Same.

Do we know that a complete tape of the game exists? Was it even televised?

It was the first game of a twi-night doubleheader on a Friday? Home many road games would the Pirates have telecast then? Especially from the West Coast. Especially ones that started at weird times?

Has the footage always been the same part of the game? It’s possible that some San Diego news station taped parts of the game and that’s what gets shown.

And almost as importantly, can we see the results of Ellis’s post-game drug test?

You need someone from Pittsburgh to research if it was shown on TV there. I can tell you that the answer about whether or not the game was shown in San Diego is “No.”

The 1970 Padres drew a whopping 643,979 fans.

FOR THE LIFE OF ME I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY THE MLB NETWORK DOESN’T PLAY OLD TWIB EPISODES.  I SHOULD START THAT PETITION.  AND YES, THE CAPS WERE WARRANTED AND NECESSARY.

also, SIGN THIS PETITION! Thanks Hardball and Shysterball!

man, i would LOVE to see some of this game.  or even a radio broadcast!

None of these games were saved as a matter of policy.  Generally the games were on film, and were literally sliced up for various highlight shows.  Some games were preserved via kinescope (a process that actually records the image directly off a television.  I have a copy of Game 5 of the 1970 World Series that looks like it could have been shown on TV yesterday (except for the lack of replays and excessive banter).

For many years the World Series games were “recorded” and then sent overseas to the military bases.  Some of these have survived.

That all said, on occasion something turns up.  Larsen’s perfect game was discovered just a couple of years ago.  A 1969 Cubs-Phillies game was the “oldest” regular season game for a long time, until the discovery a few years ago of a 1967 Red Sox-Twins game (in color!).  There is hope.  For example, I read recently that someone (I think it was Bill Monboquette in 1962) was given a copy of his no-hitter right after it happened.  It is possible that old players or broadcasters have some games stashed away.

If you have the MLB network, you likely have seen a few old games and wonder why they keep showing the same games.  Why do they show a 1970 game between the Expos and Pirates?  Gee, it seems like I saw this Mark Fidrych game against the Yankeees recently?  The reason is that they only have a handful of games, and you are seeing everything that they have.  If they had Dock Ellis’s no-hitter, I guarantee you they would show it often.