Baseball Culture: Top 5 Baseball Moments in Sitcoms
I'm sure there are plenty that I do not know of, so please add any great ones in the comments part:
#5 I Love Lucy - Harpo Marx plays "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on his Harp.
This really had nothing to do with baseball, but it's I Love Lucy, a great episode as well, it's Harpo Marx, and it's "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." That's just too many great elements. It makes my list.
#4 Seinfeld - The Magic Loogie
This may also be known as the "Keith Hernandez Spit Story," it was a takeoff on the JFK magic bullet theory, and it turns out the spitter was really Roger McDowell. Hernandez was a very good Seinfeld character, including his hitting on Elaine. Now if he would just stop doing horrible Rogaine commercials in New York with Walt Clyde Frazier, maybe I could respect him.
#3 Cheers - Pants Wade Boggs
Wade Boggs shows up at Cheers. They figure it's a trick by their rival Gary and that it's just a Wade Boggs look-a-like. And they "pants" him. Classic.
#2 The Simpsons - Homer at the Bat
I don't watch The Simpson. I don't like the Simpsons. But any show that has Mike Scioscia with radiation poisoning, Don Mattingly cut from the team for long sideburns, Steve Sax sentenced for murder, Ozzie Smith lost in Springfield, Wade Boggs punched out in a bar fight, Jose Canseco burning himself rescuing a woman from a burning building, Ken Griffey Jr. overdosing on nerve tonic, Darryl Strawberry pinch hit for by Homer, and Roger Clemens hypnotized into thinking he was a chicken, you just gotta love. Plus they got Terry Cashman, writer and singer of the great song "Talkin' Baseball" to sing a version of the song specific for this show. That is quaility.
#1 Seinfeld - "Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle......Costantza!"
This enitre story line of Seinfeld is #1. It created great moments like George's father yelling at Steinbrenner for trading Buhner for Ken Phelps (when they thought George was dead no-less). The great episode where Kramer promises a kid in the hospital that Paul O'Neill would hit two home runs in the next game for him. George teaching Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams to hit, and changing the uniforms to 100% cotton. Many other great moments as well.
Some good moments that didn't make the list include:
Mr. Belvedere "The Field" episode, where George is depressed about his birthday so Mr. Belvedere gets Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Ernie Banks, and Willie Mays to play a ballgame with him.
Everybody Loves Raymond when they meet the '69 Mets.
Who's the Boss when Steve plays second base on Tony's softball team. When Steve is asked what he does, "I play the Sax." (Billy Martin appeared in this episode as well).
Who's the Boss where Jonathan costs the Mets the pennant.
Spin City's "Catcher in the Bronx" with Roger Clemens and the mayor messes up is pefect game.
2 comments:
There are two other Cheers classics as well:
"The Tortelli Tort"
Carla accosts a Yankee fan who makes fun of Sam's drinking problem ("No wonder you couldn't throw strikes - you saw three batters up there!"). He threates to sue Sam for the bar if he doesn't fire Carla. Carla takes anger management classes to convince the fan that she's changed.
There's a classic scene at the start where, after watching the Sox lose to the Yanks on TV, Carla stands up on a bar stool and gives a speach about how she's giving up on being a Red Sox fan. Only she's give the same speach so many times, that everyone in the bar says it along with her. I would've loved to see Cheers during the 2003 and 2004 playoffs...
"Pitch It Again, Sam"
The Yankees are holding "Dutch Kincaid Day," and Dutch wants Sam to pitch to him at Yankee Stadium when he's honored so he can take him deep yet again. Sam obliges, but before he pitches, a little kid approaches him in the dugout and guilts him into letting his grandfather hit one out. Sam gets Dutch into an 0-2 count, but serves up a meatball on the next pitch which Dutch hits out.
Turns out the kid was hired by Dutch's agent, who didn't want Dutch to embarass himself in front of his home crowd. Furious that Sam would lay down for him, Dutch goes back to Cheers and challenges Sam again once he learns the truth. They go out onto Boston Common where Dutch hits shot after shot off of Sam while the gang tries to cheer him on.
There was also another episode where Sam attempted a comeback and played in the minor leagues for a while before realizing that he was too old for it. Mildly depressing.
Also, I think my favorite line from the "cotton uniform" episode of Seinfeld was when George gave some hitting advice to Danny Tartabul. Later on, when he pitches the cotton idea to Buck Showalter, he asks how it's going and he says "Pretty good... although all of a sudden there's a problem with Tartabul's swing..."
The scene with George teaching hitting in the batting cage (with Jeter and Bernie) was from the one where he gave up sex and suddenly became smart (reading books at the diner and everything - I often wonder if this approach would work for Ross...).
And, of course, there's the one where George is trying to get fired by the Yankees so he can take a better job with the Mets, wearing an old Babe Ruth uniform around the office and dragging a world series trophy behind his car.
And (one more...), the one where the team officials from the Astros come up and George has to show them around, leading to him calling everyone a bastard and a son of a bitch.
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