August 26, 1939
 

A date that will live in infamy, to borrow a phrase, when the first Major League Baseball game was televised. And yes this would be a trivia question if I knew the answer, but that is not the question. Dig a little deeper and you will find that the Lions and Tigers played the first televised baseball game earlier in 1939. But everybody knows that the Lions were from Columbia and the Tigers were from Princeton.

As a kid in the 50s I survived with only the game of the week with ol' Diz and Pee Wee doing the play by play. I believe also that the majority of the Yankee games were available on TV in the New York market in that time frame.

Today and for some time with ESPN and more recently the MLB network, not an inning or play goes unnoticed by a camera. To be sure there are black outs and all games are not televised in all markets, but here is the question.

When was the most recent regularly scheduled major league game played with absolutely no video recording, whether it was broadcast live or not? In other words, no live TV, no highlights on the late news, no web gems, no internet video, nada. A game in which Babe Ruth could have hit his 715th home run with no video evidence to celebrate the fete.

As I said at the top, this may be trivia, but I do not know the answer, nor could I find the answer easily with several search attempts. I suspect there will be more than one answer provided here, so a date and some sort of proof or reference would be nice.

Does the Baltimore Orioles v. Chicago White Sox game last year count? April 29, 2015 the O's and White Sox faced off without any fans in the stands, but I'm not sure if the game was covered by cameras or radio. Social unrest being the reason Camden Yards was closed for the day.

Re: August 26, 1939
 

Ty,

I watched that game last year with my MLB.tv subscription. So, that is
definitely not the correct answer.

Frank,

If I understand your question correctly you mean NO broadcast whatsoever?
Or, shown only regionally? I remember wanting to watch Nolan Ryan's
seventh no-hitter in 1991, but living in SoCal and there not being MLB.tv
I was stuck only watching the highlights on the evening news.

If I had to guess, I'd say probably in the 1970's or 80's sometime.

ErikV

The day that really lives in infamy was 6 days later, when Germany invaded Poland, the subject of the great poem "September 1, 1939." Now back to Frank B TV.

Being a Sox fan it was in fact televised and I watched it. Don't remember but I'm pretty sure they lost that game, go figure.

double post

Thanks Erik, and Josh. Was not sure if that game was broadcast (not a fan of either team), that had to be surreal.

I would think the answer to this question may have something to do with a neutral site baseball game. I was thinking the 2004 Florida Marlins, and 2008 Houston Astros games moved due to Hurricanes Ivan and Ike respectively. Or, one of the 2003-04 Montreal Expos games when they were bouncing between Puerto Rico and Montreal. But possibly, one of the first six home games of the 1996 Oakland Athletics when they needed to open their season at Cashman Field in Las Vegas, because renovations to Oakland-Alameda County Stadium were not completed.

Since May 23, 1995, when the first baseball game was broadcast on the internet between the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees, I'd imagine there has been coverage of some type of every MLB game. Great question Frank, really got me thinking today about something besides my mundane job :)

https://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2...ll-broadcasts/

I'd imagine it was either a long time ago or the result of an accident. One year towards the end of the Expos run in Montreal they operated without both a TV contract and radio affiliate, but a sparse camera crew recorded the home games for local and national news.

A couple nights ago, I turned on what I thought was a rerun of that game. Then I realized it was a live Braves game. Ba-dum-tss...