surprised this slipped by them.

[DrBear]

Maybe they kept them to help pad it out to exactly 755 minutes.

[Matt Ottinger]

Drifting off-topic (moderator's privilege), but what were the other features of the Hank Aaron tribute?  He's one of my last living heroes, and I really wish I could have seen the shows (though I may have already seen a lot of them).

[melman1]

1957 World Series highlights
his "Sports Century" show
1971 All Star Game highlights

Nothing new.  The "755 minute" thing was actually an annoyance, as it caused everything to start at an odd time, and wasn't documented on ESPN's own schedule page.  Until I read it here, I had no idea that was the reason why everything appeared to be 5 minutes off.

[aaron sica]

Hell's going to freeze over..

1) I bumped a post 2+ years old.

2) I bumped a post 2+ years old STARTED BY BRIAN HENKE.

I'll keep my opinions of Barry Bonds at the door...But I can't help wondering if ESPN Classic will rerun this considering what Bonds is doing.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' post=\'119023\' date=\'May 21 2006, 12:14 AM\']
But I can't help wondering if ESPN Classic will rerun this considering what Bonds is doing.
[/quote]
I would hope not.  Bonds deserves as little attention as possible.  
As an aside..did Hank Aaron ever appear on Sports Challenge?

Hell's going to freeze over..

1) I bumped a post 2+ years old.

2) I bumped a post 2+ years old STARTED BY BRIAN HENKE.

Off with thy head!

[TLEberle]

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'119024\' date=\'May 20 2006, 10:33 PM\']
I would hope not.  Bonds deserves as little attention as possible.  
As an aside..did Hank Aaron ever appear on Sports Challenge?[/quote]

This will probably get some space in my online journal too, but I disagree with that. I don't like that he appears to shun the media (the very reason he's getting paid dump truckfuls of money to swat at a ball all day) but the man has skills. Very much like Babe Ruth in that way.

What is great about the Derby format is that even at $500 and $1,000 per streak, that was still good money. These days I doubt any player would set foot on set for less than $5,000.

[DrBear]

[quote name=\'Modor\' post=\'119024\' date=\'May 21 2006, 12:33 AM\']
But I can't help wondering if ESPN Classic will rerun this considering what Bonds is doing.
[/quote]

Nah, ESPN can satisfy its Bonds lust elsewhere. Remember, this is the channel that is doing "Bonds on Bonds." This is like the Marathon Channel doing "The Rosie Ruiz story."

[Matt Ottinger]

[quote name=\'TLEberle\' post=\'119026\' date=\'May 21 2006, 01:59 AM\']This will probably get some space in my online journal too, but I disagree with that. I don't like that he appears to shun the media (the very reason he's getting paid dump truckfuls of money to swat at a ball all day) but the man has skills. Very much like Babe Ruth in that way.[/quote]
I'm horribly biased (you'll see earlier in this old thread my feelings for Aaron), but I think even those of us with huge biases against Bonds recognize his amazing skills and work ethic.  It's hard to quantify the advantage Bonds gained from taking steroids, but surely a handful, maybe a few dozen of his home runs from the last six or seven years would just have been long outs if he wasn't "juiced".  

Meanwhile, Aaron was distracted by death threats when he played at home.  One of the very few positives about Bonds' pursuit of the record is that more attention is being paid to Aaron (who's kept an even more low profile than usual lately).  I really hope something happens before Bonds gets there, but given the historical ineptitude of the baseball ruling class, I kinda doubt it.

[melman1]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' post=\'119023\' date=\'May 20 2006, 10:14 PM\']
 I can't help wondering if ESPN Classic will rerun this
[/quote]

Since much of ESPN Classic's lineup has been given to poker, bowling, auto racing and ESPN-original timewasters like "Top 5 Reasons" and "Who's No. 1", it seems doubtful.

I really can't figure out what ESPN's strategy is with Classic. I can't recall the last time I saw anything useful on it.  No baseball, no football, no hockey.  No Sports Challenge, The Way It Was or Home Run Derby.  It's as if the old Classic Sports Network (bought by ESPN and turned into ESPN Classic) never existed.

[DrBear]

[quote name=\'melman1\' post=\'119081\' date=\'May 21 2006, 08:23 PM\']
I really can't figure out what ESPN's strategy is with Classic. I can't recall the last time I saw anything useful on it.  No baseball, no football, no hockey.  No Sports Challenge, The Way It Was or Home Run Derby.  It's as if the old Classic Sports Network (bought by ESPN and turned into ESPN Classic) never existed.
[/quote]
Simple, the same reason B&W Overnite is at 4 in the blessed AM on GSN - demographics.

To most of the advertisers' target audience, "Classic" is last Wednesday. They're more likely to tune in for the Snark Brothers or Arlis$ reruns or a movie than for replays of the 82 Brewers. (I can't figure out why old Boxing is OK - maybe they figure it draws the HBO/Showtime crowd). Otherwise, don't expect to see anything older than five or six years ever again.

It's not that older folks don't have money to spend, but that our brand preferences are usually established and harder to change. In short, we don't pay attention to ads.

[RMF]

[quote name=\'DrBear\' post=\'119092\' date=\'May 22 2006, 07:03 AM\']
(I can't figure out why old Boxing is OK - maybe they figure it draws the HBO/Showtime crowd).
[/quote]

Thing is, there is a ton of old boxing footage that survives- something that isn't the case with most other sports. For example, there is footage around of championship boxing from the 19th century. In comparison, the earliest surviving complete regular season baseball game is from 1967, and something as notable as the last game John Wooden ever coached only survives incompletely on what appears to be a home recording.

As for NFL football, doesn't NFL Films have some policy that limits what they can air in that regard?