The Ol' Ball Game

Synopsis

An old rival of Danny's challenges him to a softball match however he struggles to put a team together until he decides to let the girls try out. As the competition takes off everyone including the teachers becomes involved in the grudge match.

Meanwhile Holly is struggling and feels she is the worst player on the field, until Danny gives her a pep talk and encourages her to take her place on the team.

My Review

I really like this ensemble feel good episode as the last proper episode of the season, although when I originally watched this wasn’t broadcast in that position in the U.K. so I didn’t actually know that’s where it was supposed to be placed.

It’s not exactly an original story but I feel it works very well on the show. I guess writer Ira Steven Behr was really into baseball because he recycles this story of the loser getting to win during a baseball episode on Star Trek Deep Space 9 a few years later.

I'm not normally interested in the sports related stories and haven’t got a clue about the rules to baseball so I just have to accept some of the things we see like players not touching the plate and being out if they get touched by the ball! Thankfully this episode concentrates more on our characters and pitting the girls against the boys adds a nice touch of drama and some fun.

Also there is a lot of humour going on though out the episode, particularly with the teachers. I love how Sherwood and Mrs Berg suddenly get involved and Shorofsky is funny when Morloch is fighting with the other coach and he tries to calm things down until he gets called “Grandpa” and then he’s like “Get him Quentin”. There is some nice continuity pitting the school against Zachery Taylor High as they have mentioned that school before as it was one Morloch wanted to work at.

The ongoing fight between the 2 non speaking background guys is also a nice touch and highlights the competitiveness and rivalry that has suddenly sprung up all around.

Danny finally beating his old rival is good because I really don't like the Joey character but I guess that is how we are supposed to feel about him. Also it's nice seeing Holly, who feels she’s not very good at the game being involved in scoring the winning points, it's corny but nicely played and along with the music at the end I even find the scenes quite emotional. I guess most of us can identify with having to do something we simply aren’t very good at and being teased about it and feeling insecure, so it’s nice when the Loser Gets to Win. That song does really compliment the whole episode and I really like it. It’s also nice to have Holly and Danny singing together.

I'm really not very keen on the boys song “Scorn” with Lou singing too. It's obviously done as a bit of a slapstick comedy routine but that's not really my kind of thing and I didn’t find Dick Miller a particularly good singer. Lou’s story of meeting the baseball player is pretty much the same as Danny’s encounter with Johnny Carson in season 1 “Buzz Off Kid!

The girl’s routine works better but is a little predictable. Someone on the show obviously liked Toni Basil as this is the 3rd song of hers that the show has done this season. Debbie Allen rewrote some of the lyrics here to make it more appropriate for the episode. It's just a shame that none of our female cast members are actually singing. Goodness knows why Holly suddenly disappears out of shot during the routine. If Cynthia was struggling with the dance routine they could have incorporated that into the story as it would have added to Holly’s feelings of insecurity which is nice continuity with the feelings she must have been having during the anorexia story in reflections.

One thing I do really like is the look of the show. We started the season with lots of outside scenes filmed on location then we are soon back to everything being filmed on set. However a lot of this episode is filmed on location and to me that always gives the episodes a nicer look and feel.

My one frustration with this episode is that Doris is virtually ignored, all the other cast seem to get something good to do in this episode except Doris. Even during the game the position she plays means she spends most of the episode wearing a protective helmet which covers her face so you don’t really notice her. It’s Valerie’s last proper episode and I would have liked her to have been more involved in the storyline.

A small nitpick from the beginning of the episode is an older weoman extra walks past Chris as the episode title comes on screen, then a few moments later after Jesse has spoken she walks past again in exactly the same position.

Episode Pictures