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On 26 August 1939, the first televised Major League Baseball game was broadcast on station W2XBS, the station that would become WNBC-TV. Announcer Red Barber covered the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York.
At that time, television was still in its infancy, there was still no regular programming and very few people owned television sets; there were only about 833 in the New York area.
It was not until 1950 that regular network broadcasting became popular in the United States, and only in the mid-1990s did televisions become more common in American households.
In 1939, the World’s Fair, which was being held in New York, became the catalyst of the historical transmission. Television was one of the fair’s award-winning exhibits, and organizers believed that the Dodgers-Reds doubleheader at the 26 August was the perfect event to showcase America’s dominance over new technology.
By today’s standards, video coverage was somewhat crude. There were only two stationary camera angles: the first was positioned on the third base line to collect infield throws to first, and the second was positioned high above home plate to get a wide view of the field. It was also difficult to capture fast plays: swinging bats looked like paper fans, and the ball was almost invisible during pitches and hits.
However, the experiment was a success and sparked interest in the development of television technology, especially for sporting events. Although baseball owners were initially concerned that televising baseball would undermine actual attendance, they soon bought into the idea. In particular, they embraced the revenue-generating possibilities that came with increased gaming exposure, including the sale of rights to broadcast certain teams or games and television advertising.
Today, televised sports is a multi-billion dollar industry, with technology providing viewers an astonishing amount of visual and audio detail. Cameras are now so precise that they can capture the way a ball changes shape when hit by a bat, and athletes are wired to capture conversations at the field level and off the court.
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