O'BLIGATORY POST WORLD SERIES BASEBALL STORY 2017

'IRONSIDE'

"THE RETURN OF THE HERO"

At the end of the episode, Ironside's team was buttering him up with gifts and praise, but he could tell they were up to something......

CHIEF ROBERT T. IRONSIDE

It wouldn't have anything to do with the Dodger-Giant game, would it?

SGT. ED BROWN

You mean the final game of the three-game series?  

Playing today?

MARK SANGER

Marichal versus Drysdale?

DETECTIVE EVE WHITFIELD

We haven't even thought about it. 

IRONSIDE

Good!  Because we have a robbery to cover; let's go!

EVE

Robbery? Where? 

IRONSIDE

The park! Candlestick Park.  

Willie Mays told me he's going to steal second, third and home.

This episode aired on April 4, 1968, and it was historical due to outside forces at work - it was during the broadcast of this episode on the East Coast that NBC broke in with the news that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated.

But for this post, my focus is on what was happening within the TV Universe.  (It would be some time before Toobworld incorporated the assassination into its own reality.)  And so it is that Dodgers at Giants series at Candlestick, the third game in a three game series with Don Drysdale pitching against Juan Marichal, that is of concern to us today.

But I think the basic details of that game make it unique to Toobworld only.  I checked all of the Giants/Dodgers games at Candlestick for 1967 and 1968 and Drysdale battled Marichal only once - on July 8, 1967.  And that was the middle game of a series.

Outside the Box, I think we just have to leave it up to the imagination of the writer for this episode.  He knew it had to be a Giants game since the show is set in San Francisco, and Marichal was probably the best pitcher that year.  After that, I imagine the Dodgers were his own favorite team in the National League.

One day, Don Drysdale will be inducted into the Television Crossover Hall of Fame and this mention would count towards that since it does mean he exists in Chief Ironside’s world.  (Among the other shows that are in his tally are ‘The Donna Reed Show’ and ‘The Joey Bishop Show’.)

Willie Mays already is in the TVXOHOF, inducted on his 85^th birthday, thanks to appearances on ‘The Donna Reed Show’, ‘Mr. Belvedere’, and ‘Bewitched’.  And now I can include this mention of him being friends with Ironside among his credits.  (Pictured here are Mays and Drysdale with Donna Stone and another future member of the Hall, Leo Durocher.)

It’s his appearance on ‘Bewitched’ that makes his mention here in an ‘Ironside’ episode that much more interesting.  According to an episode in which Mays showed up at a witches’ party, he is actually a warlock.  This means that in addition to any episodes of ‘Ironside’ which dealt with supernatural themes (which were usually discredited), the cop show actually had connections to the real thing!

The Dodgers made it to the World Series this year, apparently without the help of any witches and warlocks nor a wesen of any kind.  (Although Justin Turner does look as though he would right at home in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.)  And the congratulations go to the Houston Astros for an incredible win in what will be a VERY memorable series.  They may not have had the help of any TV-related supernatural beings either, but the life story of George Springer - a fellow UConn grad from my home state! - is certainly worthy of a biographical TV movie!

BCnU……