Lights… Camera… Play Ball!

BY C.J. CARLSON

While the umpires’ cry of “Play Ball!” is historically the call for the start of a game, there have been a handful of players who sprung into action at the scream of a director’s yell of “lights, camera and action.”

Back before the days of big dollar free agent contracts, some players found off-season work in Hollywood as our cardboard came to life on the small screen. Over the years there have been many athletes who found their way onto our televisions, primarily in cameo roles, though a few players did parlay their looks and connections into a nice side job.

Having a baloney & mustard sandwich on the soft white Wonder bread and big glass of orange Kool Aid after school before hitting the playground fields, I watched those glorious Gilligan’s Island reruns. While Gilligan would find himself in trouble in each show, one episode saw the Dodgers’ Al Ferrara and Jim Lefebvre appear as natives who found the castaways.

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Of course, if you were a 10-year-old in the early 1980’s, our Saturday mornings brought us Johnny Bench and the Baseball Bunch. Diving into our bowl of Cap’n Crunch the future Hall of Fame catcher along with Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda and The Famous San Diego Chicken brought us a show on the fundamentals of baseball. Bench was no rookie having appeared on several shows including Mr. Belvedere, Mission Impossible (TV show 1971) and The Partridge Family.

On the subject of Mr. Belvedere, which ran from 1985 to 1990, which showcased Bob Uecker as George the head of the Owens household where Mr. Belvedere served as a housekeeper. We have on good sources never to bring up the show to the former backup catcher. Uecker owns an impressive resume in front of the camera as he is always entertaining and “juuuuuust a bit outside.”

After having met the affable Warren Spahn, who annually gifted us a toothy smile on cardboard; it is really hard to imagine him as a “dirty Kraut”. Nevertheless, the southpaw found himself in a German uniform, machine gun in hand for a cameo role during the Combat episode of “Glow Against the Sky” that aired November 5, 1963. Ironically, Major League Baseball’s all-time wins leader amongst left-handed pitchers was a World War II veteran which makes us wonder how it must have felt for Spahn to don a Nazi uniform.

Naturally there were cameos for many players in the Los Angeles area led by former Dodger manager Leo Durocher as the skipper was a regular in front of the camera. He marveled at the bats of both Mr. Ed as the horse takes lefty Sandy Koufax off the wall and Herman Munster showing Aaron Judge power.

Also in The Munsters 1964 episode of “Herman the Rookie” Ken Hunt served as the catcher during Herman Munster’s workout for Leo the Lip. As the real-life step-father to Butch Patrick who played Eddie Munster, it was a natural to include the California Angels outfielder.

We loved Wade Boggs on Cheers, Don Drysdale on The Brady Bunch, Ken Griffey, Jr. on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Keith Hernandez on Seinfeld because, well, “I’m Keith Hernandez.”

A light-hitting middle infielder in the 1940s and early 1950s, John Berardino was born and raised in the shadow the famous Hollywood sign. Plucked off the diamond at USC by the St. Louis Browns, known for his tough play along with a face that would be insured by a movie studio later in his playing career, Berardino would hit .249 during 11 big league seasons for the Browns, Indians and Pirates.

Gathering small roles in movies to start followed by spots on the new medium of television, Berardino would have an “r” removed from his last name to make John Beradino, the actor.  After a role of a LA detective in The New Breed that ran 35 episodes in 1961-62, the former ballplayer got his big break in 1963 as Dr. Steve Hardy in ABC’s soap opera General Hospital. Beradino would cure patients in 2,869 episodes over 33 years. Thrice nominated for a Daytime Emmy, Beradino did land a Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, while grabbing a World Series ring with the 1948 Champion Cleveland Indians.

Lastly, we finish with one of the first ballplayers to find themselves on the small screen in Chuck Connors. A lefty swinging first baseman who hit 15 to 20 homers during four successive seasons (1964-49) in the Dodgers farm system, Connors only launched two home runs during 202 big league at bats for the Dodgers (1949) and Cubs (1951). Early on screen roles beginning in 1952 led to consistent work in Hollywood before Connors landed his most notable role as Lucas McCain in The Rifleman. The show ran 168 episodes over six seasons as Connors was also adorned on cardboard for his acting.

There have been many others too, so feel free to post your favorite player who found their way into our TV sets on our comment board below.

That’s a wrap!