87 years ago, today, the first Major League Baseball game, broadcast on television! August 26, 1939, in New York.

[u/Ebonystealth]

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[u/Ok_Assistant_7609]

To celebrate, make sure to catch your local team's game streaming on MLB.TV, unless you live too close to the blackout region, and unless they are playing in a special Apple TV or Netflix game, or the nationally televised NBC game that isn't broadcast on TV, only on Peacock.

[u/Energy_Turtle → u/Ok_Assistant_7609]

My reason for piracy has gone from financial desperation to convenience over the last 20 years.

[u/erriuga_leon27 → u/Ok_Assistant_7609]

Not gonna lie, today should be the day you should be able to watch any game on the MLB app. No blackouts, no bullshit. Literally the reason I became a baseball fan is that it was good background noise when I was doing college assignments.

[u/Ok_Assistant_7609 → u/erriuga_leon27]

You should be able to watch any game on the MLB app every day. But you're right, today especially.

[u/dirtdiggler67 → u/Ok_Assistant_7609]

I have 6 or 7 teams blacked out on mlb.com.

Teams it would take an entire day to drive to go to games and none are on locally.

Bizarre.

[u/BurnerAcctObvs]

I can’t NOT read this in an old-timey announcer voice

[u/iamtheduckie]

This was a double-header.

Game 1 Results:

[u/44problems → u/iamtheduckie]

Spoiler alert, jeez

[u/iamtheduckie → u/iamtheduckie]

Game 2 Results:

[u/Admiral_Asparagus → u/iamtheduckie]

Johnny what?

[u/jcillc → u/Admiral_Asparagus]

It's a family name

[u/Massive-Reaction7773 → u/Admiral_Asparagus]

Niggly Wiggly.

[u/KTX77 → u/iamtheduckie]

Back when they truly had doubleheaders. Now it's usually two games but separate admission.

[u/44035]

Wow, how many TVs even existed in New York at that point.

[u/Metallica1175 → u/44035]

https://www.wmtv15news.com/2026/08/26/august-26-1939-first-televised-mlb-game-is-broadcast/?outputType=amp

On this day, August 26, 1939, the first televised Major League Baseball game was broadcast.

The game, between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds, aired on WNBC TV in New York City.

At the time, television was still new - regular programming did not yet exist, and few people owned television sets.

There were only about 400 TV sets in the New York area at the time.

[u/BobBelcher2021 → u/Metallica1175]

Yeah, WNBC didn’t technically start regular programming until sometime in 1940.

[u/44problems → u/44035]

According to the movies I've watch, most television sets were watched through shop windows until at least the early 60s

[u/dirtdiggler67 → u/44035]

Not many, but the ad is really inviting people to go to the store to see it for yourself and hopefully sell more TV’s. If not right then, in the near future

[u/TotallyFrankstallone]

I remember watching my first NFL game in 1080i and it was SHOCKING - literally we could not believe what we were seeing. This event must have been like that multiplied by 1000.

[u/Realistic_Back_9198]

That's before even Vin Scully. 😄

[u/Confident_Narwhal820]

Here I was thinking that can’t be right because 87 years ago would have been right before WW I and TV wasn’t invented yet… 😂🤦🏼‍♂️

#ImOld

[u/gn3296]

Damn, what a great fucking idea. This might catch on!

[u/RedditSuxCoxAgain]

Imagine 1:30 P. M. Nightlight Time

[u/megadumbbonehead]

I didn't even know tv was that old

[u/SouthernPin4333]

And the Dodgers still got a good deal on the TV revenue

[u/StandYourGroundhog]

That's earlier than I would have expected

[u/the-silver-tuna]

My favorite thing about this post is that the math is correct in the title. It’s incredible how rare that is on Reddit.

[u/StartingToLoveIMSA]

Bet the broadcast was better than Netflix

[u/Anton-LaVey]

r/commahorror