[8] On August 11, 1951, WCBS-TV in New York City televised the first baseball game (in which the Boston Braves beat the Brooklyn Dodgers by the score of 8–1) in color.
On October 3 of that year, NBC aired the first coast-to-coast baseball telecast as the Brooklyn Dodgers were beaten by the New York Giants in the final game of a playoff series by the score of 5-4 (off Bobby Thomson's now-legendary home run).
The telecast included portion of a contest between the Chicago Cubs vs. the Philadelphia Phillies from Wrigley Field with Jack Brickhouse commentating on WGN-TV.
The ball struck the foul pole, giving the Red Sox a 7–6 win and forcing a seventh and deciding game of the Fall Classic.
During this time, cameramen covering baseball games were instructed to follow the flight of the ball; reportedly, Fisk's reaction[15] was only being recorded because NBC cameraman Lou Gerard, positioned inside Fenway's scoreboard at the base of the left-field Green Monster wall, had become distracted by a large rat.
National League President Bill White, while using a CBS headset in the broadcast booth during Game 1, was overheard telling Gentile and the producer Bob Dekas: You guys keep using that camera the way you want.
For this particular game, Fox introduced "Catcher-Cam" in which a camera was affixed to the catchers' masks in order to provide unique perspectives of the action around home plate.
In addition to Catcher-Cam, other innovations (some of which have received more acclaim than others) that Fox[27] has provided for baseball telecasts have been: [29] For a Saturday afternoon telecast of a Los Angeles Dodgers/Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field on August 26, 2000, Fox aired a special "Turn Back the Clock"[30] broadcast to commemorate the 61st anniversary of the first televised baseball game.
[34] During their 2009 playoff coverage, TBS[35] displays their PitchTrax graphic full-time during at-bats (with the center field camera only) during the high-definition version of the broadcast in the extreme right-hand corner of the screen.
During Game 1, Fox used "Hot Spot" to show that a batted ball was fouled off Texas Rangers batter Adrián Beltré's foot.
The score box, which was originally docked to the top and left edges of the screen, was completely redesigned for 2017 after much criticism during the 2016 postseason for its large size.
Announcers later spent time explaining and demonstrating the use of virtual fans[46] during the July 25 game between the Chicago Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.