I gotta be honest, I don’t give a shit about baseball. I never watch games on television, and I hated playing Little League as a kid. I’ve attended ball games in both the minor leagues and the majors, and, try as I might to stay engaged, I’m usually much more preoccupied with keeping my cup of overpriced beer full than I am with whoever is up to bat.
So I can say without bias that baseball-themed episodes of sitcoms are the absolute best. A sense of competition inherently makes for a good storyline, and the characters are usually out of their element, allowing you to see another side of them. There’s also a feeling of fun, whimsy and nostalgia that’s somehow inherent to the TV version of baseball (and, for me personally, absent from the game in real life).
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Below are nine spectacular baseball-themed sitcom episodes — some are obvious home runs, others may feel a little out of left field, but I can guarantee you won’t need Cracker Jacks or stale beer to get you through any of them.
‘Switch Hitter’ from ‘Arrested Development’
Will Arnett’s Gob Bluth is often the funniest character on Arrested Development, and the show’s baseball episode is Gob at his best. With no other useful skills to employ at the Bluth Company, Gob always shined during the annual softball game against their arch rivals, Sitwell Enterprises, but without George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) to scare Gob into remaining loyal, Gob is wooed away to Sitwell’s team by simple flattery. Gob is then convinced to be a double agent by Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), only to re-align himself with Sitwell after a little more flattery.
“Switch Hitter” aired during a time when Arrested Development was still firing on all cylinders, and it’s a perfect character piece for the stupid, disloyal, insecure Gob Bluth.
‘The Abstinence’ from ‘Seinfeld’
There are a handful of Seinfeld episodes I could have included here, but for this list I focused on those where the main cast actually plays baseball (or at least a bit of catch). Since the Keith Hernandez two-parter “The Boyfriend” is much more about male friendships than it is about the national pastime, I went with “The Abstinence” instead. During the episode, George (Jason Alexander) abstains from sex after his girlfriend is diagnosed with mono, which makes George’s mind sharper and pretty much better at everything. There’s even a hilarious scene in which George gives batting advice to Yankees’ Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, who play themselves.
‘Baseball’ from ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’
This episode has the most actual baseball of any of the others on this list. In it, the gang from WKRP plays against rival station WPIG, and in the end, WKRP wins. The episode allows all the quirky characters of WKRP to find a way to shine outside of their regular environment. A great example is when veteran disc jockey Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) shows his lack of enthusiasm for the game by sitting in a lawn chair while playing center field.
‘The Gang Beats Boggs’ from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
“The Gang Beats Boggs” is much more about a legendary baseball story than it is about baseball. The tale goes that, on a cross-country flight from Boston to L.A., Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs downed 73 beers. In “The Gang Beats Boggs,” the gang from Paddy’s Pub compete against each other to beat Boggs’ record while aboard their own cross-country flight. The fantastic bottle episode, which takes place almost entirely aboard the plane, ends with a sweet scene in which Mac (Rob McElhenney) and Charlie (Charlie Day) play catch together. The funniest part, however, is when Dee (Kaitlin Olson) mistakes Wade Boggs for Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard.
‘Herman the Rookie’ from ‘The Munsters’
One of Herman Munster’s defining traits is his Herculean strength, which makes him a perfect fit to join the L.A. Dodgers in the first season of The Munsters. Unfortunately, Herman’s best asset turns out to be his greatest weakness. While Dodgers manager Leo Durocher is thrilled to have Herman on the team, his teammates keep getting hurt by Herman’s accidentally aggressive playing style. In the end, Herman (Fred Gwynne) is booted from the team after they realize he would cost the Dodgers $75,000 in damages every time he played (and that was in 1965 dollars).
‘Leo Durocher Meets Mister Ed’ from ‘Mr. Ed’
“Herman the Rookie” wasn’t the first time Durocher played a big part in a classic sitcom. A few years earlier, on the talking horse show Mr. Ed, the Dodgers-loving horse, is so infuriated by the team’s slump that he calls up Durocher at Dodger Stadium with a tip on how to fix one player’s game. The tip works, and Durocher calls back asking for more advice. Ultimately, the episode ends with Mr. Ed playing a round of baseball, although Durocher stops short of offering him a place on the team
‘Manager Coach’ from ‘Cheers’
As a die-hard Cheers fan, episodes that center around Nicholas Colasanto’s Coach are near and dear to my heart — perhaps because we didn’t get quite enough of them before he passed away during the show’s third season. The Season Two episode “Manager Coach” is a great Coach episode and a great baseball episode, which makes sense given that Coach got his nickname after coaching Sam Malone (Ted Danson) while Sam was on the Boston Red Sox. In the episode, Coach is his ever-lovable, dim-witted self with the regular Cheers cast, but when he’s put in charge of a pee-wee baseball team, he becomes a tyrant, pushing the kids in hilarious fashion.
’Homer at Bat’ from ‘The Simpsons’
“Homer at Bat” has got everything you could want in a great sitcom baseball episode. You’ve got hilarious baseball-themed jokes — including from Mr. Burns who still thinks the game is played the way it was in the 1800s. Plus, it features an all-star lineup of some of the biggest MLB players of the early 1990s, including Roger Clemens, José Canseco, Ken Griffey Jr. and the aforementioned Boggs. If that wasn’t enough, the sepia-toned ending instills that nostalgia-fueled spirit of baseball that will even touch the hearts of viewers who have no idea who any of those aforementioned players are.
‘The Losing Edge’ from ‘South Park’
“The Losing Edge” earns the top spot on this list because its central joke is about how lame and boring baseball is, and yet still manages to be a terrific baseball episode. It begins with South Park’s Little League team celebrating the end of the season; the kids hated every second of it, but quickly find out they’ve qualified for the playoffs and now must play other teams in Colorado. They soon devise a plan to throw a game, which would get them kicked out of the single-elimination playoffs. Unfortunately, their opposing teams also hate baseball, so both compete to see who can play the game worse. Meanwhile, the episode features a great B-story with Stan’s dad Randy getting into drunken fights with other parents in the stands. All of which makes for a truly hilarious baseball episode that doesn’t try to fool its audience into thinking baseball is exciting.
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