He was traveling road secretary for the New York Yankees[2] in 1946 and then worked for eight years for three minor league teams before becoming director of publicity for the Kansas City Athletics in 1955.
He introduced a number of sportscasters nationally, including Chris Schenkel, Jim McKay, Dan Patrick, Phil Griffin and Keith Olbermann.
MacPhail is recognized for helping CBS Sports acquire the television rights to numerous sporting events, including the 1960 Winter & Summer Olympics in Squaw Valley, United States and Rome, Italy respectively, the NBA, the Masters Tournament (CBS still holds the television rights to this day), and Major League Baseball.
When Roone Arledge was appointed head of ABC Sports, he thought differently and thus the bidding wars began.
In 1989, MacPhail was the first recipient of Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.