The New York Mets face the St. Louis Cardinals in a doubleheader, brought to you by Rheingold Beer.
This episode presents the original radio broadcast of a 1967 Major League Baseball doubleheader opener between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. The play-by-play coverage is framed by period-specific commercial advertisements, capturing a moment in sports media history. The broadcast serves as a primary audio document of a regular-season game from that era.
The game features St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Dick Hughes, a hard-throwing right-hander with a seven-win, three-loss record. The Mets counter with relative newcomer and left-hander Bob Henley, who holds a two-win, one-loss record. The broadcast is sponsored primarily by Rheingold Beer, New York's largest-selling beer at the time. A secondary sponsor is the Armory Garage in Albany, New York, promoting deals on new Plymouth automobiles. Rheingold is running a contest in conjunction with the Mets, giving away 500 pairs of tickets weekly. Contest winners from the previous week included individuals named Glenn Goldberg and Mrs. P. O'Neill. These winners received two tickets to a Mets game and remained eligible for a grand prize. The grand prize for the contest is $10,000 and a trip to the World Series.
The promotional language emphasizes Rheingold's scale, stating they do not offer "little piddling payoffs." The tagline for the beer is presented definitively: "Rheingold, either you have it or you don't, and Rheingold's got it." The commercial read for Armory Garage personifies the proprietor, stating, "He's out to win you over." The contest mechanics reveal that 1,000 tickets total were won by fans each week. The sponsorship presentation seamlessly integrates the product into the fabric of the sports broadcast.
The tone is exclusively promotional and descriptive, characteristic of a live sports radio broadcast from the 1960s. The style is straightforward announcement, focused on setting the scene and delivering commercial messages.
This episode would deeply appeal to baseball historians, fans of the Mets or Cardinals, and those interested in vintage advertising and media. Listeners seeking modern analysis or narrative storytelling should skip this raw archival audio.
