NBC's Baseball Farewell from 1989

On October 9, 1989, NBC (the National Broadcasting Company) televised Game 5 of the National League Championship Series between the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs. The Giants, on that day, would win their first pennant since 1962. That particular day was also significant because it marked NBC's last telecast of a Major League Baseball game since 1947. CBS was going to take over exclusive over-the-air TV rights from not only NBC, but also ABC beginning in 1990 (and lasting through 1993).

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/NBCBaseballLegacy/?yguid=201668823

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• NBC
• Baseball
• Farewell
• Will
• Clark
• Tom
• Seaver
• Vin
• Scully
• 1989
• NLCS
• Giants
• Cubs
• Game

[TMC1982Part2]

CBS really should've hired Vin Scully to front their MLB coverage going into 1990 rather than only bringing him in to do radio for the World Series. Besides giving CBS instant credibility (unlike CBS' original choice, Brent Musburger, was admitedly, was their top sportscaster during the '80s), it would've lessened the blow of NBC losing MLB after some 42 years. Also, Scully was much more TV savvy than Jack Buck and more than likely would've better controlled/reigned in Tim McCarver.

[TMC1982Part2]

1989 was a really weird and distressing baseball year. NBC (as well as ABC) loses baseball after having covered it since 1989. Pete Rose gets banned for life for betting on baseball. Bart Giamatti dies a year into his commissionership. Donnie Moore commits suicide and Billy Martin dies in a car crash. Dave Dravecky's comeback from cancer is short-lived. And of course, the earthquake before Game 3 of the World Series.

[Tommy6583]

I wish Joe Garagiola could have hung on one more year till the NBC finale. Would have been special with Vin and Joe. Bob Costas should have been there for the NBC close but he did the ALCS.

[TMC1982Part2]

@Tommy6583 True, but if NBC was going to go out like this, then why not have the greatest baseball announcer to ever live in Vin Scully close it out? I just hope and pray that when the next contract is up, NBC comes back into the fray (to put an end to Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Fox's reign of terror for the past decade and a half).

[gracebasherguy92]

This wasn't the last game on NBC. The last game on NBC was Game 6 of the 2000 ALCS.

[TMC1982Part2]

True, but this was the last time that NBC seemed to really give a damn about baseball. The next time they had it was for the dreaded Baseball Network. Afterwards, they didn't even bother to show regular season games.

[boodat77]

I could listen to Vin Scully do play-by-play of paint drying

[juan833cheer]

As the late Russ Hodges would say:

THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!!!

a fitting way to end NBC's baseball coverage from 1989.

R.I.P. Russ Hodges

[xSoccerxCorex]

@altfactor and NBC covered the series on radio since the 20's til 1976 when CBS got that contract

[xSoccerxCorex]

@TMC1982Part2 they weren't allowed to show them anyway as long as Fox did. it's why they dropped all baseball after 2000. if they can't show regular season games, why even bother having the contract???

[877LLB]

Baseball needs to go back to nbc fox sucks cock at baseball

[TheNewGateStudios]

Final National Anthem on NBC Baseball until 1994: The Tower of Power Horns, who are to San Francisco what the Funk Brothers are to Detroit.

[MrLehnerd]

hey nothin like 89 chokin cubs lose 84 lose chokein 2003 chokin vs fla marlins n blame Bartman still......and again since 1908 cubs be waitin n waitin by 2018 still waitin.......

[wizeman5974]

Wow.....so ironic! Not only was San Francisco the last place Scully broadcast a baseball game for NBC, I believe it was also the last place he broadcast a football game for CBS ('81 NFC Championship Game, 49ers vs Cowboys: The Dwight Clark "Catch" Game).

[altfactor]

@gracebasherguy92 But at the time (October, 1989), no one at NBC knew when, or even if, they'd ever resume telecasting Major League Baseball.

The "42 years" Vin Scully mentioned goes back to 1947, when NBC (along with CBS and DuMont) jointly televised the World Series (the first World Series on TV). But NBC's local New York station began televising local MLB games as far back as August, 1939.