Tuesday, January 7, 2014

A Treasure Trove of Baseball Videos

Thanks to a tip at Uniwatch, I found a treasure trove of old baseball videos on Youtube.  Since July of 2013, user ClassicMLB11 has uploaded a huge number of videos and he continues to add more.  It's amazing that MLB hasn't yanked them yet, and it would sure be nice if they would just let them be.

When you've got some time to kill, like on a cold and snowy day, poke around and see what's there.  I'm sure you'll find some for your team.  I know I found a bunch of cool Cubs videos.  There are also many episodes of This Week In Baseball from the late '70s and early '80s.  How about that!!

I decided to make a preemptive move in case MLB does take them down.  I download my favorite Cubs videos.  Youtube has made it a bit more difficult to download videos, but I've got a great workaround...a site called Keepvid.  All you have to do is go to the site and paste in the URL of the Youtube video you'd like.

Here are a few of the Cubs videos that I kept...

Don Cardwell's No Hitter on May 15, 1960...this is the last inning and a half of the game, plus the post-game interviews.




NBC Game of the Week July 7, 1969.  A game from that fateful year has Fergie on the mound as the Cubs top the Phillies.



Ernie Banks Career Home Runs #498, 499, and 500  I've seen number 500 many times, but this was my first looks at 498 and 499.  Interesting that they are all at Wrigley.  Mr. Cub wanted to please the home fans.





A Look at the Cubs 1970  Every season WGN would put together a half-hour preview of the upcoming season.  I can remember anxiously awaiting the show, since it was the first time I would have seen the team since the previous September.



A Look at the Cubs 1975  The team wasn't going to be very good, but there's lots of Jose Cardenal and his super-fro in the show.




Opening Day 1982...This was Harry Caray's first telecast as Cubs announcer.  His partner was the jilted Milo Hamilton.  Steve Stone was hired for the 1983 season.




Cubs Clinch the Division, 1984...This is the second half of the game (the first half is here), plus the locker room celebration.  In all the excitement of winning the game, I forgot about how dominant Rick Sutcliffe was in this game...a two hitter and he faced only 28 batters.  Not a bad performance in a clinching game.




1984 NLCS Game 1... The Cubs clobbered the Padres 13-0 and all was well with the world...for a few more days.






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