Cut4 at MLB.com reminds us today that it’s the 75th anniversary of Major League Baseball on television. Not that it was a grand affair:
75 years ago today, an experimental station in New York City (which would ultimately become WNBC-4), aired the very first contest -- a doubleheader between the Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field . . . Just 3,000 people were able to enjoy the Reds-Dodgers game in 1939 from their homes . . .
And the next day some columnist wrote about those ratings and then ranted about how baseball was dying.
Although it’s worth noting that thanks to carriage disputes and Major League Baseball’s ridiculous blackout rules, more people were able to watch that 1939 Dodgers game than non-Time Warner subscribers in L.A. and Dodgers fans in places like Las Vegas will be able to watch tonight’s Dodgers game, and we live in the gorram 21st Century.