Cool clip of the '77 White Sox

[whitesox5187]

This clip has the last seven minutes or so of a White Sox win over the Red Sox from the '77 season. There are a lot of old White Sox games floating around on YouTube, but I don't think I've seen one from the '77 season:

One of thing that's amazing to me is that there doesn't appear to be a center field camera. I can't imagine how anyone would be able to watch a nine inning baseball game without a centerfield camera!

[Lipman 1]

Not a lot of footage still around from that magical season. I've got about 20 minutes worth of game highlights in my library.

[LITTLE NELL]

The first thing I noticed is the players and how they looked sort of on the small size compared to the monsters that are playing most sports in this day and age. Fred Lynn looked like a stick figure and Rice and Downing were not all that big either. Is it any wonder why we see so many tape measure homers now a days, juiced ball or not. There was something about Comiskey when it was packed to the rafters, maybe because it was double decked practically all the way around and was as loud as any ballpark ever built, someone once said a packed Wrigley Field yayed while a packed Comiskey Park roared.
Always fun to see clips of some back in the day ballgames, hard to believe it's been 44 years since the the Southside Hitmen gave us a bunch of thrills in that wonderful summer of 1977.

[whitesox5187]

The first thing I noticed is the players and how they looked sort of on the small size compared to the monsters that are playing most sports in this day and age. Fred Lynn looked like a stick figure and Rice and Downing were not all that big either. Is it any wonder why we see so many tape measure homers now a days, juiced ball or not. There was something about Comiskey when it was packed to the rafters, maybe because it was double decked practically all the way around and was as loud as any ballpark ever built, someone once said a packed Wrigley Field yayed while a packed Comiskey Park roared.
Always fun to see clips of some back in the day ballgames, hard to believe it's been 44 years since the the Southside Hitmen gave us a bunch of thrills in that wonderful summer of 1977.

One of the things I've often wondered is how hard guys were throwing back then. There's a White Sox game against the Yankees in '81 where Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall were talking about how hard Goose Gossage was throwing and said a radar gun clocked him at 93. I don't know if radar guns are more accurate now or if Gossage wasn't throwing that hard compared to what we are used to today.

[Dumpjerry]

Ah, good 'ole Channel 44.

Harry messed up. When he mentioned that Yaz was on deck, he failed to mention that Hawk Harrellson once played with Yaz.

For those of you keeping score at home, here is the box score for this game
Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox Box Score, July 15, 1977 | Baseball-Reference.com

[Lipman 1]

Ah, good 'ole Channel 44.

Harry messed up. When he mentioned that Yaz was on deck, he failed to mention that Hawk Harrellson once played with Yaz.

For those of you keeping score at home, here is the box score for this game
Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox Box Score, July 15, 1977 | Baseball-Reference.com

The key play was Bob Lemon pinch hitting Lamar Johnson for Oscar Gamble when the Red Sox brought in Bill Lee with the bases loaded. Johnson tripled to dead center field.

[TDog]

Ah, good 'ole Channel 44.

Harry messed up. When he mentioned that Yaz was on deck, he failed to mention that Hawk Harrellson once played with Yaz.

For those of you keeping score at home, here is the box score for this game
Boston Red Sox at Chicago White Sox Box Score, July 15, 1977 | Baseball-Reference.com

Thank you for making me laugh. And thank you for providing the date and Baseball Reference link. I actually attended this game. I was doing summer sessions at IU in Bloomington but drove up for the weekend. I sat in the boxes above the walk behind first base behind a couple of Red Sox fans from Boston. I told the talkative one that the White Sox had the best record in the American League. His response: "short lived." There were a couple of long outs in left, and the fans around us were saying how they would have been home runs in Fenway, and the Boston guy was snapping back, You know nothing about Fenway unless you've been there." I long ago forgot how much fun that night was. Nine runs and no homers, but bases-loaded triples are more fun than even it it requires another hitter to score that fourth run.

[LITTLE NELL]

This clip has the last seven minutes or so of a White Sox win over the Red Sox from the '77 season. There are a lot of old White Sox games floating around on YouTube, but I don't think I've seen one from the '77 season:

One of thing that's amazing to me is that there doesn't appear to be a center field camera. I can't imagine how anyone would be able to watch a nine inning baseball game without a centerfield camera!

Maybe the CF camera was on the fritz for an inning or 2.
Back before the CF camera we watched the Sox on WGN with that same camera angle in the clip and also a camera at field level to the left of the backstop screen which was used mainly when there was left handed hitter at the plate. At Wrigley, it was the same setup left of the back stop but no camera like in the clip but a camera left of the TV booth in the old press box at Wrigley, it was basically the same view that Jack Brickhouse called the games which behind the Cubs third base dugout. The press box at Wrigley was riveted just below the upper deck and Brickhouse would do his 10th Inning post game show using the same camera but he would face the camera looking towards Waveland Ave. Eventually WGN added a camera in the upper deck behind home plate.

[HomeFish]

The field looks so much rougher - you can tell this is before Roger Bossard became the Sodfather.

[whitesox5187]

The field looks so much rougher - you can tell this is before Roger Bossard became the Sodfather.

If Bossard wasn’t the Sodfather it’s because his father was. I think that’s just the way fields looked back in the ‘70s.

[Brian26]

If Bossard wasn’t the Sodfather it’s because his father was. I think that’s just the way fields looked back in the ‘70s.

In general, fields didn't look as good because teams didn't have state of the art drainage systems beneath the field, sprinkler systems, and there was not as much research on turf fields and fertilizers, fungus, etc. You don't see the manicured lines or the stripes on these old videos. It's become part science, part art form. I know that from playing around with my own lawn, dumping Milorganite on it, and using a roller to create stripes.

That said, most of the field were artificial turf in the 70s, so those looked even worse than Comiskey.

Specific to Comiskey, Veeck was renting the place out for rock concerts every weekend that the Sox were on the road, just to try to make a few bucks to try to clear payroll and pay the bills on a monthly basis. The "Super Bowl of Rock" was held there. They had tons of concerts. Fans were permitted on the field. There was even a concert where a pretty big fire started in the upper deck, and they just kept on with the show. Gene Bossard had his work cut out for him trying to make the place look decent for actual Sox games. The outfield was mostly sand and green spray paint.

[Nellie Fox]

I don't know if radar guns are more accurate now or if Gossage wasn't throwing that hard compared to what we are used to today.

Ever consider the possibility that today's guns are "juiced" to excite the fans?

[PaleHoser]

Opening Day of 1977 can be found here. Unfortunately it's the Blue Jays feed so no Harry Caray.

Regarding the comment about the condition of the field in that clip, the Chicago Sting played there regularly (and also at Wrigley Field IIRC) and live concerts were also common in that era. So the field was subject to a lot of wear and tear unrelated to baseball.