BASEBALL ON TV — “The Lucy Show” (Featuring Jimmy Piersall)

Episode: “Lucy at Marineland” (1965)

REVIEWED BY MARK A. LARSON
Editor & Publisher

Lucille Ball meets Jimmy Piersall. Quite the combination …

“The Lucy Show” was Lucille Ball’s second half-hour television series following the classic “I Love Lucy” of the 1950s. This time, she played a widow with two children. It ran on CBS from 1962-68.

The kickoff episode to the fourth-year Fall 1965 season featured a guest appearance by then Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jimmy Piersall.

Part of the premise of the episode was that Lucy was going to take her son, Jerry, to Marineland to get his favorite baseball player’s autograph on “Jimmy Piersall Day.” (At the time, Marineland was a tourist attraction in Los Angeles county that featured a variety of marine life.)

As expected with any Lucy program, it’s pretty goofy. Piersall appears for approximately three minutes of the 25-minute show. He is shown autographing balls and delivers several lines of dialogue. The balls he signs are really kind of idiotic, as they are larger than a softball and almost appear to be made of styrofoam or a plastic whiffleball-type material.

At the time, Piersall, was known throughout baseball as a sort of an unpredictable goofball. After some ridiculous banter with the wacky Lucy, Piersall comments: “… and they call me a kook!”

It’s a great self-deprecating line.

(Piersall admittedly suffered from mental illness early in his career and wrote a book about it that was made into the movie “Fear Strikes Out.” Later on, he often did unpredictable things on the field that either amused, ticked off or befuddled people – Like run around the bases backwards upon swatting his 100th home run while with the Mets. At least he ran the bases in the correct order.)

Much of the second half of the episode focuses on Lucy’s antics at Marineland – including trying to retrieve her son’s autographed ball from a gigantic dolphin pool. Of course, Lucy ends up in the drink and eventually a seal is shown balancing the ball on its nose.

Jimmy Piersall was heading into the twilight of his playing career when this episode was shown and would retire two years later.

Between 1950-67, he played in parts of 17 major league campaigns for the Red Sox, Indians, expansion Senators, Mets and Angels. His best season was with the Bosox in 1956. That year, Piersall led the A.L. in games played (155) and doubles (40), with careers highs in hits (176) and RBIs (87) – while batting .293.  After his on-field career, he spent several years in the announcer’s booth.

Three years after this episode aired, Lucy began a six-year run in yet another half-hour comedy called “Here’s Lucy.” After a dozen years off, she returned with her last sitcom in 1986. Unfortunately, her TV career ended on a sour note when “Life with Lucy” bombed.

Lucille Ball was an avid Dodger fan – both when the team was in Brooklyn and then in Los Angeles. In addition, Lucy even played a little ball herself … participating in charity softball games. Most notably, she was part of a Broadway team that played in New York’s Central Park in the early ’60s.

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NOTE: To find out if this show is available in your area, use a search engine and type in: “Where to watch THE LUCY SHOW” … In general, know that some television programs are currently only available on DVD, so check your local library … Others may not be available at all at this time.

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