1962 World Series, Game 7-Final Out (Lost TV Call)

-The telecast of the dramatic Game 7 of the 1962 World Series between the Yankees and Giants, which came down to Willie McCovey's line drive to Bobby Richardson with the tying and winning runs in scoring position, sadly does not exist. An audio recording of the lost telecast does exist and here is Russ Hodges's call of the final out, synched to film footage from a newsreel and the World Series highlight film.

[@dominictant]

I was at this game I was 7 years old it was the first baseball game I ever went to and I lived right around the corner from candlestick Park

[@wiedep]

Up until the 80's infield umpires made a habit of asking players in the field just before a series ended for their hat. NL ump Al Barlick asked Richardson and he obliged after the last out. Richardson said “Right before the last pitch of the game, the National League umpire asked, ‘Hey Rich, can I have your cap for my little cousin?’ Well, I caught the ball, turned around and gave him my cap. I was thinking about that before McCovey hit the ball.’’ Another 'in'famous hat snatch was at the end of the '67 Series, when NL ump Augie Donatelli plucked the hat off the head of Cardinals 2nd baseman Julian Javier while the players were celebrating on the field. You can see it clearly in the Series highlight film. That hat ended up in a sports themed bar/restaurant in St. Petersburg that Donatelli had an interest in - called "EL CAP" which hopefully will reopen soon.

[@RRaquello]

Stop the video at 0:06 and check out how the Yankees are playing McCovey. They have a shift on and it worked perfectly with the ball being hit right to Richardson. Boyer is playing almost on the grass almost midway between 2nd & 3rd and Kubek is just a little to the left of 2nd base. I guess they have Boyer playing in so close because they figured if McCovey hit it to the left side it wouldn't be hit as hard and Boyer could still cut off the run at the plate.

[@MavoMovies52]

I haven't heard Russ Hodges's call of the final out of the 1962 World Series since I watched the game as a 10 year-old kid! Thank you for posting it! Where can I find the TV audio of the complete game? If you have it could you send it to me? Thanks!

[@ericgalati2721]

Dear Cmavo, Unfortunately money reigns supreme and not the tradition of the National Pastime,. This World Series is one of the very greatest, and Mister Ralph Terry in this seventh game pitched the greatest of the greatest seventh games. And not to forget as everyone does, how Mister Willie Mays played his heart and soul out only to be struck down by the incredible catch by left fielder Tom Tresh h of May's line drive to deep left field in the bottom of the seventh, and more than perfect play by right fielder Roger Maris of Mays' double to right field saving the game. You can only hear the audio of this World Series beautifully announced by a forgotten overlooked great baseball player himself, Mister George Kell. A superior play by play by Mister Kell than the above television one by Mister Russ Hodges. My friend with regard to my first sentence above: not just the National Broadcasting Company, the respective television stations of California or New York, Major League Baseball, either the American League or the National League, or any baseball team, never recorded or saved 99% of all World Series games telecast from 1949 to 1974. They just taped over them or discarded them!!! God Bless, Eric Galati

[@RRaquello]

@@ericgalati2721 They could only tape over them after the advent of videotape, which would have been in the late 50's Before that, the games would have been filmed on kinescope, which could be disposed of, but not re-used. So there is a possibility that earlier games could still exist somewhere on kinescope, as yet undiscovered in an archive or basement. The best possibility for surviving kinies is the US Armed Forces Radio & TV Network, for whom the games were kinescoped in the first place. A few of these have turned up (I've seen a couple of games from the 1958 World Series). Kinescopes were being made as late as 1970, because CBC kinescopes have turned up (and are available for viewing on KZbin) of the 1968 & 1970 World Series. I think all the games from the 1965 World Series are also available, but nothing from 1964 or 66 or 67. It's very hit or miss what has resurfaced. Will any more ever turn up? It's not impossible.

[@ericgalati2721]

@@RRaquello I thank you ever so much for your worthy REPLY to my COMMENT from eight months ago. You know I see this video was uploaded by Epaddon three years ago and I never knew it. What is beautiful to see are other scenes from the game, above all the great catch by left fielder Tom Tresh off of Willie Mays. Oh what beautiful memories! If anyone knows of other kinescopes discovered please let everyone know. It is very similar to the world of the cinema and its philistine-slipshod and even artistically cruel outlook on complete negatives of films. I know of the Canadian Broadcasting Company kinescopes. Still what a tragedy that Major League Baseball has never tracked all the games down. Have you ever heard Mister George Kell announce the game on radio? Excellent! Far more heartfelt than Mister Russ Hodges,, then again ex-baseball player announcers always were. And even more outspokenly critical. Just listen to Rick Sutcliffe as opposed to Gary Thorne and likewise Tim McCarver as opposed to Joe Buck, on the strange put out play at third base by Scott Brosius in the ninth inning instead of making an easy double play,third base to first: Seventh final game 2001. I seriously question with suspicion that whole play. Brosius certainly was not a Cletis Boyer. Oh!!! To see Boyer's two extraordinary plays in the first game of 1961!!! If only!Thank you once again. God Bless, Eric Galati

[@RRaquello]

​@@ericgalati2721 I've listened to a lot of old games from existing radio recordings, so hve heard George Kell doing Tiger broadcasts, but am most familiar with him from his work on those existing kinescopes of the 1968 World Series, where he did the games at Tiger Stadium with Curt Gowdy. The games in St. Louis of course had Gowdy & Harry Caray, so we don't get to hear Kell in the clinching game. The ex-players I'm most familiar with as announcers, since I grew up in New York, are Ralph Kiner & Phil Rizzuto, plus Tony Kubek from the NBC Game of the Week. Bill White also did the Yankee broadcasts for many years, with Rizzuto and Frank Messer.

[@ericgalati2721]

@@RRaquello How sublime that you have what is missing in all aspects of our present life: an HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS that provides you with an HISTORICAL MEMORY. I am sure you were also familiar with MessersJerry Coleman and Joe Garagiola . I recently discovered that even Mister Joe Dimaggio did some broadcasting for New York Yankees games. Mister Sandy Koufax was similar to Mister Dimaggio yet the powers that be were angry at him because he told the truth about the, basically cheat of the New York Mets victory over the Baltimore Orioles in game 4 of the 1969 World Series. I believe it was a fix, and I assure you I never thought like this before. When you have the Orioles managers and players say that they didn't protest it right then and there because the fans were having a good time, something is not all together. If Manager Earl Weaver had not been thrown out of the game he would have torn Shea Stadium to pieces. One last story: Mister Pete Rose a few years ago came back with a group of announcers, one or two ex-players of a younger generation. He stated with regard to pitching and the mechanized pitch count:"I do not understand what you mean: Can he pitch two innings since he has pitched two or more in the previous two games!" Everyone consider this: Mister Ralph Terry would have never stayed on the mound for all nine innings in to-day's humanoid baseball. No triumph of one's skill and will against adversity and defeat! God Bless, Eric Galati

[@jedwardsish]

You guys might think I'm lying but im actually related to bobby Richardson

[@timmellin2815]

Did you have a fielder's glove in your crib ?

[@fredevans6741]

The N.Y. Yankees would lose the 1963 and 1964 World Series'. Their next World Series title would be in 1977.

[@josepinela4636]

Los Yankees ganaron gracias a que marichal se lesiono' una mano en el 2do juego

[@donaldvisconti5483]

I was 14, and still consider this my greatest thrill as a Yankee fan! My 2nd greatest was being in the mezzanine, when Chris Chambliss won the 1976 pennant with that 9th inning home run against the Royals!

[@dzanier]

To have been at Game 5 of the 76 ALCS is to have witnessed maybe the most dramatic moment in Yankees history.

[@billny33]

Did you run onto the field amidst the chaos or stay in your seats and enjoy watching everyone in the lower levels swarm on like ants on a candy bar?

[@edwardbaker1331]

I was 13 and got my first introduction to heart palpitations.

[@Noname-ni1dy]

In a book called “World Series” that Robert Smith wrote that gave the story of each World Series up to 1966, he describes the last out as Bobby Richardson jumping “high, high into the air and catching the line drive by McCovey.” Seeing it on film you can see that the ball was hit right to him a little over shoulder high. Funny.

[@chrisericksen7836]

Embellishment is a two minute penalty in hockey....not in writing Baseball books

[@felixmadison5736]

I have that book plus many others covering the World Series, and I thought maybe he got his 'Series' mixed up.

[@epaddon]

That's a testament to the kind of hyperbole that would crop up in an era before videotape replay was common and the ability to see the footage over and over just wasn't there.

[@timmellin2815]

Look at the force with which the ball was hit, as Richardson's body language after the catch really shows him staggering by McCovey's blast.

[@RRaquello]

@@timmellin2815 Also look how far over towards first base Richardson was playing. It's basically a shift for McCovey. If he had been playing in a normal second base position, it would have been a hit, so good defensive strategy for the Yankees.

[@felixmadison5736]

I remember that Series and that GAME vividly. I was 13 years-old and stood there stunned in front of our 19" black & white television after Richardson caught that screamer off the bat of Willie McCovey. So F'N close!

[@BigfistJP]

I was 9, and this was my earliest memory of watching a World Series game. I remember my heart beating so hard and fast during McCovey's at bat and thinking "if my heart is pounding so hard, I wonder what Willie McCovey's is doing?"

[@joevecchio6988]

If Richardson doesn't catch that and the right fielder misses it, it would have smashed a hole in the fence! I wonder what the exit velocity of that was!

[@kleshreen]

lol, funny how this second baseman is WAY shifted over on McCovey in 1962. Shifts obviously have been around for quite a while.

[@bobbell1922]

Yes, but not for every batter like today. Pretty much only Ted Williams and Willie McCovey faced a shift on a regular basis.

[@dzanier]

This play gets all the recognition and that's understandable, but prior to this Willie Mays doubled down the right field line with two outs Alou on first. Maris got to it so fast and got it in so quickly that Alou couldn't score even though he was running on contact. Had Maris not done that, Alou would've scored and Mays might have been on third. McCovey later said this was the hardest ball he had ever hit in his life. Yanks wouldn't win another WS until 1977.

[@epaddon]

This is sadly an underappreciated WS in my opinion. The edge of the seat tension to the last second was much greater than with Mazeroski but that one gets more credit because let's face it, the baseball "poets" prefer the ending where the Yankees lost. If McCovey got the base hit they'd be ranking this game #1 overall for greatest game ever IMO.

[@VandelayIndustries61]

@@epaddon Agree, I consider this the best WS of the 1960s, a decade that had a lot of interesting World Series.

[@iamhungey12345]

@@epaddon Big time though to think it involves the same pitcher.

[@artiewithers6980]

It was Ralph Terry on the mound, I think. Remember what happened in Pittsburgh two years before.

[@dzanier]

@@artiewithers6980 indeed it was Ralph Terry.

[@davidburns7045]

Um why in heck was he pitching to mccovey???? Base open. Cepeda is a mess. Mccovey is hot. A lefty. Etc... What a bonehead decision. Yanks lucked out.

[@willdrucker4291]

Wowww...even back in ‘62, the Yankees were using the soon to be infamous “McCovey Shift”....notice where Kubek was (up the middle behind 2nd Base)...Boyer (at shortstop)....and Tresh in left centerfield...if Richardson is at his normal position at Second, that liner at least scores Matty Alou, and perhaps Willie Mays scores the game, AND SERIES, winner...of course, Maris’ arm would have made it close at home...but at least they’d be going into extra innings....

[@patrickramirez3101]

God. Damm it

[@jaymorgenthal9479]

1962 was the longest regular season in baseball history in the NL. The Giants and Dodgers had to play a 3 game tiebreaker series. The only one in the 162 game season era and for sure never again. 165 by those teams will be a record never to be tied or broken

[@RepriseFan]

Why isn't there TV telecasts of the 62 World Series? I've seen TV telecasts from the early 50's World Series but no TV games of any of the 7 games. Would be great to see at least 1 of these games but don't know why we haven't.

[@epaddon]

The ones from the 50s that have turned up didn't surface until the 80s and 90s, and they weren't saved by the networks, they were forgotten kinescope reels sent out for later airing at military bases and were supposed to be destroyed but they weren't (I think some of those were found at flea markets). 65 and 68 were saved by the CBC and they would have been the best hope for 62 but they don't have it. Another example of how rare they are is that 1960 Game 7 was found only in 2010 because Bing Crosby had a kinescope made for his personal archive and it was still in his basement years after he died. It's possible there is a kinescope from 62 floating out there in someone's attic or vault but finding it would be just half the battle. Getting access to it would be the other half.

[@randydubin7118]

Imagine if that ball went past Richardson. Russ's call would had made "*THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!"* seemed like child's play....

[@SeamHead33]

the Pennant is the League Championship

[@randydubin7118]

@@SeamHead33 I assume you don't know what I am referring to there...

[@cojaysea]

But it’s not the pennant it’s the WS

[@BassPlyr23]

Much hand-wringing by Giants fans over this play over the past 60 years. Even Charles M. Schulz was compelled to devote two days’ worth of “Peanuts” strips over the play. Giants fans would have you believe that Richardson had to leap for this ball and only barely caught it. As you can see here, it just isn’t so. It was lined right at Richardson, who never left his feet. Get over it, kids.

[@timmellin2815]

Yes, the ball was hit so hard, look how the force knocked him backwards and off balance !

[@sandy3482]

Thaaaaaaaa Yankees Win! I remember watching that game with my friends and when my favorite player Bobby Richardson caught that ball we went running out of the house screaming with joy! Thank God the yanks had a smart manager in 1962, (he keep Terry in the game) not like that Bonehead Boone they have know

[@walkergillette3918]

right Stengal kept Terry in game 7 in 1960, he cost the Yankees the series by giving up the game winning homer to Mazerowski, and McCovey almost won the game here, due to Terry, so you don't know what the hell your talking about

[@epaddon]

@@walkergillette3918 There wasn't anyone warming in the bullpen. This was Terry's game to win or lose and it was only a question of whether he pitched to McCovey or walked him intentionally to pitch to Cepeda. As for 1960, Stengel lost that when he wouldn't pitch Whitey Ford in Game 1 and held him back until Game 3 which left him unavailable for Game 7.

[@RRaquello]

@@epaddon Stengel always thought Ford was too "frail" to be used as a #1 starter, the way, for instance, the Phillies would use Robin Roberts or the Braves used Warren Spahn or the Tigers used Jim Bunning. He always kept Ford's innings to a minimum. He could usually get away with it because the Yankees had so much depth, but their pitching depth in 1960 wasn't what it was in 1953. Instead of Raschi, Reynolds, Lopat he had Coates, Sturdivant, Ditmar, a basically shot Bob Turley, guys like that. Ford never won 20 games until Houk became the manager. Terry was a good pitcher but maybe the best solution would have been to leave Shantz in till the end.

[@epaddon]

@@RRaquello Or Stengel could have used Ryne Duren or Luis Arroyo, both of whom saw almost no action in the 60 WS. Duren had lost some of his stuff but Arroyo had blossomed as a closer-type yet Stengel didn't use him.

[@kevinmadden1645]

Ralph Houk got away with murder by leaving Ralph Terry in to face Willie McCovey. McCovey hit a gigantic home run off Terry in the Giants' 2-0 second game victory.

[@lemmiwinks09]

Thought you might want to know that your video has been posted entirely with no credit to you by the Classic MLB1 channel! That’s the worst when people rip your stuff and put it out as their own!

[@bruceb2408]

19th WS win in the previous 40 seasons. 4 others were lost 4-3 in that time. I guess that's why they acted like they won a spring training game.

[@felixmadison5736]

Yeah, the Yankees were the only MLB team that 'had a MLB Team' to choose players from. I'm talking about the Kansas City Athletics of course. LOL!!

[@richardcosta3504]

As a 10 year old I cried when that game ended. Wanted Willie and the Giants to win.

[@billny33]

So that's what Russ Hodges sounded like when he wasn't screaming at the top of his lungs. He sounds so different here. I am surprised this is the tv telecast because Hodges is so descriptive, it sounds like he is either calling for radio or narrating a World Series film. The old tv announcers of this era that I've heard (thinking of Mel Allen mostly but a little Red Barber, Vin Scully as well) were so sparse with words, you had a lot of roar of the crowd with a few short phrases to punctuate it every now and again and I understood why, but this seems very different from that.

[@epaddon]

I'm more astonished at the matter-of-fact statistical recap we get after the game ends. Never has a World Series gone down to its final pitch with the outcome in doubt either way like it did here, and had this been a 70s-80s broadcast we'd be hearing a lot more emotion and a lot more excitement in what happened and after the final out instead of a standard "recap" of statistics we'd be hearing more about the fine difference between winning and losing etc. and the heartbreak on the Giants side etc. I have to admit this is one reason why I'm less enamored of the style of calling a game from this era as opposed to what emerged more in the 70s onward.

[@billny33]

@@epaddon also strange considering we know Hodges is no stranger to highly emotional reactions in such tense finales.

[@balrog322]

You’ve got me curious. This doesn’t sound much at all like Russ Hodges, and I grew up in the Bay Area listening to him & Lon Simmons on “KSFO, in San Francisco.” He actually didn’t scream at the top of his lungs all that much.

[@jackbriggs3110]

@@balrog322 if you listen closely you can tell that this is mel allen, who called the game on tv

[@epaddon]

@@balrog322 It is Russ Hodges. Mel Allen was in the clubhouse to handle postgame interviews because the Yankees were leading in the 9th inning.

[@MavoMovies52]

Epaddon, I haven't heard Russ Hodges's call of the final out of the 1962 World Series since I watched the game as a 10 year-old kid! Thank you for posting it! Where can I find the TV audio of the complete game? If you have it could you send it to me? Thanks!

[@epaddon]

The full reel this came from is a condensed recording of the TV audio. Most of the game not all. Eventually I'll post it.

[@thedoddio3916]

Thank you for posting this. Until now, I had only heard the call by George Kell on NBC Radio. I would enjoy hearing Lon Simmons’ call of this moment on KSFO.

[@epaddon]

Glad you enjoyed it! I have not seen any evidence to indicate there was any Simmons call on KSFO. In those days, the World Series radio broadcasts were an exclusive NBC Radio property for all markets and no separate "local" broadcast was permitted by MLB until 1984 (the regular local station would just pick up the network broadcast). The only exception I know to this came in 1959 when the White Sox station WCFL was allowed to do one because their regular announcer Bob Elson had been shut out of the national World Series broadcast. The author Curt Smith I know has for years has attributed a PBP quote of the final out to Simmons but that's actually Kell's NBC Radio call.

[@timmellin2815]

epaddon....thank you for that insight. My Pasadena City College electronics instructor was the on site engineer for the Dodgers' Spanish radio broadcasts. When the Dodgers played the Yankees in the WS one year many years ago, the Spanish broadcasts were allowed because I know Mr. Johnson worked it. Lots of press, so extra broadcasters doubled up in booths. Jack Buck of the radio broadcast was next to the Spanish broadcasts, so when Buck did his disclaimer, it ended like this, since he heard the Spanish announcers a few seconds before his: "w/out the express written consent of major league baseball, esta' prohibido ! "

[@timmellin2815]

Is there any film available of Richardson giving the ump his cap, after the catch, or of the verbal byplay between the ump and Richardson where he promised the ump his cap ?

[@alexanderestrada2499]

I wish the whole game was available.

[@jedwardsish]

Hi

[@hmhm856]

Brutal World Series loss for the Giants

[@felixmadison5736]

Yes. A heart breaker. Terry was damned lucky. You have to give credit to Ralph Houk OR Richardson for their defensive placement. A foot left or right and the Giants are World Champs. This was the last hurrah for the Yankees until King George 'Trump' Steinbrenner came along.

[@hmhm856]

@@felixmadison5736 Well, not really the Yankees last hoorah, since in 1963 and 1964 the Yankees both times won 100 games and both times won the AL Pennant, but lost both times in the World Series (LA Dodgers and Cardinals). But 1964 was the last year of their 55-years- dynasty that started in 1920 when they acquired Babe Ruth. Starting in 1965, the Yankees (as the legendary franchise we knew them) were no more, with the following two things happening: 1- MLB in the late 1950's and early 1960, first adding one franchise in the state of Texas (Colts45/Astros) and three franchises to the state of California (Giants, Dodgers, Angels), so now the best players had more options on where to sign once they turned 16, and Texas and California were nice states to live in. 2- Then of course with the addition of the MLB draft in 1965, so now the best players in the country were drafted instead of those players signing as free agents with any team they wanted once they turned 16.

[@felixmadison5736]

I'm talking about getting into World Series and losing in '63 '64. Twins take A.L. Pennant in '65, the O's in '66, then Yanks finished last in '67, literally 'bottoming out'. Radio silence until King George and his money came along.

[@hmhm856]

@@felixmadison5736 And then the Mets took over New York, especially with 1969 and 1973

[@felixmadison5736]

@@hmhm856 Yes they did...Until King George entered. Mets finally winning it all, thanks to the late, great Tom 'Terrific' Seaver. Damn, he was a great one!!

[@yescommunitiesnorules9623]

0:49 Kid in red and white coat steals a players hat and runs off lol

[@dennismiddlebrooks7027]

I cannot believe Ralph Houck did not have Terry walk McCovey, a lefty hitter, with first base open. McCovey had tripled earlier in the game and homered against Terry in a previous game. Orlando Cepeda, a right handed hitter, was on deck, and Terry was a right handed pitcher. There would have been a force at every base with the bases loaded. McCovey smoked that pitch!

[@epaddon]

I think Houk asked Terry what he wanted to do and Terry insisted on pitching to McCovey. That's how every version I've read said what happened.

[@VandelayIndustries61]

I agree on strategy, but Houk got the job because he was a "player's manager" after Stengel who was something of a tyrant. Houk generally let his top performers write their own ticket, and Terry was a 23-game winner that year. I agree it was strange strategy at best but that's how Houk managed, he let his stars call the shots.

[@robertaxel]

Sound reasoning, given McCovey's success v. Terry and the fact that Terry was facing a righty hitter. However, Cepeda was a HOF hitter in his own right and with bases loaded, there is no margin for error...

[@dennismiddlebrooks7027]

@@robertaxel Actually, Terry was facing a lefty hitter in McCovey. Terry was a righty.

[@robertaxel]

@@dennismiddlebrooks7027 Understood, I was referring to the fact that Cepeda was right handed, I was trying to discuss the strategy for possibly walking McCovey...

[@chrisdennehy9425]

Good one, Epp, any hockey in the works?

[@timmellin2815]

Charles Schultz' Peanuts cartoon devoted a day's work to this final catch, a few days after the WS had ended, that year.

[@bruceaguilar4883]

It was published 12/21/62 as I read it on my birthday in the SF Chronicle

[@gilbertopierdicca5187]

60 years and counting. Great Champions and great Baseball.

[@felixmadison5736]

The Boston Celtics of baseball.

[@hogartstrain5641]

@@felixmadison5736*celtics the Yankees of basketball

[@felixmadison5736]

@@hogartstrain5641 The top two teams in their sport as far as World Championships go. Celts are currently tied with the Fakers, but will be alone at the top after this season.

[@walkergillette3918]

Freaking Ralph Terry almost cost them the World Series in the 7th game, lucky Richardson caught that liner, it was freaking Ralph Terry who cost the Yanks the World Series in the 7th game 2 years earlier to the Pirates, up yours Terry

[@edwardbaker1331]

Do you need to be so childishly dishonorable towards a deceased man?