The Real Story behind Star Trek’s Most Famous Baseball Game

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 32 seconds ago

Star Trek is often oddly set on baseball. Deep Space Ninefor example, showing that Captain Sisko has a fierce passion for the old sport and keeps a baseball in his office as a prize possession. That result even gave us a hilarious baseball game pitting the DS9 crew against snooty Vulcans, and fans still love to cosplay by wearing the same Niners baseball jerseys worn in the episode “Take Me Out To The Holosuite”. However, Star Trek’s most it could be argued that the reference was to a famous baseball game The Next Generation episode “Evolution” which refers to the 1951 National League game-breaking showdown between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants.

Star Trek author Loves baseball

If you’re one of the many Star Trek fans who don’t watch much actual baseball, you may have found a major plot point in “Evolution” confusing. This episode features an eccentric scientist who has a passion for baseball, and instead of recreating classic games in the holodeck, he recreates them in his mind as a sort of reward for himself. He demonstrates his ability to do so by reciting “Lockman on first, Dark on second, Thomson at the plate, Branca on the mound,” which is a direct reference to the aforementioned game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, although the reporting makes some crucial ones. mistakes.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Showrunner Michael Piller wrote “Evolution” and is a huge baseball fan (more on this later), and chose this game because it’s so special. This clash of baseball titans led to what is known as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” That’s the fond nickname for New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson’s home run in the ninth inning, one that allowed his team to win the National League pennant. This made the 1951 game unforgettable for sports fans, but the baseball superfan behind “Evolution,” Dr. Paul Stubbs, actually gets major details wrong when reporting the game.

Despite Star Trek guru Michael Piller’s great love for baseball, he got a few details wrong when Stubbs wrote that “Lockman at first, Dark at second, Thomson at the plate, Branca on the mound.” Because Giants player Clint Hartung had been ruled out, the line-up was a little different. To be completely accurate, former wunderkind Stubbs should have said “Lockman at second, Hartung at third, Thomson at the plate, Branca on the mound.”

While he may have gotten a few details wrong, we doubt the late, great Piller lost any sleep over the mistake … after all, this Star Trek script and its baseball references and ‘he helped me get the job as a show runner The Next Generation. Before Piller, Michael Wagner was the show runner for a short time but soon left the production, and the script “Evolution” helped Piller win over executive producer Rick Berman. Piller later said that Berman “shared my love of baseball” and that Stubbs’ speech “hit him right between the eyes,” leading to a “partnership” in which Piller became the host of this wildly popular show. sci-fi spinoff.

There you have it, folks: if the Star Trek: The Next Generation Had the episode “Evolution” not delved so much into baseball, Michael Piller might not have gotten the show runner job, and TNG it could have remained a bit of a mess instead of “evolving” into one of the greatest shows in television history. And without Berman and Piller’s love for America’s greatest pastime, we might not have gotten Captain Sisko’s own baseball obsession, much less “Take Me Out To the Holosuite,” a near-perfect DS9 episode.

As a franchise, Star Trek fans owe a lot to the creators’ passionate love of baseball, which is why we’re here to ask the big question: when will Trek’s baseball hero Buck Bokai finally get himself Picard-single series style?