Center Field Shot 

                                                          Television’s First World Series

Although The Sporting News reported that Gillette was interested in expanding its radio coverage, begun in 1939, to include televising the 1946 World Series, coverage actually began with the 1947 World Series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers.  The all-New York confrontation meant that all games could be covered in each team’s home city.  The telecasts were limited to nine stations in four markets:  New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Schenectady.  All three of New York’s stations (WABD, WCBS-TV, and WNBT) carried the games produced for the Mutual network.  Overall, an estimated 50,000 television sets brought the game to between 600,000 and 700,000 viewers.  Even with these modest television audience figures, The Sporting News believed the medium’s first World Series had “been seen by more people than any other sports event in history.”

The World Series coverage convinced many families to purchase their first TV.  The Sporting News reported that the coverage pushed New York area interest in receivers “to what was described as the most unprecedented demand since the early days of radio.”  Indeed, some manufacturers, hoping to stimulate receiver sales, advertised that the contests would be telecast even while the contract for the coverage was being negotiated.  The ads put pressure on broadcasters to carry the games or face the public’s wrath.  In addition to television manufacturers and their dealers, New York bars were major beneficiaries.  When the Series games aired on their receivers, tavern owners reported a 500 percent increase in business over a typical weekday afternoon.  Some taverns took reservations from regulars for the choicest seats near the set. 

New York was a fortuitous location for the first televised World Series.   At a time when networking was very limited, the Yankee/Dodger World Series got maximum publicity from the New York based national press and was seen by many of the nation’s corporate leaders.   Even members of the recently created United Nations were invited to view the World Series.   A special guide to baseball was produced in English, French, Spanish and Russian to help U.N. delegates and employees understand the sport.

No Beer, Please

Although the Television Broadcasters Association lobbied Commissioner A.B. “Happy” Chandler to allow the telecasts, the televising of the World Series was not a certainty until mid-September.  Chandler approved the telecasts despite opposition from a minority of owners.  But there was the unsettled matter of the rights fee.  The total cost to the sponsors, including production expenses and distribution charges, would be about $100,000.  Initially, Commissioner Chandler had demanded an additional $100,000 for the rights.  Many observers thought Chandler’s demand was extravagant, considering radio rights to a vastly larger nationwide radio audience was no more than $175,000.  Liebmann Breweries of Brooklyn met the $100,000 demand (if the Series was an all New York affair), but the Commissioner declined the brewery’s offer on the “grounds that it would not be good public relations for baseball to have the Series sponsored by the producer of an alcoholic beverage.”  Since beer and baseball had been and would continue to be strongly linked, the Commissioner’s rejection seemed inconsistent.  But baseball’s leadership, or at least Commissioner Chandler, viewed the World Series as a special event, one that should not be compromised by commercial expediencies.  Ford then offered to meet the Commissioner’s $100,000 price, but only if he would give them sponsorship for next 10 years for $1,000,000.  But even baseball’s less than “TV savvy” leadership knew that the rights in the future would be worth far more than that.

Ultimately, Gillette and Ford co-sponsored the games.  The rights fees cost $65,000, a generous figure considering so few could actually see the telecasts.  The Commissioner rejected a last minute offer of $85,000 from an auto accessories chain.  For their rights fees, the sponsors got commercials of varying quality.  Most Ford and Gillette commercials relied on slides and were acceptable, but the live commercials were another matter.  According to Variety, poor lighting in Gillette’s commercials produced at CBS’ Ebbets Field studio gave the models five o’clock shadows even after shaving.