The Mayor's Trophy Game was a charity exhibition born out of civic pride and old-fashioned New York baseball rivalry — a way to let the city's teams settle bragging rights in a low-stakes summer game while funneling gate proceeds into sandlot baseball for city kids. It started in 1946 as a Yankees-Giants series for a trophy named after Mayor William O'Dwyer, with the Dodgers joining in occasionally, and it carried real stakes for fans even if teams often didn't send their best arms (rosters were frequently padded with Triple-A call-ups to spare the real staffs). The series died when the Giants and Dodgers left for California after 1957, had a quiet interlude of occasional Yankees exhibitions against out-of-town clubs, then found new life in 1963 once the Mets arrived to become New York's "other" team. It ran with real regularity through 1979, went dark for two years when the two clubs just wrote checks to charity instead, came back briefly in 1982-83, and then died for good — a casualty of dwindling attendance and, fittingly, a 1983 finale so troubled that regular umpires refused to work it and college umps had to fill in. Throughout, the game's charm was its low-stakes, oddball nature: rain delays that pushed dates around, home run derbies as a preliminary event, players who'd have brief and otherwise forgettable careers becoming the story of the day, and moments of real civic sentiment (the 1948 game paused for news of Babe Ruth's death; the 1960 Dodgers-Yankees game benefited an injured Roy Campanella). The 1977 game specifically: Played at Shea Stadium on June 23 (rescheduled from a rained-out May 9 date), it drew just 15,510 fans — by far the smallest crowd since the Mets-Yankees version of the series resumed in 1963, a sign of how much air had gone out of the event by the late '70s. The Mets won 6-4, with home runs from Joel Youngblood and Ron Hodges providing the offense. Fittingly for a series that often saved its regulars, both pitchers of record were Triple-A farmhands rather than established major leaguers: Tom Makowski took the win for the Mets, and Roger Slagle took the loss for the Yankees — a small, forgettable footnote of a game that nonetheless captured exactly what the series had become by then: a charity obligation more than a real rivalry showcase.

Announcers

- Jack Buck

- Harry Caray

The Cardinals' 1964 pennant race and World Series win, presented as a season-ending recap by the club's radio team of Harry Caray and Jack Buck. Caray had already been the voice of the Cardinals for close to two decades by 1964, having joined the broadcast in the mid-1940s; Buck, who would go on to call Cardinals baseball into the 2000s, was roughly a decade into that partnership. The pair narrate a collapse-and-recovery pennant race — the Cardinals trailed by as many as 13 games at midseason, then caught both the Phillies (who lost 10 straight down the stretch) and the Reds on the final weekend of the season, clinching on October 4th.

The roster referenced reflects a team in transition. Lou Brock, acquired from the Cubs in a June trade that summer, was just beginning the run that would carry him to Cooperstown, while Bob Gibson — three years from his historic 1.12 ERA season in 1968 — worked as a workhorse starter on short rest through both the pennant clincher and multiple World Series starts. Ken Boyer, the NL MVP that year, and rookie Bill White are heard alongside Tim McCarver and Curt Flood. The World Series itself went seven games against the Yankees, New York's last pennant of the Mickey Mantle/Whitey Ford era before a long decline; the Cardinals' Game 7 win gave the franchise its first title since 1946.

#1964WorldSeries #HarryCaray #JackBuck #BobGibson #CardinalsHistory

- 1969 MLB Standings

- Sunday, August 31, 1969

- Start Time: 1:00 p.m. Local

- Attendance: 19,357

- Venue: Dodger Stadium

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- Radio Announcers

- Vin Scully

- Jerry Doggett

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- Managers

- George Myatt

- Walt Alston

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- Starting Lineups

- 1969 Philadelphia Phillies

- 1 - SS - Terry Harmon

- 2 - CF - John Briggs

- 3 - 1B - Dick Allen

- 4 - RF - Johnny Callison

- 5 - 3B - Deron Johnson

- 6 - LF - Ron Stone

- 7 - C - Dave Watkins

- 8 - 2B - Cookie Rojas

- 9 - P - Rick Wise

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- 1969 Los Angeles Dodgers

- 1 - SS - Maury Wills

- 2 - LF - Manny Mota

- 3 - CF - Willie Davis

- 4 - 1B - Wes Parker

- 5 - RF - Willie Crawford

- 6 - 3B - Bill Sudakis

- 7 - C - Tom Haller

- 8 - 2B - Ted Sizemore

- 9 - P - Bill Singer

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- 1978 MLB Standings

- Wednesday, August 16, 1978

- Start Time: 8:00 p.m. Local

- Attendance: 15,819

- Venue: Tiger Stadium

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- Radio Announcers

- Herb Score

- Joe Tate

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- Managers

- Jeff Torborg

- Ralph Houk

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- Starting Lineups

- 1978 Cleveland Indians

- 1 - CF - Rick Manning

- 2 - 3B - Buddy Bell

- 3 - LF - Johnny Grubb

- 4 - 1B - Andre Thornton

- 5 - C - Gary Alexander

- 6 - DH - Bernie Carbo

- 7 - RF - Jim Norris

- 8 - 2B - Duane Kuiper

- 9 - SS - Tom Veryzer

- - P - David Clyde

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- 1978 Detroit Tigers

- 1 - CF - Ron LeFlore

- 2 - 2B - Lou Whitaker

- 3 - DH - Rusty Staub

- 4 - LF - Steve Kemp

- 5 - C - Lance Parrish

- 6 - 3B - Aurelio Rodríguez

- 7 - 1B - Mickey Stanley

- 8 - RF - Tim Corcoran

- 9 - SS - Alan Trammell

- - P - Jack Billingham

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- 1961 MLB Standings

- Sunday, June 18, 1961

- Attendance: 44,459

- Venue: Tiger Stadium

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- Radio Announcers

- Mel Allen

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- Managers

- Ralph Houk

- Bob Scheffing

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- Starting Lineups

- 1961 New York Yankees

- 1 - 2B - Bobby Richardson

- 2 - 3B - Clete Boyer

- 3 - RF - Roger Maris

- 4 - CF - Mickey Mantle

- 5 - LF - Yogi Berra

- 6 - 1B - Bill Skowron

- 7 - C - Johnny Blanchard

- 8 - SS - Joe DeMaestri

- 9 - P - Whitey Ford

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- 1961 Detroit Tigers

- 1 - 2B - Jake Wood

- 2 - CF - Bill Bruton

- 3 - RF - Al Kaline

- 4 - LF - Rocky Colavito

- 5 - 1B - Norm Cash

- 6 - C - Dick Brown

- 7 - SS - Chico Fernández

- 8 - 3B - Ozzie Virgil

- 9 - P - Frank Lary

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Announcers

- Lindsey Nelson

- Bob Murphy

- Ralph Kiner

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Summary

The 1969 Mets came into the season as a franchise that had never finished higher than ninth place in its seven years of existence, going back to a 120-loss debut in 1962. Manager Gil Hodges, a former Dodgers and Mets first baseman then in his second season running the club, had the team in third place and nine and a half games out as late as mid-August. From there Los Angeles's rebuild is not part of this story — the Mets instead won 38 of their final 49 games, a stretch that included a 10-game September winning streak, to overtake the Chicago Cubs, who had led the NL East for most of the summer.

Tom Seaver, in his third major league season, won 25 games and the NL Cy Young Award that year; Jerry Koosman won 17. Nolan Ryan, still primarily a reliever/spot starter years before his strikeout records with the Angels, Astros, and Rangers, appears in a lesser roleThe Mets swept the Atlanta Braves in the first-ever National League Championship Series, then beat the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles — a 109-win club with future Hall of Famers Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, and Jim Palmer — in five games to win the franchise's first World Series title.

#1969Mets #TomSeaver #GilHodges #MiracleMets #WorldSeries1969

- 1970 MLB Standings

- Sunday, June 28, 1970

- Start Time: 8:05 p.m. Local

- Attendance: 27,154

- Venue: Parc Jarry

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- Radio Announcers

- Lindsey Nelson

- Bob Murphy

- Ralph Kiner

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- Managers

- Gil Hodges

- Gene Mauch

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- Starting Lineups

- 1970 New York Mets

- 1 - CF - Tommie Agee

- 2 - SS - Bud Harrelson

- 3 - LF - Ken Singleton

- 4 - 1B - Art Shamsky

- 5 - RF - Dave Marshall

- 6 - 2B - Ken Boswell

- 7 - 3B - Joe Foy

- 8 - C - Jerry Grote

- 9 - P - Ray Sadecki

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- 1970 Montreal Expos

- 1 - LF - Don Hahn

- 2 - 2B - Gary Sutherland

- 3 - RF - Rusty Staub

- 4 - CF - Adolfo Phillips

- 5 - 3B - Coco Laboy

- 6 - C - John Bateman

- 7 - 1B - Ron Fairly

- 8 - SS - Bobby Wine

- 9 - P - Carl Morton

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- 1950 MLB Standings

- Sunday, June 11, 1950

- Venue: Shibe Park

- First game of doubleheader, see Second game.

- Radio Announcers

- Al Helfer

- Art Gleason

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- Managers

- Lou Boudreau

- Jimmy Dykes

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- Starting Lineups

- 1950 Cleveland Indians

- 1 - RF - Bob Kennedy

- 2 - LF - Allie Clark

- 3 - 1B - Luke Easter

- 4 - CF - Larry Doby

- 5 - 3B - Al Rosen

- 6 - SS - Lou Boudreau

- 7 - 2B - Bobby Ávila

- 8 - C - Jim Hegan

- 9 - P - Bob Lemon

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- 1950 Philadelphia Athletics

- 1 - 3B - Bob Dillinger

- 2 - RF - Wally Moses

- 3 - LF - Paul Lehner

- 4 - CF - Sam Chapman

- 5 - 1B - Ferris Fain

- 6 - SS - Eddie Joost

- 7 - 2B - Billy Hitchcock

- 8 - C - Joe Astroth

- 9 - P - Bobby Shantz

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- 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers

- Announcers

- Vin Scully

- Ira Cook

The 1959 Los Angeles Dodgers captured their first World Series title since moving west from Brooklyn, marking a pivotal moment in franchise history. Just two years removed from their relocation, the Dodgers overcame a turbulent, injury-riddled season to finish 88–68, tying with the Milwaukee Braves atop the National League. They won a best-of-three playoff series against Milwaukee to clinch the pennant, setting the stage for a World Series matchup with the Chicago White Sox.

- CF-RF - Duke Snider

- LF-RF - Wally Moon

- 1B - Gil Hodges

- 2B - Charlie Neal

- 1B-LF - Norm Larker

- 3B - Jim Gilliam

- CF - Don Demeter

- C - John Roseboro

- SS - Don Zimmer

- SP-RP - Roger Craig

- SP - Johnny Podres

- SP-RP - Danny McDevitt

- SP-RP - Sandy Koufax

- SP - Don Drysdale

- RP - Clem Labine

- 1978 MLB Standings

- Sunday, June 18, 1978

- Attendance: 40,598

- Venue: Comiskey Park I

- Radio Announcers

- Lorn Brown

- Harry Caray

- Jimmy Piersall

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- Starting Lineups

- 1978 Kansas City Royals

- 1 - CF - Willie Wilson

- 2 - LF - Tom Poquette

- 3 - 3B - George Brett

- 4 - 1B - Clint Hurdle

- 5 - DH - Hal McRae

- 6 - C - Darrell Porter

- 7 - RF - Al Cowens

- 8 - SS - Freddie Patek

- 9 - 2B - Jerry Terrell

- - P - Paul Splittorff

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- 1978 Chicago White Sox

- 1 - LF - Alan Bannister

- 2 - RF - Claudell Washington

- 3 - CF - Chet Lemon

- 4 - C - Wayne Nordhagen

- 5 - 1B - Lamar Johnson

- 6 - DH - Bill Nahorodny

- 7 - 3B - Eric Soderholm

- 8 - SS - Don Kessinger

- 9 - 2B - Greg Pryor

- - P - Ron Schueler

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