Jessica visits her nephew Johnny, recently recruited onto a Major League Baseball team, and then must solve the murder of a scheming news reporter.Jessica visits her nephew Johnny, recently recruited onto a Major League Baseball team, and then must solve the murder of a scheming news reporter.Jessica visits her nephew Johnny, recently recruited onto a Major League Baseball team, and then must solve the murder of a scheming news reporter.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs he did in several other Murder, She Wrote (1984) scripts, writer Donald Ross named several of the characters after jazz musicians. John Eaton is a pianist and jazz educator. Doc Evans was a traditional jazz cornetist from the 1930's until his death in 1977. Pete Briggs was the tuba player for Louis Armstrong's Hot Seven in 1927. Harry Dial was a drummer who also worked with Armstrong. Irving Randolph was a 1930's trumpeter who played with Cab Calloway. Lt. Caceres is named after 1940's baritone saxophonist Ernie Caceres. Kel Murray was a non-jazz bandleader who shared the 1935 "Let's Dance" broadcasts with Benny Goodman and Xavier Cugat. Mike Warlop is named after 1930's French jazz bandleader Michel Warlop. There is also an unseen but mentioned character named Flip Phillips, after the star tenor saxophonist from Woody Herman's First Herd in the mid-1940's.
- GoofsJessica says that Johnny went to Herbert Hoover School in Waterloo, Iowa. There is a Hoover School in Waterloo, but it was named for Lou Hoover, was a native of Waterloo.
- Quotes
Harry Dial: Now look, lady. If you're so interested in male anatomy, I can give you a good look at mine - all of it.
- SoundtracksMurder She Wrote Theme
Written by John Addison
Featured review
Some corrections here, mostly about the baseball aspects
Jessica goes to Scottsdale, Arizona for a writers' seminar, and then plans a short side trip to Tucson to visit another nephew, this time a high-prospect minor league baseball player named Johnny. He is a member of the fictional Titans, who train in Tucson. Jessica was about to check out of her hotel to head south to see her nephew when she learns that he and another minor leaguer have just been traded to the fictional major league team, the Comets, who have their spring training home in Scottsdale.
Other reviewers have nicely gone over the plot of this show, so I will forego another basic rundown of what was a nice, typical episode of this series that mixed in a bit of humor with the dramatic plot. I enjoyed the manager calling Jessica "Aunt Minnie" and trying to get her out of the clubhouse by suggesting he was about to take of his post-shower towel in front of her. It worked, as Jessica beat a hasty retreat for the door.
I wish to focus on the baseball aspects, and include corrections on some misinformation given by other sources on this website. The brief summary and story line combine to say that the two young players were "recruited" to play for the "Scottsdale...minor league...team." They were traded for a 35-year-old star thought to be on his way down-proving this was no minor league team. It was not mishandled in the show as far as I can remember (I just watched the episode), but people recounting it are a bit off.
One reviewer who normally does an excellent job recounting plot lines gets a few things mixed up. The club has one manager, Harry Dial, while the other "manager" cited, Irving Randolph, was clearly stated on the episode to be the club owner. It is also incorrectly stated that one player served prison time before changing his identity. He actually jumped bail before trial.
This reviewer identifies the two young players' agent, Al, as a sportswriter, and says he helped explain the game to others in his seating area. In fact, he only explained two simple points in response to questions from Jessica, one in each game depicted. The odd thing about those two scenes is that after telling Jessica what "WP" and "PB" on the scoreboard meant, he said nothing more to explain it to her. He didn't seem annoyed at her lack of knowledge, so I would have expected a one-sentence explanation of what is meant by the two rulings.
The biggest flaw in the show concerning the club's activities is that the Comets and Titans were supposed to be playing a three-game series of exhibition games. Teams do not do that in spring training. They might occasionally play a game at one team's home and then go to the other team's home the next day, but not three in a row at the same park, nor even two.
Another "goof" is that in his second game with the Comets, Jessica's nephew, a pitcher, is sent up to hit by the skipper as a pinch hitter. Pitchers in the National League in 1989 would rarely take an at bat in an exhibition game, and surely only if their turn came up in a game when they were pitching. Or course, American League pitchers who never batted all season in those years would not be hitting at all in spring games.
Another reviewer got mixed up on the two teams, calling one the "Tucson Comets." Not only was neither team based in either Scottsdale or Tucson for the regular season, but the one that was supposed to train in Tucson was the Titans.
In the trivia section comes the most erroneous tidbit, claiming the title "Three Strikes, You're Out" comes from "the umpire's announcement to the batter...when he has completed his time at the plate..."
Umpires on calling batters out on strikes never say more than "Strike Three" and not always do they say that much. The phrase, as most people know, comes from the chorus of the popular baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", written in 1908 and played at virtually every pro baseball park in the country at every game to this day.
Overall a good episode, garnering an 8 from this reviewer.
Other reviewers have nicely gone over the plot of this show, so I will forego another basic rundown of what was a nice, typical episode of this series that mixed in a bit of humor with the dramatic plot. I enjoyed the manager calling Jessica "Aunt Minnie" and trying to get her out of the clubhouse by suggesting he was about to take of his post-shower towel in front of her. It worked, as Jessica beat a hasty retreat for the door.
I wish to focus on the baseball aspects, and include corrections on some misinformation given by other sources on this website. The brief summary and story line combine to say that the two young players were "recruited" to play for the "Scottsdale...minor league...team." They were traded for a 35-year-old star thought to be on his way down-proving this was no minor league team. It was not mishandled in the show as far as I can remember (I just watched the episode), but people recounting it are a bit off.
One reviewer who normally does an excellent job recounting plot lines gets a few things mixed up. The club has one manager, Harry Dial, while the other "manager" cited, Irving Randolph, was clearly stated on the episode to be the club owner. It is also incorrectly stated that one player served prison time before changing his identity. He actually jumped bail before trial.
This reviewer identifies the two young players' agent, Al, as a sportswriter, and says he helped explain the game to others in his seating area. In fact, he only explained two simple points in response to questions from Jessica, one in each game depicted. The odd thing about those two scenes is that after telling Jessica what "WP" and "PB" on the scoreboard meant, he said nothing more to explain it to her. He didn't seem annoyed at her lack of knowledge, so I would have expected a one-sentence explanation of what is meant by the two rulings.
The biggest flaw in the show concerning the club's activities is that the Comets and Titans were supposed to be playing a three-game series of exhibition games. Teams do not do that in spring training. They might occasionally play a game at one team's home and then go to the other team's home the next day, but not three in a row at the same park, nor even two.
Another "goof" is that in his second game with the Comets, Jessica's nephew, a pitcher, is sent up to hit by the skipper as a pinch hitter. Pitchers in the National League in 1989 would rarely take an at bat in an exhibition game, and surely only if their turn came up in a game when they were pitching. Or course, American League pitchers who never batted all season in those years would not be hitting at all in spring games.
Another reviewer got mixed up on the two teams, calling one the "Tucson Comets." Not only was neither team based in either Scottsdale or Tucson for the regular season, but the one that was supposed to train in Tucson was the Titans.
In the trivia section comes the most erroneous tidbit, claiming the title "Three Strikes, You're Out" comes from "the umpire's announcement to the batter...when he has completed his time at the plate..."
Umpires on calling batters out on strikes never say more than "Strike Three" and not always do they say that much. The phrase, as most people know, comes from the chorus of the popular baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ballgame", written in 1908 and played at virtually every pro baseball park in the country at every game to this day.
Overall a good episode, garnering an 8 from this reviewer.
helpful•20
- FlushingCaps
- Feb 23, 2023
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