There Goes the Ball Game

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.

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.

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.

This was yet another exciting ep of "The Fugitive" as Dr. Richard Kimble attends a baseball game sitting next to a young woman who's sent away for awhile by a man walking by. We later discover she's been kidnapped and her father sends for Kimble because he saw the man's face. Of course, Richard goes under an assumed name initially but as always, his real identity is discovered. I'll just now say how great to see first former Dead End kid Gabriel Dell as one of the kidnappers, Martin Balsam-who had just won an Oscar for A Thousand Clowns-as the father and Vincent Gardenia as the cop pursuing The Fugitive. So that's a high recommendation of "There Goes the Ball Game".

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.