"The Fugitive" There Goes the Ball Game (TV Episode 1967) Poster

(TV Series)

(1967)

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8/10
Not sure why the rating for this one is so low.
planktonrules30 April 2018
Currently, "There Goes the Ball Game" is one of the lower rated episodes of "The Fugitive". However, after seeing it I have no idea why it's scored so low....as it is a pretty good episode.

When the story begins, Kimble is enjoying a rare moment of relaxation and attends a baseball game. However, something odd happens. The pretty lady next to him (Linda Day George) is called away by some messenger. However, after she leaves, the lady's friend arrives...and the pair now realize that the woman has been kidnapped! Since Kimble is the only person who saw the man, her father (Martin Balsam) is naturally anxious to question Kimble and keep him around in order to find the kidnappers. But Kimble is naturally scared and although he wants to help, he'd much rather just run away and mind his own business.

This is a solid episode and is different--making it well worth seeing. Plus, I really liked the dynamics between the two kidnappers...it made the show pretty unique and worth your time.
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8/10
Plot summary
ynot-1626 October 2006
Kimble is only human, so sometimes he needs a break from the stress he lives with every moment. One afternoon he attends a baseball game. While there, an attractive young lady seated near him is called away to answer a phone call. She never returns. Kimble falls into the hands of stadium security when it turns out the young lady has been kidnapped for ransom.

The missing woman is the daughter of a powerful newspaper publisher, played by actor Martin Balsam, who will stop at nothing to get his daughter back. This causes problems for Kimble, the only one who can identify the kidnapper.

Kimble's desire to get on the road is blocked, and a series of dangers confronts him. Actor Gabriel Dell puts in a strong performance as a gangster.
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8/10
A terrific hour, with minimal sentimentality and great guest-stars
ColonelPuntridge7 February 2022
This is a nice, crisp installment of "The Fugitive". It's an unexpected treat, coming in the final season which was, for the most part, marred by exhausted writers and actors, and (of course) by color filming.

It is also, mercifully, almost entirely free of the virtue-signaling and tiresome patronizing lectures about personal responsibility that much of the series suffers from. Dr. Kimble doesn't do anything outrageous here, but at least he's not the always-noble eagle-scout type here. Instead of personal character issues, the writers focused on conflicts over leadership, jockeying for dominance: between the two kidnappers (the worse one wins easily over the sympathetic one) but also between the kidnapped girl's powerful father and the chief of police. In the end they compromise, but not until after a fascinating exchange in which each tries to assert authority over the other.

While I'm speaking of these two: the powerful father (who owns a newspaper) is played by Martin Balsam (most familiar as the detective Arbogast who gets stabbed and pushed down a flight of stairs by "Mother" in PSYCHO), and the Commissioner of Police is none other than the great Vincent Gardenia, who was the cop who tracked down Paul Kersey Charles Bronson) in the original DEATH WISH. Most of his output was comedic or semi-comedic, but here he plays the role straight, all business and zero buffoonery. A police commissioner to be reckoned with. Both these actors are very long-standing veterans and have been in more than ten million movies and TV shows.
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2/7/67 "There Goes the Ball Game"
schappe12 March 2016
Kimble witnesses a kidnapping at a baseball game. The victim is the daughter of a powerful newspaper publisher who will do anything to get his daughter back. Kimble is reluctant to be interviewed by the police and claims he can't do anything to help. The publisher, (Martin Balsam), has Kimble picked up when the kidnappers demand that t witness deliver the ransom money. They plan to kill him. Kimble doesn't want to go through with it but the publisher has learned through his newspaper who Kimble is and threatens to expose him to the police if he refuses to take the risk.

Another delicious situation for Kimble to worm his way out of. Equally delicious is Linda Day (George), who plays the daughter and Susan Seaforth, later along-time soap star, as her friend. The kidnappers are an interesting pair: Gabriel Dell, who started his career as a one of the Dead End Kids back in the 30's and Jonathan Lippe, now known as Jonathan Goldsmith but better known as "The Most Interesting Man in the World" on those beer commercials. He's so young here, (28 then, now 76), that you'd never recognize him if you didn't know that's who it was.
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7/10
Can't even get an afternoon to himself
Guad4213 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Kimble goes to a ball game and ends up as a witness to a kidnapping. As often happens in Season 4, Kimble gets pulled into a police investigation through no fault of his own but due to actions of people around him. This outing has Nadine Newmark (Lynda Day George) sitting next to Kimble at the game and she is lured away and kidnapped. Once Nadine's friend (Susan Seaforth) shows up, the sequence of events becomes clear. Kimble is taken by the father Andrew Newmark (Martin Balsam) and kept as a witness who can identify the kidnapper who lured Nadine away. Dad is a no-nonsense newspaper tycoon who you are sure was never called "Andy" at any time in his life. He gets Kimble's cooperation by telling him that he knows who he really is.

Meanwhile the two kidnappers are at loggerheads. The tough guy Chester (Gabriel Dell) is upset he was seen by Kimble and the nice kidnapper Phil (Jonathan Goldsmith) had a relationship with Nadine until she broke it off. He is still in love with her and wants this crime to go as smoothly and easily as possible. You know from the first that these two guys are not going to mix well.

Eventually, the police get in on it in the form of Captain Bill Gibbs (Vincent Gardenia). He has his own ideas on how to proceed and gets into spats with Andrew who just wants his daughter back. The kidnappers are in a cabin on the woods and the isolation is wearing on them. It comes out that Chester is going to kill both Kimble and Nadine so there will be no witnesses. Phil has ideas of going to Brazil and letting everyone live. You have to wonder what planet Phil lives on. How did he think this was all going to end?

Finally, it is decided that Kimble will deliver the ransom so Chester can kill him. The police find out who Kimble is, but he will still deliver the money. Kimble takes marked money and a tracker as he meets Chester. He tells Chester of the marked money and who he really is. Chester leaves the money and takes Kimble to the hideout with the idea of getting another payoff. The cops and Newmark follow the tracer and show up at the cabin. Kimble grabs Nadine and gets out the front door to cover. A shootout follows. Chester dies, Phil is captured and Kimble runs. He is assisted by Andrew Newmark's wife and assistant. He even gets money!

The cast are all veterans. It is great to see Balsam and Gardenia do scenes together. Two veteran actors who always bring their "A" game. There have always been a million beautiful women in Hollywood, but Lynda Day George is right up there. Good actress too. As others have pointed out, Jonathan Goldsmith is young and unrecognizable as the "most interesting man in the world". (I seldom kidnap people but when I do, it is Lynda Day George.) Janssen is his steady self. He is an actor who is quite at ease letting others have the scene so is believable as a fugitive who wants to fade into the background. At least in this outing, he gets some money and is not running away with just the clothes on his back. A nice change. Another nice change is that I thought the two kidnappers would get into it and that is how Nadine and Kimble would get away. Chester would kill Phil and then the cops would get him. Glad it was done a bit differently.

A good episode in a series filled with good episodes. Do see it.
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