Search results
Play Ball - August 6, 1961: Directed by Joe Napolitano. With Scott Bakula, Dean Stockwell, Neal McDonough, Maree Cheatham. Sam is a minor league baseball pitcher who has plenty of female admirers and a porcine team mascot to watch out for.
- (430)
- Action, Adventure, Drama
- Joe Napolitano
- 1991-09-25
"Quantum Leap" Play Ball - August 6, 1961 (TV Episode 1991) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Buy. TV-PG. CC. Quantum Leap. 179M subscribers. Subscribed. 11. Quantum Leap S4 E2. Sam (Scott Bakula) leaps into the body of Lester "Doc" Fuller, pitcher for the Galveston "Mustangs," a...
- Overview
- Synopsis
- Plot summary
- Music
Play Ball was the second episode of Season 4 of Quantum Leap, also the 55th overalll episode. Written by Tommy Thompson, the episode, which was directed by Joe Napolitano, originally aired on NBC-TV on September 25, 1991.
Sam is a washed-out baseball player named Lester "Doc" Fuller (played by Owen Rutledge) who has to help a younger and angrier player get into the major leagues, the player reminding him of Al when they first met.
August 6, 1961: Sam leaps into Lester "Doc" Fuller (the leapee is played by Owen Rutledge), a minor league pitcher who had been in the majors until one of his pitches hit somebody in the head and killed him. He disappeared for a while and eventually ended up in the minors. Sam is sent up to pinch hit, and is thrown out trying to turn a double into a triple, and that costs them the game. The team manager forces Sam to watch over the team mascot – a pig – as punishment for being the one he holds most responsible for their loss.
Sam bonds with another pitcher on the team, the talented but anger-filled Chucky Myerwich (Neal McDonough). Chucky tells him all about how he's going to pitch in an important game with a talent scout and how he got into baseball after his dad taught him how to play. Chucky is perfectly friendly with Doc, but contemptuous of the other players and so a fight nearly breaks out. The team manager, simply referred to as "Coach", (Don Stroud) warns Doc to keep Chucky in line and threatens Chucky that he'll kick him off the team if he doesn't shape up. Chucky assumes that he can't afford to lose him and so is undeterred.
Sam knows very little about baseball, but fortunately, Al was a good pitcher and gives him some helpful hints. Sam does better than he thought he would and speculates that he might have been good at baseball back in high school. Al tells Sam that Doc is the one who pitches in the big game, and that, he blows it in the end after getting an injury, and that he eventually kills himself. Sam is there to make sure that Doc makes it back to the majors. However, Sam is more interested in Chucky, who apparently gets thrown out of baseball due to his temper and drinking and that team in particular after being caught with the owner's daughter. Sam wants to help Chucky although Al can't figure out why.
Al's done some research on Chucky and tells Sam that, far from teaching Chucky how to play baseball, Chucky's dad, Warren Monroe (Casey Sander), who still lives in the area, had walked out on the family a long time ago. He comes to the games, and keeps photos and newspaper clippings of all of his son's accomplishments on the baseball diamond however, but doesn't tell Chucky.
Sam tracks Warren down, and finds out that Chucky's dad has been closely following his son's career and has his own scrapbook of it all. Sam tries to convince Warren to become a part of his life again but Chucky's dad refuses. He tells Sam that his own father killed himself when he was unable to support the family and when he failed to support the family he couldn't bring himself to end his life and so, deeply ashamed, he left. He thinks Chucky will be better off without him.
Sam is called in for a meeting with the team owner, and discovers that she's a woman named Margaret Twilly (played by Maree Cheatham), whom Doc is apparently sleeping with in exchange for being allowed to start. Keeping in mind what Al told him he has to do to leap, Sam reluctantly agrees to attend a "private party" with Margaret the next night. When Sam gets back to the locker room, he discovers Chucky with a pretty blonde girl named Bunny (Courtney Gebhart), who's Margaret's daughter, and who had tried to jump Sam earlier and realizes that Doc sleeps in a cot in the locker room so he needs to do the same.
•Travellin' Man (performed by Ricky Nelson)
Leap Date: August 6, 1961. Leapee: Lester "Doc" Fuller. Broadcast Date: September 25, 1991 - Wednesday. Music: "Traveling Man" - by Ricky Nelson plays in the diner. Sam Trivia: Sam finds Chucky to be awfully familiar; he later figures out that he reminds him of Al.
Quantum Leap. Season 4 Episode 2. Quantum Leap Season 4. View all. The Leap Back: June 15, 1945. S4 E146m. Play Ball: August 6, 1961. S4 E247m. Hurricane: August 17, 1969. S4 E346m. Justice: May 11, 1965. S4 E446m. Permanent Wave: June 2, 1983. S4 E547m. Raped: June 20, 1980. S4 E646m. The Wrong Stuff: January 24, 1961. S4 E746m.
Sep 25, 1991 · Quantum Leap. Play Ball - August 6, 1961. Available on Peacock, iTunes. S4 E2: Sam (Scott Bakula) leaps into the body of once great pitcher Lester "Doc" Fuller (Owen Rutledge) to help get him back to the major leagues. Neal McDonough guest stars. Sci-Fi Sep 25, 1991 44 min. Starring Neal McDonough, Maree Cheatham, Courtney Gebhart. Cast & Crew. NM.
