"IN THE BIG INNING"

“IN THE BIG INNING”



It's time for baseball! After losing badly last year, Walnut Grove expects to win with their star pitcher, Mr. Mumford. People in Walnut Grove are so confident that they are going to win, they place bets on the game. However, Mr. Mumford's wife won't let her husband play because of the gambling. Caroline convinces Mr. Mumford's wife to let her husband play on the condition that any money made from the game goes to the church.















Oh man, I really enjoy watching this episode. It is so funny and has several funny quotes which I have listed below. When the game started, tt was funny how people had different signs for the walnut grove team: merchants, miller, milligan, heavenly hosts Edwards is hilarious in this one! Two thumb up!

Funny Quotes:

(Charles talking to Caroline)
Charles: “We were all arguing about what name to pick for the team, even the Reverend Alden came up with a name. The Walnut Grove Heavenly Hosts. By the time you’d finish sowing up all those letters on the shirt the game would be over.

(Harriet & Caroline at the Mercantile)
Harriet: Ah, your hens seem to be laying very well indeed Mrs. Ingalls.
Caroline: They have to… with the price of eggs as low as it is.

(Mr. Edwards to the guy who was pitching bad & trying to hit him on purpose)
Edwards: “You do that again and I’m going to come over there and stand on your eyelid!”

(Edwards talking to Doc Baker about the uniform he had on)
Edwards: “Is this what we’re gonna have to wear?”
Doc Baker: “It’s my old college uniform”
Edwards: “Oh”
Doc Baker: “What do u mean. Oh… “
Edwards: “I didn’t know that when I agreed to play this game, didn’t know I had to use my long johns”

(Nels & Mr. Hanson talking about Nel’s pitching ability)
Nels: “I did my best last year”
Hanson: “I know you did and if you hadn’t, we’d have something to look forward to this year”

I love this one

I liked this episode! I did not like the team that Walnut Grove was against, especially when they started cheating just because Walnut Grove was ahead of them! I was glad that Mr. Mumford's wife let him pitch in the game, and it was good to see Walnut Grove win!!

This is an interesting episode. I think that all of Mr. Edwards antics in he game are really funny.

Ha Ha this one is great! One of my favs!

Not one of my favs, either, but I like to watch it time to time.

Vanesa.

Ah a corny episode that isn't too terrible. It was almost ruined though at the end of the game when they're all in a huge pile, scrambling for the ball. That almost put it over the top.

Mr. Edwards had some amusing lines.
"Do that again or I'll be standing on your eyelids."


Upon seeing Doc in his uniform I exclaimed, "Good grief! He's in his pajamas!"
To which Mr. Edwards goes, "I didn't realized I'd be playing in my long-johns."


Grace's rushing over to Mr. Edwards after he hit his homerun was hilarious.
"Don't do that in public!"

The episode is fun. Maybe for Mr. Edwards hilarious comments. They can save any epie, even if it is not terrible!

Vanesa.

This is a ok Episode. Just shows how crazy men get for sports lol....(even back then) LOL

I enjoyed parts of this one (as someone commented, Grace showing her enthusiasm for Isaiah publicly like that was hilarious), but I seem to get bored when watching TV shows about sporting events where I feel like we have to watch a lot of the sporting event. There's an episode of THE A-TEAM about a football game and I feel sort of the same way about it......I don't watch these episodic shows to watch sports. It just seemed like the baseball game went on too long.

And what happened to Mr. Mumford's great pitching? It was like in the first inning nobody could even get a hit and then it seemed like they were hitting the ball every time. Maybe they just got better after they got over the shock of Walnut Grove having a good pitcher?

I thought the fight scene at the end was over the top, and I do not think that Caroline would have approved of that at all, especially on a Sunday, and especially since it was over something like a baseball game.

amyk wrote:

And what happened to Mr. Mumford's great pitching? It was like in the first inning nobody could even get a hit and then it seemed like they were hitting the ball every time. Maybe they just got better after they got over the shock of Walnut Grove having a good pitcher?

Remember he got knocked to the ground pretty hard. After that he seemed to lose some of his energy. Besides he hadn't played much baseball, if any, before that game.

You are right. And he seemed fairly old, so maybe he was just getting tired and not throwing so fast, or also maybe he was a bit injured.

Did I miss something on the DVD? I remember from the show one time Pa making some kind of joke about how baseball was in the Bible because it said "In the Big Inning" / "In the Beginning" but I don't remember him saying that in this episode. Is that in another episode?

Yes. You are right. Charles was "helping" Laura with her sunday school work or something of this sort and he asked to Laura where Bible speaks about baseball and she said she didn't know. So her father said that the quote was in Genesis and told the "big inning" joke...Caroline got upset, as always Charles teased about holy things.

I can't remember exactly WHERE, I mean in which episode Charles made this joke...
Anyone?

Vanesa.

I do remember another Bible joke. It was sometime when Charles was having to wash dishes, and I think he said that was women's work or something like that. Caroline told him not to be sacreligious. When he asked how that was sacreligious, she quoted a verse that was "as a man wipeth a plate"! I think she even told him he could look it up, and I think he said that he knew that she knew her Bible or something along those lines. Don't remember what episode that one is from either.

amyk wrote:

I do remember another Bible joke. It was sometime when Charles was having to wash dishes, and I think he said that was women's work or something like that. Caroline told him not to be sacreligious. When he asked how that was sacreligious, she quoted a verse that was "as a man wipeth a plate"! I think she even told him he could look it up, and I think he said that he knew that she knew her Bible or something along those lines. Don't remember what episode that one is from either.

Yes! I remember this one! It was not in "Wilder and Wilder", the episode in which Perley Day Wilder comes to Walnut Grove to visit his brother Almanzo?

Vanesa.

I found out where the "In the Big Inning" joke is.....it is in THE SPRING DANCE episode! (which I just watched tonight).

I must watch this one again. It's a good episode.

Vanesa.

not one of my favorites. I enjoy watching it. The lines were funny.

A better baseball-related episode was in "Look Back to Yesterday" several years later--Mr. Edwards with the "Snake ball ready to bite".

I'm not sure, though, how realistic this episode is. I am no expert on sports, but I'm not sure if baseball had even been invented yet at this time period. Does anyone know? I don't want to take time right now to look up that information.

Here-

First played - Mid-18th century or prior, England (early form)
- June 19, 1846, Hoboken, New Jersey (first recorded game with codified rules)

Oh, good....not an inconsistency, then, that they could be playing baseball.