Center Field Shot 

Persons possessing these machines [televisions] will be able to sit in their homes or offices and watch the World Series . . . without having to contribute to the gate receipts. . . . How long could Colonel Ruppert support Yankee Stadium and Mr. Babe Ruth if there were no gate receipts?

"Another Menace to Sports," New York Herald Tribune, January 1925

I don’t know about this thing.

Branch Rickey on the impact of television in 1952.

TV Can Kill Baseball.

Branch Rickey on the impact of television in 1953.

Please don’t ask me to give you any definite dope on this television business . . . the picture is changing so fast, it is bewildering to me.

Ford Frick, 1952

Wake up; the Majors are coming to your ball park. They are no longer satisfied with the blood-letting in their own territory; they are conniving with a super-salesman [television] to take the last drop of blood in the minor league territory, also. Who will fire the shot to be heard "round the baseball world?"

Senator "Big Ed" Johnson, January 1953

The World Series is the greatest advertising force on earth.

A. Craig Smith, Gillette’s head of advertising, 1950

Nobody knows how big [MLBAM will] be. Certainly if the past is the prologue, the new delivery mechanism is going to be more important than the old delivery mechanism. Radio replaced newspapers, TV replaced radio. All survived, but television is now dominant.

Bob Bowman, President and CEO, Major League Baseball Advanced Media

TV Makes Sissies!

Gerry Staley, veteran White Sox pitcher

TV has them [1950s players] hamming.

Ed Walsh, White Sox pitching great

Do you know what I think? I think today’s catcher is a television actor. He’s conscious of the cameras and wants to look good. Well, maybe he does, but he doesn’t catch good.

Al Lopez, White Sox manager in 1960

We [television makers] had to have baseball games and if they had demanded millions for the rights, we would have had to give it to them.

David Sarnoff, head of RCA

Baseball goes off and hires this Neanderthal, who wouldn’t know Madison Avenue from Madison, Wisconsin.

ABC executive on the appointment of Spike Eckert as MLB Commissioner

Bowie Kuhn is the most devious man I’ve ever dealt with . . . I wouldn’t get into a cab with that [nasty expletive]. I can’t stand the SOB.

NBC executive on negotiating with Bowie Kuhn

Only difference between television and radio is they ain’t so much to talk about in television. If a batter is taking his stanch (sic) at the plate, all you got to do is name him. They ain’t no point in saying he is taking his stanch at the plate.

Dizzy Dean on announcing the TV game

Increasingly, because of its marvelous ability to self-promote, the NFL was a hit with upper-income, well-educated, suburban viewers--a sponsor’s dream, and at the same time, Madison Avenue was more and more saying, "God, baseball's becoming a turn-off to the affluent. It has a terrible following: the rural, low-income, the elderly, grade school graduates. What television sponsor wants them?" Dean’s problem was that was exactly the kind of people who adored him.

NBC executive Carl Lindemann on Dizzy Dean’s fans