Sam leaps into the life of a 35-year-old minor league baseball pitcher for the Galveston Mustangs in 1961. Just as he enters, a young woman comes into the clubhouse obviously intent on having sex with Sam's character. Before that can happen, the club's batboy comes to get him as he is needed to pinch hit.
Sam, as Doc Fuller, rips a double (somehow) but is thrown out trying for third, ending the game in a loss. Next thing we know, the club's owner asks him to come to her office, where she now wants to do what the young woman did a short while ago. Apparently, these two have been doing this since Doc joined the club.
We learn that in two days the Mustangs will host a playoff game and in the original history Doc pitched, but not good enough to impress the scout who was there, and did not get to return to the major leagues-where he had been several years ago before he hit someone with a pitch in Detroit and killed him, causing him to drop out of baseball for a while. Doc failed in this chance and wound up drinking himself to death.
Sam bonds with a brash young pitcher, Chuck, and believes the kid needs to impress the scout so he can get ahead and have his chance at the big leagues. What Al tells him is that he was caught having sex with that young woman and was tossed out of baseball forever.
We meander along through some arguments and Sam finding the kid's father who has been watching him, but who the kid never knew. Sam goes to retrieve the kid from the girl's place but winds up looking like he was getting involved with her by her mother-the team's owner, who promptly kicks both players off her club right before the playoff game.
But immigration services comes shortly before game time to take away three of the team's players, somehow leaving them, according to the manager, with only 8 players. So the owner reluctantly lets the two miscreants back on the team. Somehow, one of the 8 gets left on the bench, and the kid, a pitcher, plays leftfield, while Sam (Doc) pitches. He somehow does great until late in the game when he feels he's losing it, so he calls time to personally tell the kid he needs to pitch. The skipper goes along with it and Sam goes out to play leftfield. Naturally, Sam makes the great game-saving catch leaping against the fence to win the game.
The lone scout who was there, from the Yankees, wants the kid to sign with them and decides to also hire Doc to be the Yankee pitching coach. Sam doesn't leap until setting up a meeting between the kid and his father.
There were so many inaccuracies with the baseball issues here that I had trouble paying attention to the plot. Sam kept referring to the team's manager as "coach" when that is simply not now, not in 1961, not ever, what you call the man who runs a professional baseball team on the field. He is the manager. He'd be known by either a nickname or his first name by the players, or sometimes as "Skip" but not "Coach" a term that belongs with the other three major sports. A pro team's pitching coach or hitting coach, would also be known by his name, and would not be called "Coach" routinely by players.
Team caps even today, if they have one letter on the front, that letter represents the city or state or area the team calls home. In this show, the Galveston Mustangs wore caps with an "M" and the Biloxi Eagles caps had an "E" on the front of the crown.
I know Sam is supposed to be a natural athlete, but even if he pitched magnificently in high school, having lived another 20+ years as a scientist, and presumably playing no baseball at all, would have surely made it so he'd never have the stamina to pitch most of a pro game, let along be sharp enough with his control to keep the opponents off the scoreboard. Similarly, ripping a double off a pro pitcher right after leaping into his character, without even a single practice swing, is quite unrealistic.
This minor league club is supposed to have had only 13 players on the roster-which became 8 before they let Sam and Chuck back onto the team. Minor league rosters would not in the 1960s have been that low.
Identified as a minor league team, the Mustangs and Eagles would have been a farm club of some major league club, with their players belonging to the parent club. They wouldn't be free to just sign with any minor league club. There were no pro leagues operating independently in this era. Even if there were, the scout would be talking to the general manager of the team (who could possibly be the owner) to purchase their contracts. The players even then would not be free to just sign with some other club.
The scout also appeared to have directly offered the job of pitching coach for the Yankees to Doc (Sam) at the end of this episode. This would not be something a lowly employee could possibly offer. The best he might do is say he'd put in a word with the Yankee GM to see if he could get him a job as pitching coach with one of their minor league clubs for next season.
Overall I love this series and also love baseball. But I couldn't love this episode in any way. They had almost nothing regarding the workings of a pro baseball club, instead focusing mostly on the exploits of the sex-starved owner of the club and her daughter. Now I'm not complaining about the QL episodes where Sam's character is supposed to truly be loved by a character. Here we clearly had no love, only lust. I had to give it only a 4 out of 10.
Sam, as Doc Fuller, rips a double (somehow) but is thrown out trying for third, ending the game in a loss. Next thing we know, the club's owner asks him to come to her office, where she now wants to do what the young woman did a short while ago. Apparently, these two have been doing this since Doc joined the club.
We learn that in two days the Mustangs will host a playoff game and in the original history Doc pitched, but not good enough to impress the scout who was there, and did not get to return to the major leagues-where he had been several years ago before he hit someone with a pitch in Detroit and killed him, causing him to drop out of baseball for a while. Doc failed in this chance and wound up drinking himself to death.
Sam bonds with a brash young pitcher, Chuck, and believes the kid needs to impress the scout so he can get ahead and have his chance at the big leagues. What Al tells him is that he was caught having sex with that young woman and was tossed out of baseball forever.
We meander along through some arguments and Sam finding the kid's father who has been watching him, but who the kid never knew. Sam goes to retrieve the kid from the girl's place but winds up looking like he was getting involved with her by her mother-the team's owner, who promptly kicks both players off her club right before the playoff game.
But immigration services comes shortly before game time to take away three of the team's players, somehow leaving them, according to the manager, with only 8 players. So the owner reluctantly lets the two miscreants back on the team. Somehow, one of the 8 gets left on the bench, and the kid, a pitcher, plays leftfield, while Sam (Doc) pitches. He somehow does great until late in the game when he feels he's losing it, so he calls time to personally tell the kid he needs to pitch. The skipper goes along with it and Sam goes out to play leftfield. Naturally, Sam makes the great game-saving catch leaping against the fence to win the game.
The lone scout who was there, from the Yankees, wants the kid to sign with them and decides to also hire Doc to be the Yankee pitching coach. Sam doesn't leap until setting up a meeting between the kid and his father.
There were so many inaccuracies with the baseball issues here that I had trouble paying attention to the plot. Sam kept referring to the team's manager as "coach" when that is simply not now, not in 1961, not ever, what you call the man who runs a professional baseball team on the field. He is the manager. He'd be known by either a nickname or his first name by the players, or sometimes as "Skip" but not "Coach" a term that belongs with the other three major sports. A pro team's pitching coach or hitting coach, would also be known by his name, and would not be called "Coach" routinely by players.
Team caps even today, if they have one letter on the front, that letter represents the city or state or area the team calls home. In this show, the Galveston Mustangs wore caps with an "M" and the Biloxi Eagles caps had an "E" on the front of the crown.
I know Sam is supposed to be a natural athlete, but even if he pitched magnificently in high school, having lived another 20+ years as a scientist, and presumably playing no baseball at all, would have surely made it so he'd never have the stamina to pitch most of a pro game, let along be sharp enough with his control to keep the opponents off the scoreboard. Similarly, ripping a double off a pro pitcher right after leaping into his character, without even a single practice swing, is quite unrealistic.
This minor league club is supposed to have had only 13 players on the roster-which became 8 before they let Sam and Chuck back onto the team. Minor league rosters would not in the 1960s have been that low.
Identified as a minor league team, the Mustangs and Eagles would have been a farm club of some major league club, with their players belonging to the parent club. They wouldn't be free to just sign with any minor league club. There were no pro leagues operating independently in this era. Even if there were, the scout would be talking to the general manager of the team (who could possibly be the owner) to purchase their contracts. The players even then would not be free to just sign with some other club.
The scout also appeared to have directly offered the job of pitching coach for the Yankees to Doc (Sam) at the end of this episode. This would not be something a lowly employee could possibly offer. The best he might do is say he'd put in a word with the Yankee GM to see if he could get him a job as pitching coach with one of their minor league clubs for next season.
Overall I love this series and also love baseball. But I couldn't love this episode in any way. They had almost nothing regarding the workings of a pro baseball club, instead focusing mostly on the exploits of the sex-starved owner of the club and her daughter. Now I'm not complaining about the QL episodes where Sam's character is supposed to truly be loved by a character. Here we clearly had no love, only lust. I had to give it only a 4 out of 10.
