Paul Douglas was originally cast to play the manager McGarry. His appearance on camera gave him a mottled flesh tone with a raspy voice, due his advanced coronary disease which resulted in his death the day after filming ended. Because the episode was supposed to be a comedy, Rod Serling was reluctant to let it be broadcast with Douglas' impending death essentially captured on film. When CBS refused to pay for the episode to be re-shot, Serling personally underwrote the $27,000 it cost to have Jack Warden brought in to replace Douglas and to have some scenes re-done with Warden in place of Douglas.
Robert Sorrells, who plays Casey, became a reclusive heavy drinker in his later years. On July 24, 2004, he walked into The Regency Lounge, a Simi Valley bar, and shot two customers, killing one. He was caught three blocks away by police, was arrested for murder, and spent the rest of his life in a prison in Vacaville, California. He died there in July 2019, age 88.
When Casey returns to the locker room with a heart, the teammates surrounded him welcoming him back included an uncredited Dom Deluise.
Serling's ending narration was more prophetic than he probably ever could have imagined. He says that, "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 championships. This team had a pitching staff that made history." The Brooklyn Dodgers had already moved to Los Angeles two years before by team owner Walter O'Malley, but in the following season after this aired, 1961, Sandy Koufax emerged as a future Hall of Famer, winning 129 games over the next six seasons with an ERA of 2.19. His teammate, Don Drysdale, won 111 games with an ERA of 2.88. The Dodgers won three pennants (1963, 1965, 1966) in those six years and two World Series (1963, 1965).
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