Baseball Episode: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

So you're watching your favorite show. It might be romance, or supernatural, or anything at all. The characters are not shown to participate in sports, and it doesn't really matter in context. Then, the next episode comes up and... wait a minute, why are they playing baseball?

 

 

... at least coming from the United States or Japan. Most other countries don't even know what this "baseball" thing is. The British equivalent would be a [[Cricket]] episode; this is rarer, though not unknown.

 

Also can apply to softball, an equivalent sport played with a larger ball, a smaller playfield and quite a bit more alcohol among the participants.

{{examples}}

* ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' had one. And since Haruhi is involved, they have to win the game in order to save the world. At the end of the episode Haruhi is trying to decide whether they should enter the local soccer or American football tournament next.

* Episode 4 of ''[[Angel Beats!]]''.

* ''[[Urusei Yatsura]]'' did several baseball episodes...basically whenever Tobimaro showed up.

* ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'' did one too, with the manager from Cha Cha Maru (a local bar) organizing a game against local store owners.

** Also in Episode 20 of Season 1 {{spoiler|where Nagisa [[Did I Just Say That Out Loud?|accidentally confessed]] to Tomoya}}.

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' has a baseball [[Fan Girl]] named Casey with whom Ash and the group meet up from time to time. She even has a [[Day in The Limelight]] episode in the ''Pokemon Chronicles'' spin-off series involving a Charizard that lost its firepower (literally) and a washed up baseball pitcher.

* The ''[[Midori no Hibi]]'' manga has a chapter where a baseball game is used to settle a gang conflict.

* The ''[[Sailor Moon]]: Sailor Stars'' (season 5) episode "The Power of a Shining Star! ChibiChibi's Transformation" had a softball game as its focus.

* In the ''Comic Party'' anime, characters formed two teams to play against ''each other''; the game was eventually called a tie due to some complicated exigent circumstances.

* For some reason or other this comes up fairly frequently in ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'', which has had several episodes in which characters play various sports against each other. These include a soccer episode, a swimming episode, a tennis episode, and an Olympic-style winter sports episode.

 

* This also happened in an issue of ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'', which played out very much like the ''[[Samurai Champloo]]'' episode, only here, the invaders were ''aliens''. (The justification, such as it was, was that the aliens had once been led by Doiby Dickles, so their culture was largely based on 1930s [[New York City]].)

** The justification for the planet Myrg resembling 1930s New York was indeed because they had been led by Doiby Dickles. However, that has nothing to do with the baseball. Apparently the aliens that were invading Myrg simply [[Aliens Steal Cable|learned the game from Earth TV]], and found it convenient as method of [[Trial by Combat]] and began to use it on their own. ''Young Justice'' was very often somewhat bizarre or slapstick and this storyline pushed it even farther than usual, prompting one character to say "[[Lampshade Hanging|That's it, I'm joining the [Teen] Titans]]."

* Way back when Marvel's Avengers were only split up between East Coast and West Coast, the two teams would meet up for an annual game of baseball. One of these games was interrupted by a cosmic being called the Grandmaster (who, as it happens, is obsessed with sports and games), but that's a long story.

* And ''way way'' back in the earliest years of the [[Fantastic Four]], the issue after the storyline of the very first introduction of the Black Panther, it opens with them playing baseball. [[Hilarity Ensues]], due to the fact that the Thing is the pitcher.

* Not to mention the annual softball game between [[Marvel Comics]] and [[DC Comics]] staffers.

* The Young All-Stars played against the All Star Squadron for charity.

* The inmates of Arkham Asylum have even played against Blackgate prisoners. It didn't go well.

* Nearly an entire issue of ''[[Power Pack]]'' took place in or around Shea Stadium, {{spoiler|dealing with a slightly-crazy former baseball player who was willing to blow up the stadium to prevent his seven-home-runs-in-seven-games record from being tied.}}

 

 

* A ''football'' variant occurs in ''[[The Room]]''.

 

* ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]''. [[In Space|With VAMPIRES]]

* ''Joy in Mudville'', a story in the [[Hoka]] series by [[Poul Anderson]] and [[Gordon R. Dickson]].

 

** Sisko's obsession with baseball goes back to the pilot, where Sisko uses baseball to explain the concept of linear time to the wormhole aliens. He goes nuts here because that obnoxious Vulcan captain taught his crew the game ''specifically to spite him.''

** It's also worth noting that by the 24th century, baseball has almost died out and is only kept alive by enthusiasts like Sisko and on a few distant colony worlds, so it's not as mainstream as in other examples.

* ''[[Wiseguy]]'' had "Player To Be Named Now" in which the mad [[Arms Dealer]] Mel Profitt decides to live out his childhood fantasy of becoming a baseball star, by buying an NBL team and forcing them to accept him as a player. He even forces the current owner's company into bankruptcy so he can buy at a cheaper price. The closest we see to an actual game though is Mel batting with the protagonist Vinnie pitching (Mel turns out to be a lousy batter compared to Vince). In the end the NBL rejects Mel based on his reputation, resulting in an [[Aesop]] that Money, Power, And A Gang of Mooks Isn't Everything.

* In an episode of ''[[The Greatest American Hero]]'', Ralph uses his super suit to pitch for the LA Stars.

* ''[[Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman]]'': "Traveling All-Stars."

* An episode of ''[[Dad's Army|Dads Army]]'' had the Home Guard playing a [[Cricket]] match against the ARP wardens (guest starring Fred Trueman!) {{spoiler|The Home Guard win when Godfrey, of all people, hits a six}}.

* ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]''. In "The Diary", the geeks' plot centres around playing baseball in gym class.

* ''[[Bones]]'' didn't have an actual baseball episode, but "The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle" features Arastoo Vaziri using baseball metaphors incessantly in anticipation of the baseball season starting. The other characters end up telling him to shut up.

* ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' has one. Of course, [[Dysfunction Junction|this being Ugly Betty]], [[Hilarity Ensues]].

{{quote|'''Betty:''' ''"No! You can't jump on people!"''}}

* The regular ''[[CSI]]'' had an episode in season 12 with an intermural game between the CSIs and police department. Cue fangirl squees about the guys in uniform.

 

 

* ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]'' has featured episodes centered on baseball, usually with some kind of moral in mind.

 

* The musical ''Let 'Em Eat Cake'' (sequel to ''[[Of Thee I Sing]]'') had the Supreme Court, reconstituted as a baseball team after Wintergreen became dictator, playing against the League of Nations, with Throttlebottom as umpire. The United States loses, blames Throttlebottom for calling a foul ball fair, and sentences him to the guillotine.

 

* Played with in ''[[Disgaea]]''. In one chapter, a bunch of rogue Prinnies challenge Laharl and company to a baseball game out in Blair Forest, but Laharl and Etna have a different game plan on their minds (i.e. "kill 'em all"). This is made easy by the fact that prinnies explode when thrown, providing a quick match if you are underleveled.

* ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', on the other hand, had a fight as a (association) football match. You're caught in the middle, while the enemies are split into two teams and can and will attack each other.

* The [[Super Mario]] 'verse deals with baseball in ''Mario Superstar Baseball'' and ''Mario Super Sluggers''.

* ''[[Mega Man 10]]'' invokes this with Strike Man's stage. Of course, Mega Man (or whoever you're playing as) doesn't deviate from what he usually does, and there are just general sports references, but baseball is the strongest theme (even the Robot Master himself looks like a baseball).

 

* The classic [[Woody Woodpecker]] short ''The Screwball''.

* On ''[[The Boondocks]]'', Huey was forced to participate in a baseball— er... Kickball game... against China. To save the town? This episode was transparently a metaphor for current economics, and an homage to the [[Samurai Champloo]] episode.

** Not to mention "You Gotta Believe (In Moderation)" which features Hank and the gang attempting to win against a Harlem Globetrotters-style team of clownish all-stars.

** Another episode from season 13, "Bad News Bill" when Hank realizes that a little league coach's encouragement techniques were giving Bobby false hope and ulitmately humiliating him.

** In a case of [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] a running gag in the episode has Burns getting mad at Mattingly for failing to cut his sideburns (even after he shaves off most of his hair). After getting cut from the team Don is heard saying "I still like him better than Steinbrenner." A few weeks after the episode was produced, but before it was aired, Mattingly would be suspended from the Yankees for failing to cut his long hair as per team owner George Steinbrenner's policy.

** In another episode, Homer is the mascot for the Isotopes.

*** [[Beyond the Impossible|While bunting!]]

* While [[The Mighty Ducks]] played hockey in nearly every episode (they were a professional hockey team, after all), "Mad Quacks Beyond Hockeydome" had the the ducks kidnapped by an [[Evil Overlord]] from another galaxy and forced into a tournament of ''[[Recycled in Space|space hockey]]'' where the losing team gets disintegrated.

* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' once tried to help his mother's little league team to win a game for an all-girls championship. The [[Opposing Sports Team]], the "Bad Girls", were cheating and Johnny decided to disguise himself to enter his mother's team. When the Bad Girls' coach unmasked him, Little Suzy did the same to the Bad Girls and the umpire disqualified both teams.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Sports Story Tropes]]