Baseball in the 1960s, a breakdown
What Happened
Aaron Judge steps into the batter's box in the bottom of the ninth, Yankees trailing by one run in a crucial Game 5 of the 1969 World Series. The 27-year-old Boog Powell steps up to the plate for the Baltimore Orioles, his powerful swing on full display as he takes some ferocious hacks. Powell had a tremendous season, finishing second in MVP voting and is poised for an even better year in 1970 when he'll win the award. As the game reaches a dramatic climax, Frank Robinson comes to the plate for the Orioles. With two strikes, Robinson fouls a pitch back and the umpire initially calls it a foul tip. However, Robinson insists the ball hit him in the leg, not the bat. Orioles manager Earl Weaver rushes out to argue, pleading with the umpire to ask the shortstop for a second opinion. The umpire refuses, standing by his original call. Robinson gets in the umpire's face, but Weaver calms him down, worried Robinson might get ejected. After some heated back-and-forth, the umpire maintains the foul tip call, even as Weaver and Robinson continue to protest vehemently. Surprisingly, Robinson then simply walks away, disappearing into the dugout. The umpire is left confused, wondering where Robinson went. Weaver storms off as well, still barking at the officials. When Robinson eventually returns, he fouls off another pitch and then strikes out swinging on a curveball. The inning ends and the Mets soon find themselves in a similar situation, arguing that a ball in the dirt hit the batter's foot. The umpire disagrees, leading the Mets to bring out the ball, which has visible shoe polish on it - a trick players used to try and fool the umps that a ball hit them. But this time, the umpire stands firm, unwilling to change the call. Throughout the game, the old-school tactics on display, like runners aggressively breaking up double plays and on-deck batters taking swings on one knee, provide a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of the game. This clash between modern sensibilities and the rougher-edged baseball of the 1960s makes for a captivating and nostalgic viewing experience.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentI watched game five of the 1969 World Series just to see, you know, what's different,
what's the same, what are some oddities. This is brought to you by DraftKings. I'm not really
recapping the gameplay here or the skill, just kind of the in-between the game, differences,
similarities, like look at this, a pitcher walking as slow as he possibly can to conserve energy off
the mound. That's similar. I've seen that before. Or World Series game, nationally televised,
a fan running on the field trying to get a high five from a player. Gets the high five and then
the cops come and say, all right, get out of here. The umps are even helping a little bit.
Cops don't tackle him. That's different. Fan celebrates, got a nice sweater on, tucked in
shirt underneath. That's different. The crowd kind of like, eh, whatever. Found some differences that
I knew I was going to see. Way more aggressive baseball. The rules have changed and look at this,
bam. Okay.
No one even,
no one even talked about it. It wasn't even a big deal. They didn't show a replay. No one
mentioned it. Just going into second hard to break up the double play. I mean, this was baseball for
a really long time. You had to be careful around the bag. He grabs the ball, olays him. Dude doesn't
slide at all, just trying to take out the player. And he, he doesn't get mad. Broadcast doesn't say
anything. No one cares. That was baseball. I don't really need that back in baseball. Didn't seem
like it was ever like a necessary part of the sport. It is always jarring to see. Now,
this one's even a little more jarring because if this happened today, the guy would be labeled so
dirty. Uh, right fielder tries to throw him out at first base with the catcher backing up, which is
actually a cool play. You know, a sneak attack. The first baseman's going to the outfield, so no
one's covering first, but the catcher is obviously there to back pick him. That's cool. I like that,
but just tries to push him off the bag and then pushes his leg. Oh my God. Just like bends his knee.
Look at the, oh, get out, get off the bag. And then another one,
and the ump gives him a little earful. Hey, now, hey, now none of that. None of that. Okay. Time.
Here's the ball. My bad. A little too aggressive. My bad. So I expected to see that. Something I
didn't expect to see that I was like, Ooh, I don't see that in today's look at this. I'm busting it
down the right field line to make the call running all the way down there. I feel like the umps these
days just turn their head and look, I haven't seen an ump sprint down the right field line in a long
time. Joe West, 2018 World Series. Did he sprint? Bobbly head.
Favorite thing I noticed watching this game that I wasn't expecting to was all the on deck batters
were on one knee, taking their practice swings while on one knee. Everyone, like maybe one or
two weren't, but majority were on one knee and you don't see this anymore. And I wonder when it
stopped, did it fade out? Was there's one guy still on one knee, you know, in like 1979 had to
be taught. Were they trying to get a better view of the pitches coming in conserving energy? I
really don't know. Maybe we've got to do a deep dive on when did on deck batters start standing
up, but that was weird. Every single batter was on one knee. And speaking of batters, Boog Powell
swing won me over. Like I am a Boog Powell swing fan. Look at that. And look at the pause at the
end. And then kind of like a boom. And for you at home, that's a 27 year old man in his prime.
About just had the best season of his career. And he's about to top it next year. Second in MVP,
first in MVP in 1970. And look at those swings and misses. It's a thing of beauty. It looks like
this scene looks like a 1980s sitcom. And then they say, oh, back in my old playing days. And
then they flashback. And these are all the actors, you know, playing baseball. That's such a big
swing. He actually had a great postseason, a great year. And that's the hit he got in this game.
All those big swings. And the hit he gets is on this, uh, beep,
swing. So that was thoroughly entertaining to watch Boog Powell swing and miss or just swing
in general. Later on the game, we got ourselves a breakdown situation. I was like, Ooh, this is fun.
Frank Robinson's up guy behind him, puts his sunglasses on 1,377 RBIs in his 14 years in the
majors fouls. The first pitch back blue grabs a ball, throws it back to pitch blue at shortstop
wandering around, just looking around. Oh, one pitch check swing. Doesn't matter. Strike says
the umpire gets some gut from the dugout.
Whatever. Shut up about it. Now Robinson's down. Oh, and two and the Orioles are about to lose the
game and lose the world series. And that one hits him in the leg. And the umpire says, no foul tip
foul tip. He says, no, hit me in the leg. They ask him, ask him, hit me in the leg. And this is
something we still see is umpires being told to ask for help from someone who probably had a
different or better view. And the umpire being like, nah, I got it. I saw it. Why would I ask
for another person's opinion? You want me to do everything I can to get the call, right? No,
I saw it. Earl Weaver. I think he got ejected earlier in the season.
He's like, come on. Hey, come on. Just ask him. You got to ask him, ask him. He's like, uh, no,
he's like, uh, we'll ask somebody. And the umpire is just saying, no, I'm not. Now Frank's getting
in his face. And Earl's like, Hey, Hey, Frank, back up. Like I came out here. So you wouldn't
get ejected. You got to stop yelling. I'm the one that's on the front lines. Now you're supposed to
be behind. Just get out of here. And Earl's like, come on, what are you doing? Why don't you ask
somebody to hit him in the leg? You know, he's like, well, it didn't hit him a leg, hit him the
bat. He says, uh, no, no, it got him smack in the leg. Come on. You can't see that. Now Frank
Robinson's going to leave. Right. And that's odd. He just walks away. Where did he go? Weaver also
leaves. He goes to the dugout, but he's still barking. He's upset. He's going to walk down the
steps. He can turn right, right in the leg, smack in the leg. Come on. And then the umpire must be
barking back because Weaver's just saying like, uh, what I said, what I said, huh? What I said.
Yeah.
In the leg. Well, you asked, huh? You asked. And then the umpire says, Hey, well, where did Frank
go? He's still up. I called foul tip. He's not out. And he's like, well, I don't know. I'll go
see. I don't know if Frank Robinson thought he got called out like swing and miss, or he just went
to go check on his leg to prove a point, but he left. He's in the dugout. Everyone's got to wait
for him to get back. And Earl Weaver's checks out of him. He says, all right. He's like,
uh, comes, walks back out, turns the balloon. He says, he's coming back out and hit him right.
And he's checking on his leg. It hit him in the leg. The ball you said didn't hit him leg. And
now Frank Robinson comes out, his shirt's undone. I don't know. Just a little piss break. Uh, maybe
he thought he struck out or he was trying to like prove a point. Like, it'd be funny if he came back
and had a bruise or like the mark. He's like, I'll show you the laces. Anyway, he comes back out,
fouls the ball back, stays alive, takes a curve ball high one and two, another curve,
kind of the same pitch called strike three. Now he's done. And then the inning flips and we have
a similar situation where a ball goes in the dirt and the batter on the Mets says that hit me in the
foot. Umpire says, no, it didn't. He's not hit me in the foot. Go check. Wait, you don't think
that hit me in the foot? Yogi Bear's like, Hmm, what's going on here? And then what happens is
the Mets bring out the ball and they're like the shoe polish. You don't see the shoe polish anymore.
You hear legends about it. This doesn't really happen anymore. Now the shoe polish on the ball
and the M says, Oh yeah, you're right. There is shoe polish on this ball. What if it wasn't even
the same ball? Like if I go back, did that ball get discarded? Let me see where this ball goes.
It goes into the dugout. So what if the Mets just have a shoe polish ball on hand at all times?
That isn't positive. It's the same exact ball. Oh, that's hilarious. I wonder if they did that
because the coach just brings a ball out and he's like, Oh yeah,
this has shoe polish on it. It did hit him in the foot. That could have been any ball.
He didn't keep, he didn't keep tabs on that ball. Weaver comes out and he's like,
so you listen to them. They get a second opinion. You change it. And then you can see the umpires
say, say he showed me the ball. Yeah. He showed me the ball. He showed me the ball. Well, it could
have been any ball. He's like, there's shoe polish on this ball. Weaver's like, what are you talking
about? Pitcher gets real in his face, you know, stern finger point, let him know something. And
Weaver once again is like hearing his player talk and like, well, hold up, hold up, hold up,
hold up, hold up. I'm the one that is supposed to get ejected, man. Get back on the mound. McNally,
huh? Hit a home run in this game. McNally, how about that? And then Weaver's like,
this is bullshit. You know why? If I should, Frank, if come out and show you the laces on his
leg, who you have changed the call. Maybe that's maybe the Frank was doing it. Maybe that was smart.
The last thing I loved about going through this footage was this fan.
Woo. Who brought a bajillion fans.
Back to your nest, bird. Cloud nine. Bye-bye birdies. Out of sight. How many signs did he
bring? Is he a plant by the network? A lot of bird signs. And some of them aren't even that great.
So there you go. That's the 1969 World Series oddities, familiarities, and all in between.
Thanks for watching. Subscribe to the channel. And thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring these
breakdowns. I appreciate them.
As always, maybe I'll do some more going through old footage and pointing out the weird shit.
If you guys enjoy it, let me know.