April 1, 1977: "This Week In Baseball" Premieres

April 1, 1977: The greatest show in the history of television premieres in syndication: This Week In Baseball.

It is hosted by former "Voice of the Yankees" Mel Allen. Before ESPN's SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight, let alone the establishment of the MLB Network, this half-hour show was the best way to see baseball highlights from around the country.

Mike Vickers -- oddly, an Englishman, a former member of the band Manfred Mann -- composed both the opening theme, "Jet Set," and the closing theme, "Gathering Crowds." The opening theme would play over Allen's introduction, while the closing theme would play over recent highlights from baseball, such as the previous season's postseason, no-hitters, and milestone moments such as a 3,000th hit or a 500th home run.

"TWIB" was typically picked up by stations that also had television rights to major league franchises, like WPIX-Channel 11 in New York, KTTV-Channel 11 in Los Angeles, and WGN-Channel 9 in Chicago, airing on Saturdays or (in New York's case) Sundays before those stations would broadcast their games. In markets without a major league team, it preceded NBC's Saturday Game of the Week.

After the 1989 season, NBC lost the rights to MLB games, and it got shuffled off to "independent stations." Mel died in 1996, and Warner Fusselle, the voice of Major League Baseball Productions (which owned the show), became the announcer, while Ozzie Smith became the host.

It was canceled after the 1998 season, falling behind Fox's Saturday pregame show In the Zone. But in 2000, Fox made a deal with MLB Productions, and brought back the TWIB name, continuing the show until 2011, with Cam Brainard as announcer, and doing 21st Century versions of the old divisional closeups and highlight and blooper reels.

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April 1, 1977 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 9 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 116-109 at the Milwaukee Exposition & Convention Center Arena, a.k.a. The MECCA. (It's now the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.) Earl "the Pearl" Monroe led the Knicks with 28 points, while Brian Winters scored 34 in defeat for the Bucks.

* The New York Nets lost to the Indiana Pacers, 89-88 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Kansas City Kings, 111-105 in overtime at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 32 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Washington Bullets, 91-85 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the New Orleans Jazz, 115-106 at the Superdome in New Orleans. "Pistol" Pete Maravich led all scorers on the night with 41 points.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Denver Nuggets, 107-97 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Detroit Red Wings, 133-116 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. Paul Westphal scored 40 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 107-102 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 109-98 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Bill Walton scored 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The Atlanta Flames beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-4 at The Omni in Atlanta. And the Colorado Rockies beat the Vancouver Canucks, 6-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

And there were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The Houston Aeros beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 5-4 at The Summit in Houston. (It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.) And in what would become known as The Battle of Alberta, the Calgary Cowboys beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.