Twilight Zone First Season







"What you're looking at is a ghost, once alive but now deceased. Once upon a time, it was a baseball stadium that housed a major-league ballclub known as the Hoboken Zephyrs. Now it houses nothing but memories and a wind that stirs in the high grass of what was once an outfield, a wind that sometimes bears a faint, ghostly resemblance to the roar of a crowd that once sat here. We're back in time now, when the Hoboken Zephyrs were still a part of the National League and this mausoleum of memories was an honest-to-Pete stadium. But since this is strictly a story of make-believe, it has to start this way: Once upon a time in Hoboken, New Jersey, it was tryout day. And though he's not yet on the field, you're about to meet a most unusual fella, a left-handed pitcher named Casey."

Dr. Stillman arranges to have his human-looking robot signed up as the star pitcher of the Hoboken Zephyrs. The team zooms to fourth place thanks to Casey. After he's beaned by a ball, a doctor discovers Casey has no heart. The rules say nine men make up a team, and without a heart Casey is not a man. Dr. Stillman gives Casey a heart, but he becomes too compassionate to strike out other players. The Zephyrs lose the pennant, and Casey is washed up in baseball. Dr. Stillman gives the coach, Mouth McGarry, Casey's blueprints as a momento. Looking at them, Mcgarry gets a sudden inspiration, and chases after the doctor.

"Once upon a time there was a major league baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs who, during the last year of their existence, wound up in last place and shortly thereafter wound up in oblivion. There's a rumor, unsubstantiated of course, that a manager named McGarry took them to the West Coast and wound up with several pennants and a couple of world's championships. This team had a pitching staff that made history. Of course, none of them smiled very much, but it happens to be a fact that they pitched like nothing human. And if you're interested as to where these gentlemen came from, you might check under 'B' for baseball - in the Twilight Zone."

Notes and corrected narrations courtesy of Twilight Zone Cafe Moderator, Matt Vandermast (aka "James B.W. Bevis")


	

| Copyright © 1996- by John Crocker. All Rights Reserved |