Line #176 Main/BaseballEpisode


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4	%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!
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12	[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/GundamBuildFighters https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/48_5698.png]]]]
13	[[caption-width-right:350:Two mobile suits playing baseball? That's a first.]]
14
15	->'''Arnold:''' Just as long as we don't get blasted, roasted, toasted, or eaten, I'm happy.\
16	'''Ms. Frizzle:''' Don't worry, Arnold; that's not until next week. Today, we're going to a baseball game!
17	-->-- ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'', "[[Recap/TheMagicSchoolBusS1E10PlaysBall Plays Ball]]"
18
19	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...
20
21	Wait a minute, why are they playing UsefulNotes/{{baseball}}?
22
23	Enter the Baseball Episode, in which – for ''some'' reason – the heroes participate in a baseball game. This might be in order to save the world, save the town, or just waste time. Whatever the reason, it's common, and shows up in all kinds of works...
24
25	...at least works coming from North America, Japan, and parts of Latin America. Most other countries don't even care about this "baseball" thing. (The standard British or Australian equivalent would be a UsefulNotes/{{cricket}} or UsefulNotes/{{rugby\|union}} episode, while in Canada you might get a [[UsefulNotes/IceHockey hockey]] episode. Or maybe the characters will play UsefulNotes/{{American football}}, [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball soccer]], or UsefulNotes/{{basketball}} instead.)
26
27	[[GameOfNerds For some reason]], this happens a lot in SpeculativeFiction.
28
29	Also can apply to softball, an equivalent sport played with a larger ball on a smaller playfield.
30
31	----
32	!!Example Subpages:
33	[[index]]
34	* BaseballEpisode/AnimeAndManga
35	* BaseballEpisode/LiveActionTV
36	* BaseballEpisode/WesternAnimation
37	[[/index]]
38
39	!!Other Examples:
40
41	[[foldercontrol]]
42
43	[[folder:Advertising]]
44	* One of the Advertising/ErinEsurance ads took place in a baseball game. A song about saving money with Esurance to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" even plays in it!
45	* One Advertising/WilkinsCoffee commercial has Wilkins and Wontkins at a baseball field, with the former as an umpire and the latter as a batter. When Wontkins asks Wilkins if he got a ball or a strike, Wilkins asks him if he drinks Wilkins coffee. When Wontkins tells him no, Wilkins tells him "Stee-rike three, you're out!"
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
49	* The ''Animation/EenaMeenaDeeka'' episode "Baseball" starts off with the birds playing baseball outside. When they hit the baseball in the air, it comes down and hits Bhukkad, and the main conflict begins.
50	* ''Animation/MotuPatlu'' has an episode involving UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}}. In the episode, titled "Cricket League", Motu and Patlu start their own cricket league.
51	* ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'' also has a Cricket Episode; the episode is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin appropriately titled "Cricket Match"]]. In the episode, Samosa is named the umpire in a cricket game, and is surprised to find out that his friends Dhokla, Jalebi, and Vada are on the playing teams for that game.
52	* ''Animation/TikTakTail'' has the "Cricket Episode" variant. In "Cricket Crisis", Tak and Tail challenge Tik and Jolly to a cricket match that involves both teams making fabrications to the willow and ball in order to have advantages over the other team.
53	[[/folder]]
54
55	[[folder:Comic Books]]
56	* ''ComicBook/AllStarSquadron'': The Young All-Stars played against the All-Star Squadron for charity.
57	* ''ComicBook/TheAvengers'': Way back when the 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.
58	* ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'': A [[UsefulNotes/GoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] issue had the hero and Bucky take to the field as players in order to catch a murderer who was killing pitchers in order to rig games.
59	* ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'': The annual had a story with the cast playing UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}}.
60	* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': ''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. HilarityEnsues, due to the fact that the Thing is the pitcher.
61	* ''ComicBook/{{Impulse}}'': Bart Allen's adventures are a mix of normal superheroic fare-- bank robberies, time travel, speeding cars, megalomania-- and him trying and failing to be a normal teenager, but generally more of the former. ''Impulse #20'' is just 22 pages of Bart playing baseball (and losing badly).
62	* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': The Hulk, while incognito, got a gig playing outfield for a minor league team. The gig ended when he had a fight with the Rhino, who was playing catcher for a rival minor league team. Foul-tempered, mutated superbehemoths playing baseball? ''Shocking''.
63	* ''WesternAnimation/LaffALympics'': Marvel's ComicBookAdaptation had "Take Me Out to the Brawl Game," in which the Really Rottens used a remote-controlled baseball and kidnapped the Scoobies' star hitter, Captain Caveman.
64	* ''ComicBook/NewMen'': The first issue opened with the title team relaxing with a game of basketball - the use of powers ''encouraged''.
65	* ''ComicBook/{{The Outsiders\|DCComics}}'': ''ComicBook/TheOutsiders1985'' #6 (1986) has a back-up story titled "The Outsiders at the Bat"; a comical adaptation of ''Casey at the Bat'' featuring the Outsiders playing baseball against Kobra and his henchmen.
66	* ''ComicBook/PowerPack'': Nearly an entire issue 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]].
67	* ''ComicBook/PS238'': The ''No Child Left Behind!'' collection contains a bonus story about the [=PS238=] students playing baseball (minus Tyler, who refs from the sidelines for his own safety).
68	* The inmates of [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Arkham Asylum]] have even played against Blackgate prisoners in ''Showcase '94'' #3-4. It didn't go well.
69	* ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': The Justice League had a baseball game against the Injustice Gang in ''Strange Sport Stories''. The writers even wrote and included a box score for the game.
70	* ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'': A 1977 Captain Marvel [[http://baseballcontinuum.com/2014/08/09/bizarre-baseball-culture-the-detroit-tigers-a-talking-tiger-and-the-power-of-shazam/ comic]] featured this. It starts with Mr. Tawny (the talking tiger) joining the Detroit Tigers, and ends with a game between the Tigers (including Mr. Tawny and Captain Marvel, temporarily on the team) playing against Mr. Mind and a team of aliens with enhanced abilities, for control of the world.
71	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': In issue #77, an amnesiac Superman is living as a hobo and is recruited as a pitcher by a minor league team when he [[AccidentalAthlete returns a fly ball and nearly breaks the catcher's hand]]. ItMakesSenseInContext.
72	* Similarly, there was a Titans/Villains baseball game in an issue of ''ComicBook/TeenTitansGo''.
73	* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
74	** Back in the Golden Age of Comics ComicBook/SteveTrevor once stopped to play baseball with some kids while delivering an important, but not time sensitive, message. When he arrives the message seems to have been swapped out and he's accused of being a fool and getting it stolen while playing a game, but he and Franchise/WonderWoman uncover the truth: he'd never been given the real message in the first place as the man who was meant to hand it to him had been killed and replaced with a near identical relative who'd been bribed into becoming a Nazi saboteur.
75	** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The [=WACs=] assigned to the USAAF intelligence office in Washington DC play a game against their male co-workers. The game gets derailed by an argument when Diana forgets to hold back her strength and obliterates a ball, with Steve quickly saying the ball was probably rotted through and flirtingly asking her if she fancies herself a Wonder Woman once the other men are too distracted by trying to figure out if its a foul ball.
76	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': The X-Men have a long history of this (perhaps unsurprising given that the school is in New York). An X-Men baseball game will always start with the rule "no powers". And it will always be broken. They also played basketball once with similar results. And football (resulting in Xavier being tackled out of his wheelchair).
77	* This also happened in an issue of ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'', which played out very much like the ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' 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 UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. Apparently they had decided that baseball was a convenient form of TrialByCombat and began to use it as their own. The whole thing was so ridiculous that it prompted one character to express in frustration "[[LampshadeHanging That's it, I'm joining the [Teen] Titans.]]"
78	* Not to mention the annual softball game between Creator/MarvelComics and Creator/DCComics staffers in RealLife.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
82	* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' had an early arc featuring Calvin's ill-fated attempt at joining his school's baseball team. In other strips, he and Hobbes play baseball against each other, but those inevitably result in either a BigBallOfViolence between the two or the game turning into {{Calvinball}}. Or both.
83	* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' had plenty of strips revolving around Charlie Brown's poor excuse for a Little League team. His team always lost, and every character treated this as a foregone conclusion except Charlie Brown himself, who would always hold out hope for a win only to inevitably suffer yet another disappointment. Baseball was also the main topic for a few of the animated specials, including ''Charlie Brown's All-Stars'', ''It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown'', and ''Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown'' among others.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Fan Works]]
87	* ''Website/FamilyGuyFanon'': Season 3's "Peter Griffin's All-Stars" is centered on a game of Peter's team, the Happy-Go-Lucky Toy Factory's softball team, going against Joe's team, the Quahog Police Department. Notably takes cues from ''WesternAnimation/CharlieBrownsAllStars''.
88	* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': "The Baseball Game" is a classic Single-A World Series BigGame story, with Bolt pressed into playing duty while serving as honorary team {{Mascot}}. He scores the winning run as a pinch runner for an injured player, and later clinches victory when he pulls off a triple play manning second base despite lacking a glove and the ability to throw a baseball properly.
89	* ''Series/Numb3rs'' story ''Fanfic/AnythingForCharity'' has Don being drafted by his boss to take part in a charity baseball game against other agencies.
90	* ''FanFic/TheSimpsonsTeamLASH'' has the chapter "A Liv of Their Own", in which Liv joins the Springfield Elementary baseball team, and [[YouGoGirl ends up being the sole female member of the team]].
91	* ''WebVideo/TouhouBaseballInHeatStar2007'', a ''Franchise/Touhou Project'' FanVid simulating the characters taking part of Baseball games in order to solve an incident that was caused by a baseball stadium suddenly appearing near Hakurei Shrine, and drawing in the possibility of the effects of the boundary between Gensyoko and the outside world.
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
95	* A ''football'' variant occurs in ''Film/TheRoom2003''.
96	* For [[MediumBlending a given value of "live action"]], ''Film/SpaceJam'' is like a movie-length version of this for the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' franchise with basketball instead of baseball. Funnily enough, Michael Jordan is actually ''playing'' baseball in his first appearance on screen.
97	* The Cullens, with Bella in tow, play in ''Film/{{Twilight}}''.
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Literature]]
101	* ''Literature/TheBerenstainBears'' ''Go Out for the Team'' involves Brother and Sister Bear trying out for an official Little League team.
102	* The [[MilestoneCelebration fiftieth]] Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel, ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHappyEndings Happy Endings]]'' by Creator/PaulCornell, spends about a chapter on a cricket match between the Cheldon Boniface team and the Doctor's Invitation Eleven.
103	* Lucille Van Slyke's 1912 serial novel ''Eve's Other Children'' focuses on Syrian immigrant children and their families trying to get used to America. In "The Thing Called Play", nine-year-old Najeeb Badour is in a funk because the other boys don't really accept him. Tommy O'Brien wants to organize a sandlot baseball team, but his friends are either ignorant of the game or too young -- nobody can throw. Najeeb, however, is an expert at a related sport called ''tabeh'', where you throw a wooden ball through a hoop fixed at eye level.[[note]]Tabeh (or tabah, or tabi) is played all over the Middle East. The hoop is called ''doulab.''[[/note]] His friend Nazileh lets on to Tommy, and when Najeeb shows his skill, Tommy is ecstatic and screams "Oh, youse ''[[UsefulNotes/HistoricalPeopleToKnowInMLB Christy Mathewson]]!!!''" and proceeds to tell Najeeb everything about baseball. We don't see the game itself, but no doubt it's splendid. And what could be more American than that?
104	* In the third ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' novel, cricket suddenly becomes pivotal to the plot, and the story begins with a cricket game. Of course, it turns out that cricket is actually linked to an alien plot to kill everything everywhere.
105	* In Cold War black comedy ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'' by Creator/DerekRobinson, the crews of 409 Squadron and a nearby American nuclear deterrent squadron compete, where first the British pilots have to learn baseball and form a team; the Americans are similarly challenged to put up a cricket team.
106	* ''Joy in Mudville'', a story in the ''Literature/{{Hoka}}'' series by Creator/PoulAnderson and Creator/GordonRDickson.
107	* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': In "The Theft of The Meager Beavers", Nick is hired to steal a professional baseball team and fly them to a BananaRepublic; ostensibly to play a game against a team assembled by that country's president.
108	* If you consider each book in the Creator/PGWodehouse's ''Literature/{{Psmith}}'' series to be an 'episode', then the first book ''Enter Smith'' is the cricket episode. It's the only book to focus on Mike's cricketing prowess, and has detailed descriptions of the matches.
109	%%* ''[[Literature/Twilight2005 Twilight]]''. [[JustForFun/RecycledInSPACE With VAMPIRES]]
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder:Music]]
113	* The 1993 song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF3x8m8FdVI Cheap Seats]].
114	* John Fogerty's 1985 song, "Centerfield".
115	* ''Music/KidsPraise'': The eighth album is a pretty typical cliche baseball plot from TheEighties, where a couple of the Kid's Praise kids fail to make a team, so Psalty encourage them to [[StartMyOwn create their own team]] called "The Psalters". They lose so spectacularly in their first game, it's hard to believe, but win by a single run in a rematch for reasons that aren't really explained.
116	* Music/MeatLoaf's "[[Music/BatOutOfHell Paradise By The Dashboard Light]]", abruptly switches gears to a minute-long baseball play-by-play narrated by Phil Rizzuto about halfway through, used [[SexualEuphemism as a rather shameless metaphor for sex.]] Rizzuto claimed he wasn't informed about the context of it, though Meat Loaf denied this.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Pinballs]]
120	* "Balls 'n Bats" from ''VideoGame/ObsessionPinball'' is all about the Great American Pastime, and even includes a jingoistic American flag on the playfield.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
124	* As ''Contralona PR'' covered the lead up to ''Junte Para La Historia 2'' they [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqCIW4OJwac also]] followed WWL and other Puerto Rican wrestlers as they participated in a softball carnival.[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Radio]]
127	* ''Radio/AdventuresInOdyssey'' has featured episodes centered on baseball, usually with some kind of moral in mind.
128	[[/folder]]
129
130	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
131	* ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'' has some rules for including one of these in a campaign, if you've ever wanted to roleplay [[MuggleSportsSuperAthletes playing baseball, rugby or soccer in a battlemech]].
132	[[/folder]]
133
134	[[folder:Theatre]]
135	* The musical ''Let 'Em Eat Cake'' (sequel to ''Theatre/OfTheeISing'') 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.
136	* The "What a Game" scene in ''Theatre/{{Ragtime}}''.
137	[[/folder]]
138
139	[[folder:Video Games]]
140	* In the anime adaptation of ''VideoGame/ComicParty'', characters formed two teams to play against ''each other''; the game was eventually called a tie due to some complicated exigent circumstances.
141	* Played with in ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea\|HourOfDarkness}}''. 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.
142	* In ''VideoGame/EnsembleStars'', this is the premise of the event story ''Youth! Play Ball'' - due to a miscommunication, both 2wink and Trickstar end up assigned to perform the opening number for a baseball game, and decide to play a match of their own to decide who will take it. Naturally, they agree to put on a joint performance in the end.
143	* A short segment in ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry''. May be a bit longer in the manga and sound novels.
144	* The ''VideoGame/KunioKun'' baseball game ''Downtown Nekketsu Baseball Monogatari''.
145	* The ''VideoGame/LivePowerfulProBaseball Power Pro-Pocket'' series manages to invert this trope. They're baseball games with dating sim stories for building characters, but most of them come with a hidden mode that's a fantasy or sci-fi themed RPG that has nothing to do with the sport except for a customizable puppet that becomes your prize character for clearing the story. The only exceptions were ''Happiness Island'' in ''[[VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket6 6]]'', which was a standard baseball scenario; and ''Takeshima'' in ''[[VideoGame/PowerProKunPocket14 14]]'', which featured the sport as a table-top card game.
146	* ''VideoGame/MakaiKingdom'', 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.
147	* ''VisualNovel/MarcoAndTheGalaxyDragon'' has its heroines play a game of baseball for a PE class. The scene starts out comically, with Gargouille’s inability to hit the ball, but it becomes more serious as Marco takes the opportunity to voice her insecurities about approaching her long-lost mother.
148	* ''VideoGame/RhythmDoctor'': Act 5 has a baseball theme, with the player being tasked with helping out Lucky, a famous player who suffered a GameBreakingInjury. The chapter's climax has [[spoiler:Lucky become a coach to the hospital's patients, teaching them how to play baseball and helping them win a match against the local university's team]].
149	* The ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' 'verse deals with baseball in ''VideoGame/MarioSuperstarBaseball'' and ''VideoGame/MarioSuperSluggers''.
150	* ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'' 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).
151	* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh's [[VideoGame/WinnieThePoohsHomeRunDerby Home Run Derby]]'': The player controls Pooh in order to compete in a home run derby contest, facing off against many other characters in the series as pitchers
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Webcomics]]
155	* ''Webcomic/RustyAndCo'' level 8 is titled "Wait... is he seriously doing a baseball episode?" Sure enough, Robespierre, Mimic, Stabs and her brothers are getting roped into such a game in the arena, to the horror of the Halflings (who were expecting good old GladiatorGames instead).
156	** The variation of baseball used is extraordinarily deadly, however, enough so that high level clerics are kept on hand to resurrect the dead.
157	* ''Webcomic/TiffanyAndCorey'' has a few cartoons with the title characters on a baseball field, complete with ball cap or batting helmet and baseball bat.
158	%%* The latter half of ''Webcomic/WhenHeavenSpitsYouOut'' Part 2.
159	[[/folder]]
160
161	[[folder:Web Video]]
162	* ''LetsPlay/MrGibbs'': "Don't Nuke Yourself Challenge" serves as one. The video's whole premise is Alex and Ledger playing baseball [[ExplosiveStupidity using nuclear bombs]]. [[CaptainObvious This goes very poorly]].
163	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BaseballEpisode