So, you want proof that baseball is the American national pastime . . .
So, here we go; There’s been no more American a TV series than
“Murder, She Wrote”, a series replete with characters and settings
that shout Americana, a series that lasted 12 seasons, 264 episodes.
And in Season 5, Episode 20, baseball showed up, uniforms, slang,
rough-hewn characters, dialect and shorthand (WP and PB made it
to the scoreboard of the they-will-come fictional field in Scottsdale,
Arizona) in an appropriately titled episode in which a murder is
solved: “Three Strikes, You’re out!” Knitting this tale of American
fabric, the protagonist, Jessica Fletcher, weaves her way through
various threads until she – – – as usual – – – hits a home run in the
final inning, disclosing the guilty man. She is a quite reliable All-
Star discloser.
There’s plenty of baseball. Jessica’s nephew has been traded to the
fictional Comets in exchange for a “broken down plug” — which we
are told means a veteran whose accumulated injuries have worn
away his once-potent skill set. The nephew, a pitcher, has been
traded from the Titans. This all finds a comfortable home in a sport
that has served as setting in novels (The Natural), poems (“Casey’s
Revenge”), songs (“I Love Mickey”), movies (“The Monte Stratton
Story”), even Broadway (Fences) – – – just to pitch a few forms to you.
The stereotypical gruff Manager is played by Ben Casey’s Vince
Edwards. There’s the controversial comment, “Baseball is a game of
statistics” – – – fodder for days-long debates. We meet the traveling
secretary and the trainer (support staff for the pro team). Even the
detective is a former baseball player who had to quit because of a
knee injury. (These are not clichés; they are all well woven into the
story.) There’s even a place for superstition: a player calls himself
bad luck because a woman was killed soon after he shook her hand;
a pitcher uses a hitter’s bat and breaks it. (Remember when pitchers
were allowed to try to hit?) A woman in the locker room is told her
mere presence will bring ill fortune.) The entire episode has the aroma
of chewing tobacco.
Let’s end on a positive note: The murderer was NOT a baseball player!