Home Run Derby-Mickey Mantle vs Willie Mays

Filmed in California for the 3 weeks in December of 1959, the series aired in syndication from January 9 to July 2, 1960 and helped inspire the Home Run Derby event that is now held the day before the annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game. ESPN staged a revival of the show in 1989. The rules were similar to modern home run derbies, with two notable exceptions. If a batter did not swing at a pitch that was in the strike zone, that also constituted an out. Also, the contests were conducted in a fashion more similar to a baseball game than the modern home run derbies, in which a player has a set number of outs before his turn is over. Batters were given three outs per inning, and the player with the most home runs after nine innings won. The defending champion had the advantage of batting last; his opponent batted first. Any ball not hit for a home run was an out. The player did not have to swing at every pitch, but if a pitch was in the strike zone that also constituted an out, as did a swing and a miss. These rarely happened as the pitcher was supposed to give the batters good balls to hit. If the players were tied after nine innings, the Derby went into extra innings as per regular baseball. When a left-handed hitter played, a special rule was put into place. Wrigley Field in Los Angeles had an inner fence with palm trees and a brick wall located several feet behind it. Any pitch hit in that direction had to clear the wall or hit the top of the trees that stuck out over the wall to count as a home run. This was done because the distance was shorter to right field with the inner fence, which would otherwise give a lefty an unfair advantage. The distances were still slightly different once the deeper right field wall was factored in, but at 339 feet vs. 340 feet the difference was negligible. While one player was taking his turn at bat, the other player would sit at the host's booth and have a brief conversation, typically unrehearsed small talk about the contest itself or the player's performance that season. Willie Mays, who was a champion later in the run after losing in the initial contest to Mantle, joked with host Scott during his run that the host should be quiet while he batted for his third consecutive home run (for which Mays would receive a $500 bonus). Scott took him up on it, speaking into the microphone Sotto Voce, similar to a bowling or golf announcer, whenever Mays stepped up to the plate. Sometimes when the batter hit a ball into the deep outfield, the player in the booth would comment that it would have gone for extra bases in a real game, to which Scott replied that on Home Run Derby it's nothing but an out. Some players wore golf gloves during the show - a notable addition because the batting glove was still years away from being a normal part of a player's gear. Information Link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Run_Derby_(TV_series)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy