80s 90s Baseball Television Themes - A History

Kind of "The Evolution of Dance" for baseball broadcasts.

If your team isn't on here, it's not intentional. I found what I found and I had what I had. Thanks to the few I borrowed vids from. Below is a list of the teams and networks, and a brief description. WARNING: very Yankee, Red Sox, Angels, Dodgers, Tigers, Phillies, Cubs heavy.

Phils, WPHL (1980) - Right before the Phils departed WPHL in '82 (returning just in time for the '93 dream season). This is from an LCS game vs. Houston, back when regionals could borrow from the network's feed (you'll hear ABC's Keith Jackson sneak in for a second).
Dodgers, ON-TV (1981) - A UHF-based station outside of Los Angeles, ON aired Dodgers games for five years before merging with Selec-TV in 1985. Very "Love Boat"-y theme.
NBC GOW (1983) - Still stuck in 70s crime-show mode, this features your usual whistling flutes, then segwaying into a disco-ed up "Take Me Out to the Ballgame".
Cubs, WGN (1984) - One of the first teams to actually license out a rock song for its theme. Van Halen's "Jump" (as if you didn't know). Re-mastering done by mysoundrights.
ABC MNB (1984) - A version they stuck by for a number of years until 1989.
Mets, WWOR (1984) - Almost has an "After School Special" sound to it and features a Kiner Klassic while reading the sponsors.
NBC GOW (1985) - Dumping the harrowing cops and robbers music, in came the horns that would become signature to their themes of the next few years.
Yankees, WPIX (1985) - A classic fanfare they ran for years (Yanks, coincidentally, return to WPIX this year after 17 years away).
Signal Loss - Was just a funny memory I had to throw in there. How many times during an intro or at a pivotal moment of a game would the dreaded "technical difficulties" banner come up?? I even love the little ghosting bar that starts to float in from the side!
Rangers, KTVT (1986) - Pretty stuck in the 70s for a late 80s theme.
White Sox, WFLD (1986) - Short but good. One of Drysdale's last seasons before heading to LA.
NBC GOW (1986) - Hands down my favorite rendition. The power of the music goes along so well with the now-classic narration.
ABC All-Star Game (1986) - A longer version of the previous one with a change in graphics.
Tigers, PASS (1986) - Pro-Am Sports System. Tiger home for 13 years. This is when the rotoscope-style animation started to permeate many teams' themes.
Red Sox, WSBK (1986) - Easy-listenin' 70s groove, with some horns thrown in. Channel 38 would be the Red Sox home for 20 years until 1995, which came as a huge disappointment to satellite users when they left for WABU. Spacenet 3, Channel 3 was the home for Sox games for years.
Angels, KTLA (1986) - Found out years later the Mariners also used this piece of music to intro their games.
Orioles, WMAR (1987) - Chuck and Brooks. Many Baltimorians remember them well. Theme has a very 8-bit Nintendo vibe.
Cubs, WGN (1987) - Animation similar to the Tiger one, but makes such great use of Chicago imagery. And oh, that sax, baby.
Mariners, KSTW (1987) - Yep, more rotos in action.
Tigers, WDIV (1987) - Tigers over-the-air home for 20 years (AKA WWJ in the 70s) deviated from the times and went with a picture-postcard-inspired theme.
Giants, KTVU (1988) - Duane Kuiper's second year with the team as a broadcaster. And well before his "It is....OUTTA HERE!" days of now. Broadcast the Rockies inaugural season and then came back! (never knew that.)
Mets, WWOR (1988) - The glossier "bad boy" Mets of the late 80s pump up this opening.
Cubs, WGN (1988) - Love the glammed-up "night baseball" images to commemorate the Cubs first year of having lights.
Braves, WTBS (1988) - May have been a crappy Braves era, but at least their rousing opening got you excited about the broadcast.
Rangers, HSE (1988) - One of the few premium sports channels (along with Home Team Sports out of Baltimore) of the era that lasted quite a while. They went with the scrolling approach before pixelating everything.
Yankees, WPIX (1988) - The year was a guess on my part since Jack Clark, who appears momentarily, only played one season in the pinstripes.
Angels, Z Channel (1988) - The cult L.A.-based cable network, in an effort to stay alive, aquired 35 Angels and Dodgers home games this season. Barely lasted into the next year when they were gobbled up by SportsChannel, then died off completely after the 1992 season.