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What: Home Run Derby

Where: Classic Sports Network

I have a confession to make: I can’t get enough of “Home Run Derby.”

After an earlier gig on ESPN, those vintage black-and-white reruns that originally aired in 1960-61 have become a summer staple at that booming retirement home for TV sports programming, Classic Sports Network.

“Home Run Derby” matches sluggers such as Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson and Harmon Killebrew in a tournament-like series of home run-hitting contests at L.A.’s old Wrigley Field.

By today’s broadcast standards, of course, the 30-minute segments, which air weekdays at 3 p.m., are colorless, painfully slow and technically challenged. But that’s only half the fun.

Congenial host Mark Scott, the former play-by-play announcer of the Pacific Coast League’s Hollywood Stars, actually makes David Letterman seem like a good interviewer. Rarely, if ever, does he offer insightful background information on the players.

But that’s not the point of this show. The essence of “Home Run Derby” is simple, just like the game used to be. It represents a glorious era of baseball’s past, of still apparently humble and appreciative mega-stars in friendly competition for cash prizes of $2,000 for the winner of each contest (and $1,000 for the loser). Not a bad gig back then to help pay the bills.

Though it’s fun to see the marquee players in their glory days (the Mantle-Killebrew duel is a classic), “Home Run Derby” also reintroduces such forgotten performers--and perennial trivia favorites--as Rocky Colavito, Dick “Dr. Strangeglove” Stuart, Gus Triandos and Bob Allison. Very cool.

Only 26 episodes of “Home Run Derby” were filmed, all during a three-week period beginning in December 1959. Scott, the driving force behind the show, died of a heart attack at 45 on July 13, 1960.

Still, Scott’s enthusiasm lingers to this day, as he repeats his signature mantra early in each show, the only rule that matters in the Valley of the Dinger: “It’s a home run or nothing here on ‘Home Run Derby.’ ”