Another baseball season is underway, and it doesn’t figure to be a memorable one for my Chicago Cubbies (though hope springs eternal as it always does in April). Every year around this time I like to pull out some baseball-themed episodes to get into the spirit, but I’ve never put together a list of my favorites – until now.
Here, as Casey Kasem might say, is the Comfort TV countdown of the top ten baseball episodes from the classic television era.
10. “No Runs, No Hits, No Oysters” (1970)
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
Young Jonathan wants to play shortstop for the Schooner Bay Oysters, but he can’t hit and he can’t field. The Captain offers supernatural assistance, but Mrs. Muir tells him her son should sink or swim on his own. I suppose there’s nothing that special about this episode, but I always welcome a chance to check in with a series I don’t revisit as often as I should.
9. “Superstar” (1978)
Fantasy Island
The fantasy of office drone Walter Delaney (Gary Burghoff) is to strike out three of baseball’s greatest stars. Mr. Roarke obliges, thanks to guest appearances from Steve Garvey, Fred Lynn, George Brett, Ken Brett, and Ellis Valentine, plus Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. It is interesting how professional sports, and baseball in particular, were incorporated more frequently and memorably into the TV shows of the Comfort TV era, as we’ll also see in other entries on this list. I’m not sure why that has changed; perhaps back them athletes recognized that sports should be viewed as entertainment nstead of just a business, and were more open to promoting that brand to the public.
8. “The Strikeout King” (1973)
The Partridge Family
Danny has no interest in baseball but joins the local team because his mother thinks he should make more friends his own age.
To his surprise he quickly becomes the team’s star pitcher – and starts to care more about winning the pennant than rehearsing in the garage. Also in this episode, Ricky Segall bleats out a song about Willie Mays – so have the mute button handy.
7. “The National Pastime” (1961)
My Three Sons
Chip quits his little league team after striking out four times in the first game. He reconsiders later, a decision his father supports – but only to a point.
Chip: “Will you talk to the coach?”
Dad: “No.”
Chip: “Will you come with me?”
Dad: “No.”
Chip: “Will you write him a note?”
Dad: “No.”
Chip’s coach doesn’t make it any easier – he asks Chip if he wants to be back on the team and Chip replies “I guess so,” “Well,” the coach replies, “when you’re done guessing and you’re sure, let me know.” By encouraging him to take full responsibility for his actions, the adults in Chip’s life are building character traits that will serve him well in the future.
6. “The Sound of a Different Drummer” (1976)
Shazam!
Curtis could be the star shortstop at Reseda High, but he quits the team because he’d rather play the violin and audition for the Inter-City Orchestra.
His teammates don’t take kindly to that decision, and give him an ultimatum – either play baseball or they’ll grind his fiddle into toothpicks. Clearly this is the kind of serious dilemma that can only be solved by one of earth’s mightiest heroes. Thankfully, his RV just happened to be in the neighborhood at that time. Also pitching in – Maury Wills, one of baseball’s greatest base-stealers.
5. “Lucy and the Little League” (1963)
The Lucy Show
Just about every sitcom story about kids playing Little League will inevitably feature scenes of overzealous parents. Both Lucy and Viv fit that description here, harassing the team’s manager (William Schallert, always a welcome presence) and umpire until they are ordered to leave. Lucy devises a series of schemes to see her son play, in one of the series’ best first-season episodes.
4. “Jason and Big Mo”
Room 222 (1974)
Elmo (not the Muppet) is playing baseball at such a high level for Walt Whitman High that he already has offers from three Major League teams. With a big signing bonus on the table he’s ready to skip college and not even bother with a high school diploma, despite one of Pete Dixon’s typically eloquent lectures on the importance of education. Then Elmo wipes out on a motorbike and wrecks his knee, and the big league scouts stop calling. Elmo is well played by a pre-Hill Street Blues Michael Warren. This was the last episode of Room 222, ending the series just as it began, by telling important stories with intelligence and class.
3. “Leo Durocher Meets Mr. Ed” (1963)
Mr. Ed
Leo Durocher seemed to enjoy playing up his cantankerous image, as he does here and in episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies and The Munsters.
But what makes this episode special is the appearance by Sandy Koufax, arguably one of the five best pitchers in baseball history. Vin Scully, who also appears in this episode, called him “the greatest pitcher (I’ve) ever seen.” But Ed wasn’t intimidated when he stepped into the box, bat in mouth, and drives a pitch off Koufax into deep left field, rounds the bases, and slides into home plate.
Leo Durocher: “That’s the smartest horse I ever saw!”
Wilbur: “He’s not so smart. He forgot to touch second base.”
2. “The Dropout” (1970)
The Brady Bunch
There’s something about baseball that, more than any other sport, lends itself to stories of disappointment. As in the Ghost and Mrs. Muir episode, boys in the Comfort TV era felt a deeper sense of shame if they are less than proficient at our national pastime. Baseball has since lost viewers and youth interest to football, basketball and soccer, so that is likely no longer the case.
Here, Dodger great Don Drysdale compliments Greg’s slider, and from that moment nothing else matters to him but baseball. That life-plan proves short-lived after he gets clobbered in a Pony League game, leading to a final scene with Barry Williams and Robert Reed that is one of the more touching father-son moments on the series.
Like Leo Durocher, Don Drysdale must have enjoyed doing guest spots. He also appeared in four episodes of The Donna Reed Show, as well as Leave it to Beaver and The Greatest American Hero.
1. “Baseball” (1979)
WKRP in Cincinnati
It’s always fun when a studio-bound series heads outside for a story, and that’s what happens in this episode written and directed by series creator Hugh Wilson. The softball game between rival radio stations WKRP and WPIG comprises most of the episode’s running time, and we get to see the entire cast hitting, pitching, and fielding.
The climax hinges on whether nerdy newsman Les Nessman, who never played baseball growing up, can come through for his team in the ninth inning. I like his chances, but then I’m a Cubs fan – I always root for the underdog.