1976 All Star Game Program

 Once more with the Philadelphia theme. This is a good one - the All Star Game for the bicentennial year. Nice cover design by Dick Perez.

Here was an interesting ad. I think Red Barber and Mel Allen are pretty well known. Bill Corum was apparently a radio partner of Barber's for a while.

As a lot of out-of-towners were visiting the All-Star Game, there was a guide to the city's attractions featuring some star Phillies and their families. You might recognize some of these from the '77 team calendar. Here's Donna and Mike Schmidt with dueling perms at Valley Forge.

The Luzinskis at the museum and Fairmont Park; the Maddoxes at the zoo. (Inspired by some of the previous publications I was watching some old Phillies playoff games, and was surprised that Maddox is not pronounced like Maddux - the accent is on the second syllable.)

Judging by yesterday's comments, Sheena Bowa was a hit. The couple divorced in 2004, the same year Larry was fired as Phillies manager.

Some more of the Bowa's, as well as the Lonborgs. Their daughter Phoebe was adopted, as were their next two children, both from Korea.

I thought this was an interesting read. In 1976 baseball history was pretty rough in Philadelphia, other than the '29-'31 A's. The Phillies had two pennants and no championships at this time.

 

Did you know the Phillies tried to change their name to the Live Wires in 1910, and the Blue Jays in the 1940s?

In that last paragraph - the Hot Pants Patrol were the female ushers in Phillies hot pants uniforms at Veterans Stadium from 1971 to 1982. Kiteman was a failed stunt on Opening Day 1972. Also that year Karl Wallenda walked a tightrope across Veterans Stadium.

A piece by James Michener on the history of baseball was accompanied by some fantastic photography.

Responding to another comment from the calendar post - in the 1960s the US switched from alpha-numeric phone numbers to ones that were all numbers. So NE7-5885 became 637-5885. In this 1976 listing of Philly restaurants that took the American Express card, most have fully numeric phone numbers, but there are still a few holdouts. Several of my wallet card posts, including the most recent, have signs with those old-style phone numbers.

Another "Coke adds life to . . ." ad. There was one on the back of the Pirates media guide.

Some younger versions of familiar announcers like Brent Musburger and Bob Uecker. Warner Wolf moved to New York in 1976 and became a fixture on the sports segment of the 6:00 news on WCBS throughout the 1980s and 1990s. "Let's go to the videotape!"

The owner of the book kept score of the game! Though I think they misunderstood what "Time of Game" meant.

Note another old-style phone number at the bottom. The NL won the game, 7-1. George Foster, the MVP, homered, as did Cesar Cedeno and Fred Lynn.

I'm kind of disappointed that this ad does not mention the Cordoba's rich, Corinthian leather.

The program featured photos and bios of the All Stars. I chose this page for the Ron Cey and Steve Garvey fans. Did you know that Ron Cey hit nine line drives on May 30? (looking it up, he had six hits in ten at-bats in a doubleheader).

Mark Belanger's blurb noted that he hit three home runs in '75, and two were off Blue and Busby. Curious, I looked up who the third pitcher was. None other than Bill Travers, whose bio is right next to Belanger's!

There were synopses and photos from past all star games. So many great photos - Stan Musial making a catch at the wall, Willie Mays missing a catch at the wall, Earl Battey and John F. Kennedy at the 1962 All Star Game.

Another great page of photos. Photos like the middle one used to be quite common in newspapers - a wide shot of the field during a key play with the players' names noted and the ball circled.

Not pictured - a welcome message from Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo, an article about why the all star game "matters" more in baseball than it does in other sports; an article about Philadelphia's naval heritage; various advertisements including GE air conditioners, Rawlings, Buick, Miller Lite (tastes great/less filling), the Army, Contac cold medicine, a book about baseball trades (Trade Him! edited by Jim Enright), the Navy, Bond Bread, Acme Supermarkets and MAB Paint.