Wednesday, June 13, 2018

"COLUMBO" - WE'RE TALKIN' BASEBALL



'COLUMBO'
"FADE IN TO MURDER"


In order to establish his alibi before murdering his blackmailing producer, actor Ward Fowler used a baseball game which he was recording to fool his "go-fer" into thinking that he was with Fowler at the time of the murder.

Here are the transcripts from two points in the game:

Back in Kansas City, you'll recall, earlier this week and -#

Out there.
Here's the wind, the pitch and the swing and a high, pop fly on the infield.
Settling under it, the shortstop, Jones, who makes the catch.
One away! Los Angeles with one out, a tie game at three and here comes first baseman, Tony Eberly 
Swings into the wind-up and here's the pitch.
Fastball, high.
And taken by Eberly, it's ball one.
Ball one.
Eberly digs in.
Waves that bat back and forth.
Brenner leans in, gets his sign from Kowalski.
Here's the wind[-up] and here comes the pitch.
Swung on and a high fly ball, foul and drifting into the stands in leftfield.
One ball, one strike to Eberly.
Here's the wind, here comes the pitch.
Swung on and missed.
Ooh, he had his best rip at that one, but he swung through a fastball, knee-high on the inside.
Brought it in under the fist, did Whitey Brenner.
And so the count goes one and two on Eberly.
One out, no one aboard for Los Angeles.
Brenner looks in, gets his sign.
The outfield deep around toward left field.
Here's the wind and here comes the pitch Wahlberg sprinting around first and he comes into second with a stand-up double.
So we swing into the top of the fifth inning, and we're all tied at -#


LATER:

A double in the bottom of the sixth inning by has given Los Angeles a 7-5 lead and we're ready to go in the seventh inning. Leading it off will be Vince Carr. Whitey Brenner was relieved by Kowalski back in the fourth inning He's into the wind-up and here comes the pitch. Carr swings and misses. It's 0 and 1. A good fastball. Carr hitting. 231 on the season. Seventh inning here in Los Angeles. A beautiful night and the score is 7-5, L. A. The wind and the pitch and a high fly ball to left And here comes Scooter D'Agosta in from the bullpen. It's a critical spot, now. Bases loaded. We got two outs in the ninth inning. And the game is 7-6. D'Agosta has won four and lost three on this season, has eight saves. He's a From Brenner and the count now is full, three balls, two strikes on Tony Eberly. We're tied at three in the bottom of the third inning.   And a high-fly ball, sliced down the right field line. Fair or foul? It's at the foul pole. It's a home run!

From the IMDb:
The baseball announcer refers to one team as "Los Angeles" and mentions their game the previous week in Kansas City. At that time, the teams could only be the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League and the Kansas City Royals of the American League, but they would not play a regular season game against each other until more than twenty years later. 


The baseball footage shows the Baltimore Orioles of the American League at home in Memorial Stadium (during the daytime) but the announcer refers to one team as "Los Angeles". That would make the visitors the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League who would not play a regular season game at Baltimore until more than twenty years later.
 


These two "splainins" from the IMDb assume that the Los Angeles team has to be the real Dodgers.  But this is Toobworld - Lt. Columbo is not a real person and 'Inspector Lucerne' is not a real TV show.  So why can't the Los Angeles baseball team be one only to be found in Toobworld?


First off, because the footage does show the Orioles at Memorial Stadium, we have to accept that they are one of the two teams involved.  The Orioles have a televersion presence in the main Toobworld, seen in 'Homicide: Life On The Street' but perhaps other shows as well.

As for the Los Angeles team, I think we have to discount the Dodgers based on the information... information... information provided by the IMDb - that the Dodgers would not play the Orioles for another twenty years.  The televersions of those Real World teams should follow the events established in the Real World.

  
But there was another Major League Baseball team in TV-L.A. - the California Stars.

'THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO'
"THE 200 MILE AN HOUR FASTBALL"


Ralph Hinkley has to step in as the pitcher for the California Stars to prevent mobsters from profiting on the outcome.  The game seen in the episode took place in Dodgers Stadium, so the Dodgers and the Stars shared the use of the field.  Therefore the announcer could be excused for referring to the Stars as the Los Angeles team.

BCnU!

No comments:

Post a Comment