In the first half of the 1970s, two clans ruled Friday night television—The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family. Both shows aired on ABC.
Dodgers legend Don Drysdale met the Bradys in the episode “The Dropout” as a client of Mike Brady, America’s favorite fictional architect until Ted Mosby came along to recount the tale of how he met his children’s mother. After Mike displays his design for Drysdale’s new house, he asks #53 to talk with the Brady Boys—Greg, Peter, and Bobby.
Greg Brady has a sure-fire career of success on the baseball diamond. Or so he believes, anyway. A pitcher in the Pony League, Greg has stars in his eyes after Drysdale offers encouraging, kind, and seemingly benign words about Greg being in the big leagues someday, maybe even a “bonus baby” with a lucrative deal.
The allure of a baseball career overshadows Greg’s sense of reality. At Mike’s request, Drysdale visits 4222 Clinton Way, this time with the purpose of affirming the gritty parts of baseball to Greg, including soaking your pitching arm in ice. Still, Greg’s ego expands the typical childhood fantasy of playing in the major leagues into a full-blooded assault on perspective.
When Greg gets pounded for 12 runs in the first inning of his next game, his coach benches him. With tears in his eyes, Greg nearly gives up baseball until receiving fatherly insight from the Brady patriarch about not everyone being a Don Drysdale.
In the Partridge Family episode “The Strike-Out King,” Danny Partridge reluctantly pursues baseball to fulfill his mother’s request that he spend more time with children his own age, hovering on the cusp of being teenagers. Surprisingly, Danny has the makings of an ace pitcher. Dan the Man.
Even more surprising is the turn in Danny’s attitude. After tasting success in his first game, Danny becomes enamored with baseball. He rattles off baseball statistics like he’s preparing to partner with Curt Gowdy in the broadcast booth. Then, Danny starts to feel pressure from a coach highlighting victory as the primary goal while forgetting that the kids need to have fun, too.
When Mrs. Partridge shows the coach that an emphasis on winning has destructive consequences to the kids’ emotional welfare, a shift occurs—the coach focuses on fun without losing any of his enthusiasm. Danny, on the verge of quitting, rebounds to pitch the game. His team wins the league championship.
Jackie Earle Haley has a small role in this episode as a teammate of Danny’s, a foreshadowing of his success in the The Bad News Bears series of movies.
Both episodes showcase the importance of keeping an ego in check. Even when Greg’s idol dispenses insights about the realities of baseball’s dark side, Greg refuses to listen. In Danny’s case, the coach as the ego problem. By prizing a pennant while excluding emotional consequences, he unknowingly risks losing his ace pitcher.
A version of this article appeared on www.thesportspost.com on August 31, 2014.