Home Run Derby (TV series)

Home Run Derby
Presented by	Mark Scott
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	26
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Ziv Television Programs Homer Productions
Distributor	MGM Television Peter Rodgers Organization
Release
Original network	Syndication
Original release	January 9 – July 2, 1960

Home Run Derby is a 1960 television show that was held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles pitting the top sluggers of Major League Baseball against each other in nine-inning home run contests. The show was produced and hosted by actor/broadcaster Mark Scott and distributed by Ziv Television Programs.

Filmed in December 1959, the series aired in syndication from January 9 to July 2, 1960, and helped inspire the Home Run Derby event that is now held the day before the annual Major League Baseball All-Star Game. ESPN staged a revival of the show in 1989.

The rules were similar to modern home run derbies, with two notable exceptions. If a batter did not swing at a pitch that was in the strike zone, that also constituted an out. Also, the contests were conducted in a fashion more similar to a baseball game than the modern home run derbies, in which a player has a set number of outs before his turn is over.

Batters were given three outs per inning, and the player with the most home runs after nine innings won. The defending champion had the advantage of batting last; his opponent batted first. Any ball not hit for a home run was an out. The player did not have to swing at every pitch, but if a pitch was in the strike zone that also constituted an out, as did a swing and a miss. These rarely happened as the pitcher was supposed to give the batters good balls to hit. If the players were tied after nine innings, the Derby went into extra innings as per regular baseball.

When a left-handed hitter played, a special rule was put into place. Wrigley Field in Los Angeles had an inner fence with palm trees and a brick wall located several feet behind it. Any pitch hit in that direction had to clear the wall or hit the top of the trees that stuck out over the wall to count as a home run. This was done because the distance was shorter to right field with the inner fence, which would otherwise give a lefty an unfair advantage. The distances were still slightly different once the deeper right field wall was factored in, but at 339 feet vs. 340 feet the difference was negligible.

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