A few thoughts about baseball TV broadcasts and the multiple ways they are distributed

A WGN-TV color camera in 1960The year is 1948. You are a Cubs fan and the newfangled invention of television has begun to bring your team’s games live into your home. And you can watch all 154 Cubs games on one channel!

Wait, no, you can’t, because there’s no way to transmit live pictures from away games. WGN-TV, which began broadcasting the Cubs’ home schedule in 1948, carried only home games, 78 of them that year (including one tie). The first Cubs road game broadcast by WGN-TV wouldn’t come until 1960 and there wouldn’t be more than a handful until 1968.

In 1968, in fact, the Cubs televised 145 games on WGN-TV, or 89.5 percent of the schedule. Not only was that their most ever, it was by…