Title: The Diamond Murders (aka "Murder in the Ballpark"—this is the title the announcer uses at the start of the episode)
Air date: October 8, 1939
Plot summary: The Eagles, the local baseball team in whatever city The Shadow is set, is hosting a game. The visiting team's pitcher gives up a base hit to right—and falls down dead!
Soon after, there's another game at the ballpark. The starting pitcher for the visiting team is found asleep in the locker room—but he isn't asleep, he's dead!
Cue Lamont and Margot going to a baseball game. Margot annoys Lamont with her endless questions (it turns out the blue players are the umpires) and marvels at baseball under the lights (still somewhat novel in 1939). The visiting pitcher delivers his first pitch—and the lights go out! Then the lights come back on and, you guessed it, the pitcher is dead.
Lamont being on the scene, he manages to coax Commissioner Weston into tagging along with the investigation. Naturally it's Lamont who figures out that this third pitcher was killed by means of an electrified plate on the mound, which electrocuted the victim when he stepped on it in his cleated shoes. Weston interviews Pixie Parker, the Eagles' ace pitcher, and Pop Hilton, the groundskeeper, and gets nowhere. Finally, Lamont manages to get the Eagles to let him put on a uniform and hang out in the clubhouse and dugout. Lamont observes a strange, Svengali-and-Trilby relationship between Pixie the amiable dunce and Bogo, the creepily intense mascot/bat boy. Lamont zeroes in on Bogo as his suspect, and The Shadow goes to work.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Sports: As Lamont and Margot watch from the stands, the game begins, the visiting team's starter throws his first pitch, and then he's murdered. The problem is that in baseball the visiting team bats first so it should have been the Eagles' starting pitcher on the mound.
- City with No Name: The city where The Shadow went about his adventures was never named, but it's particularly noticeable in this episode, where characters keep referencing both the Eagles and various opposing teams by nickname only, never mentioning any cities.
- Evil Cripple: Bogo, the bat boy and mascot, who actually has quite a bit of athletic skill but could never make it as a baseball player because he's a hunchback. This has driven Bogo mad, and driven him to kill.
- His Name Is...: The Shadow is at the ballpark grilling Pop Hilton, who seems to know more than he's telling about the murders. Unfortunately Pop takes a little too long and delivers one too many Ice Cream Koans, and he winds up getting shot by an unseen sniper just as he's about to tell The Shadow who did it.
- Ice-Cream Koan: Pop Hilton the groundskeeper was once a pitcher until he took a batted ball to the head, which made him "batty". When Weston or The Shadow ask him pointed questions about what he knows regarding the murders, he says stuff like "There are a thousand doors from life to death."
- Laughing Mad: Bogo at first denies it, but once it's clear the game is up, he starts to giggle in a most creepy fashion as he admits to killing all the ballplayers.
- Lights Out Somebody Dies: A most unusual example of this trope, as it's lights out in a baseball stadium. But it's played straight, as the stadium lights go out and the pitcher is found dead on the mound when they come back up.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lamont describes Pixie Parker as "one of the original daffy boys", and when he gets to talking Pixie is revealed as a dimwitted but amiable hick with a loopy, eccentric way of speaking. He's obviously a goof on Real Life star baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean.
- Serial Killer: The demented Bogo, who in his madness sees Pixie Parker's success as his own, has decided to kill any other pitcher that fans think is as good or better than Pixie.
- Sports Stories: The Shadow takes a break from his usual pursuit of gangsters and such, as Lamont and Margot go to a baseball game and discover a Serial Killer stalking visiting pitchers.
