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As the San Diego Padres and New York Yankees took the field at Qualcomm Stadium for Game 4 of the 1998 World Series, there was another baseball game of some importance being played. That night, the seventh season episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" called "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" aired for the first time. In it, the space station's senior staff (dubbed the "Niners") was challenged to a game by a crew of baseball-playing Vulcans (known as the Logicians) in what one might call a "Worlds' Series".

This premise may seem a bit off-base for the usual "Star Trek" fare, but it was established very early in the series' run (the first episode, in fact) that station captain Benjamin Sisko was a devoted fan of the sport. In the episode, Sisko is tasked with taking his crew and turning them into a fully-functioning ballclub in only two weeks time. The team ends up with 11 players on the roster – only three of whom have ever played the game before (Sisko, his son Jake, and his future-wife Kasidy). The remaining eight players must take those two weeks to learn how to throw a ball, catch a ball, hit a ball, and field a position. They must also learn the rules of the game from scratch, including such complicated concepts as the infield-fly rule and obscure terminology like "bunts" and "Fancy Dan". Everything is made worse when you realize that their opponents are a team of Vulcans, an alien race that is physically stronger and faster than the majority of the Niners. Kasidy tells us, in fact, that "a Vulcan has three-times the strength of a human." It's not exactly a fair match-up.

Sisko, however, is a Starfleet captain who, among other things, has battled Cardassians and the Dominion and dealt with the politics of a God-like race overseeing the planet that his station guards. He is even known as the Emissary of the Prophets to the Bajorans. A man like that knows how to lead a team of hardworking individuals against even the longest odds. So – how well did Benjamin Sisko actually do in assembling and managing his team of would-be Vulcan beaters?


Team Analysis
A position-by-position breakdown of the DS9 Niners:

Pitcher – Jake Sisko
An easy choice for Sisko. Ben has been playing baseball with his son for Jake's entire life, making Jake the default best player on the team (and likely the only one who even knows how to pitch a baseball). However, we also know that Jake bats no earlier than fifth in the line-up. Why would you have your best hitter bat so low? It's possible that Sisko was sticking with the "pitcher bats ninth" theory of line-up construction, but that hardly speaks to his managerial skills. (Side note: the actor who plays Jake Sisko is Cirroc Lofton, a nephew of Kenny Lofton. Jake wears a Braves hat during the game in honor of Cirroc's uncle.)

First Base – Worf
At first-glance, another fairly easy choice. As Sisko reminds his team early on, there are only two players on the squad who the Vulcans are not stronger than: Worf, the Klingon warrior, is one. Assuming he has the power of a corner-infielder, it makes sense for the biggest, strongest player on the team to play first. However, it is also well-established that Worf is a tremendous athlete and can run rather well. He is not Adam Dunn. Considering his overall athleticism and strong arm, a rightfield assignment would make more sense – as would catcher (but we'll get to that in a minute). Worf deserves special mention for his contributions to on-field chatter. During a spirited round of "Hey, batter, batter! Hey, batter, batter!" by the Niners' infielders, Worf chimed in with "Death to the opposition!" Later, when Nog is confused as to what to do on a play and asks "What do I do now?", Worf answers with the Klingon-riffic "Find him and kill him!" Trust me – the delivery is perfect.

Second Base – Benjamin Sisko
The manager places himself at second base, presumably because he is most comfortable there. The best defensive play of the game – a diving stab at a grounder up the middle – comes from Sisko, so he must be pretty good. As a tall, strong man, Sisko doesn't exactly fit the physical profile of a second-baseman, especially considering that the team features two undersized Ferengi and four small-statured women. Sisko is much better suited for shortstop on this team, where he can use his fielding skills at a much more important position while continuing to be the "field general". It would also put a better arm at the position with the longer throw to first.

Shortstop – Col. Kira Nerys
It can be safely assumed that Colonel Kira Nerys is in top physical shape. A survivor of many battles, she has risen to the rank of colonel in the Bajoran military. She is very strong-willed and disciplined. Assuming that these traits make Kira physically strong enough to give her and Sisko equal arm strength despite her small stature, a player with only two weeks of baseball under her belt in her entire life probably shouldn't be given the toughest position on the field. It's possible that Kira showed a natural skill at the position, but it's hard to believe she's the better choice than Sisko. The two of them should switch positions.

Third Base – Kasidy Yates
Third base was originally supposed to be manned by Chief Miles O'Brien, who Sisko intended to "anchor the second half of our lineup". However, at some point during practice, O'Brien tore his rotator cuff. Doctor Bashir was able to repair the tear, but it still needed time to heal, forcing O'Brien to be pitching, hitting, and first-base coach. To replace him, Sisko called upon his future wife Kasidy, a freighter captain who grew up with baseball (her brother even plays on a professional team). As the third and final player with experience in the game, she fits in well at third base. Placing her in the outfield would mean that the outfield wasn't filled entirely by inexperienced rookies, but it's not a terrible decision. With Kasidy at third and Kira at short, there is some potential for Kasidy to help Kira by stretching the position a little.

Leftfield – Dr. Julian Bashir
There are two players on the Niners who are as strong as, or stronger than, their Vulcan opponents: Worf, the Klingon, and Dr. Bashir. Tall and thin, Dr. Bashir was genetically engineered/altered as a young boy, giving him a superior intellect, precise hand-eye coordination, and superior reflexes, all traits that should make him a great baseball player. Centerfield is probably the best spot for the doctor, but, considering the athleticism of the actual centerfielder, leftfield doesn't seem like a bad choice. Later, when Sisko is ejected from the game, Bashir is moved from left to second to fill in for the captain. Offensively, the doctor was given the leadoff spot in the line-up. However, the one time Bashir is seen at the plate, he strikes out on a very bad swing. He is also shown watching a fly ball go over his head and getting mixed up with shortstop Kira on a practice fly ball. It's a bit tough to believe that a genetically-enhanced individual with such spectacular reflexes and hand-eye coordination would be so bad at the sport.

Centerfield – Ezri Dax
First things first: Ezri Dax is a poor substitute for Jadzia Dax. There's just no argument there; DS9 fans will know what I'm talking about. Now that that's out of the way: Ezri Dax is young and athletic. In one of her previous hosts (the Dax character is Trill symbiont, moving from one host to another after each one dies), Dax was an Olympic-level gymnast and, while most skills don't transfer from host to host, this one seemed to. Late in the game, one of the Vulcans hit a long line drive to straight-away centerfield. Dax sped toward the wall. At the last moment, she leapt up in midstride, climbing up the wall in two steps and pushing off into a backflip at the top. She made the catch. Anyone with that kind of speed and athleticism can play center anytime.

Rightfield – Leeta
Nog's step-mother, a Bajoran who married a Ferengi. Honestly, she's only on the team so the roster can be filled with just the right number of players that the story requires (nine starters, a coach, someone to come off the bench after the ejection, and Rom, the Rudy-type figure who gets one special at-bat at the end of the game). The episode shows absolutely nothing about Leeta's baseball abilities. When Bashir moves to second-base after Sisko's ejection, Leeta moves to leftfield and the Ferengi Quark comes in to play right. Not good enough to make the starting roster, Quark is shown making a fine relay throw into first base late in the game.

Catcher – Nog
Probably the biggest question mark on the whole team. Nog is a young Ferengi who recently joined Starfleet. He is roughly the equivalent of a nineteen year-old boy. He is also about 4'11" tall, weighing maybe 100 pounds. Somehow, though, he's Sisko's starting catcher. We know he's a pretty good ballplayer (he's the only one who shows actual talent during the team's first practice), but no one that small should ever be behind the plate. Think of all the stolen base opportunities a physically-superior race like the Vulcans would have with Nog having to make the throw to second. It's hard to say where Sisko should have put Nog, though. At his size, very few spots on the field seem suitable. Second base is the first thought, but where would Sisko or Kira play? If Worf were moved off of first, Nog could go to second, Kira to first and Worf to either rightfield or behind the plate. Seeing as how Leeta would likely make a terrible catcher, Worf might be the best choice. The Vulcans would think twice before challenging the throwing arm of a Klingon.

Overall, while Sisko's team is not in the ideal set-up, it is likely pretty close. Only Nog is an egregiously bad decision and, in the Logicians' 10-1 victory, he probably factored in very little. The Vulcans' power and the inexperienced Niners' mistakes (they allowed 14 hits and committed four errors) almost certainly accounted for all the runs against Jake Sisko. I expect a lot out of my Starfleet captains, but even I know it was impossible for Sisko's crew of misfits to beat a practiced crew of Vulcans. I'm glad the episode realized that as well.


A few other stray thoughts about "Take Me Out to the Holosuite":

  • Odo, the humorless constable, was the umpire – of course. The lone umpire, making all calls from behind the plate. When Sisko asked him to don the gear, he gave Odo an impassioned speech. "I don't want a computer program calling a baseball game. That's something [the Vulcans] would do. I want a real person behind the plate, not just some collection of photons and magnetic fields." Nice to know that 24th century baseball fans still can't handle any kind of automated umpire.
  • Sisko puts his index finger on Odo's chest during an argument and is ejected for it. Odo cites rule 4.06, subsection A, paragraph 4 for the ejection. This is the correct rule in the rulebook. (Sisko was arguing a called third strike that he and Worf thought was low and away. Odo made the right call.)
  • A pivotal play in the game shows a Vulcan missing the plate after trying to score and then returning to the dugout when he realizes that Nog thinks he's safe. Eventually, Nog has to go into the dugout to tag out every Vulcan until the runner is out. If Odo had made the proper call, the Vulcan would have been called out the moment he headed into the dugout.
  • Sisko not only adds a player to the roster in the middle of the game (Nog's father, Rom) but also communicates with the dugout after being ejected.
  • The final play of the game is a run-scoring bunt, with Rom at the plate and Nog coming in from third. Rom, who had been completely incompetent all game, lays the bunt down perfectly by accident – he's leaning forward while in the batter's box, trying to understand what the dugout is telling him. Rom was in the batter's box, so a pitch was legal – but it seems awfully low for the Vulcans to pitch the ball while the batter was clearly not set or ready. Once the run scores, the team carries Rom off the field on their shoulders, as if they had just won the pennant.
  • Have you ever heard of a "Fancy Dan"?
  • Scotch flavored gum sounds pretty tasty.

Thank you for reading

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kbdekker
11/04
DS9 is a top 3 SF show for me, and I loved this article. I must now go to netflix and re-watch it. And yes Ezri was not Jadzia. But didn't the actress who played Jadzia leave the show for "Becker" and had to be written off?
beeker99
11/04
Yes. It had something to do with Paramount not willing to up her salary on DS9, but the producers of Becker agreeing to pay her what she wanted - and then Paramount cut that deal off (Becker was a Paramount show, too).

I'm pretty sure this is in an interview somewhere online, but I couldn't find it just now.
lgranillo
11/04
Yeah. I think I saw something that said she was originally signed through season 6 and then, for whatever reason, they didn't sign her for season 7. Whether that was because she wanted to go to Becker or they didn't want to pay her enough (which seems ridiculous - Terry Farrell is pretty awesome), I don't know.
rmnd3b
11/04
She wanted to leave the show, IIRC. That's why I cut them a little bit of slack for how poorly Ezri was handled.
rmnd3b
11/04
Yeah, Jadzia left the show in the second to last season, so they didn't have much time to work with Ezri.

I just watched this episode recently, and I remember thinking the same thing about Nog at first. However, say what you will about pitcher/catcher trust, but perhaps Jake was more comfortable throwing to Nog than anyone else?

It's also possible than Ben didn't want Worf behind the plate, since as we saw on his borderline strikeout, he could get himself ejected pretty quickly.
lgranillo
11/04
The Jake and Nog relationship was the only real justification I could come up with as well, but it seems pretty weak. Good point about Worf's temper not being a good fit for behind the plate...

I also wondered why Nog had never played the game before. We know from other episodes that Jake and Ben play ball in the holosuite on a regular basis. Why wouldn't Jake, in six years with his best friend, never try to get Nog to play with him?
rmnd3b
11/04
Maybe Nog just thought it was a stupid Hu-mon game?
ahemmer
11/04
I was at comic-con in Chicago last year, and Avery Brooks (Sisko) was one of the guests. He was specifically asked about this episode, and what he did to prepare. Brooks said that he considers Dusty Baker to be a big inspiration, which could explain some of his decisions on the field.
lgranillo
11/04
That's fantastic.

So does that mean we should worry about Jake's arm? Poor kid - how is he going to write?
beeker99
11/04
Larry, this is one of the single greatest posts you've ever done. Bravo, and thank you.
Rangers
11/04
Interesting that this episode went up against a World Series game. You would think they would have wanted to grab as many baseball fans as possible.
lgranillo
11/04
According to Memory Alpha (the Star Trek wiki), Ronald Moore, the producer, said "We knew it would air close to the series, but didn't know it would be the same week." Just poor planning, I guess (though you have to know the World Series is going to have a game on a Wednesday night)
Cardinals645
11/04
1. Wasn't there an episode that explored Bashir's choice to become a doctor instead of a professional tennis player? You'd think a guy with the instincts and reflexes to be a pro-level tennis player would have pretty good range as an infielder, no?

2. Perhaps Nog was the only one talented enough to field the catcher's position and block balls in the dirt and so forth. It doesn't matter how strong the catcher's arm is if every ball goes to the bleachers.
lgranillo
11/04
1. I haven't seen all of DS9, so I don't know that episode myself, but I think you're right. Bashir should have been a star on this team.

2. Good point! Still seems strange, like seeing David Eckstein or Muggsy Bogues behind the plate...
Cardinals645
11/04
Didn't Eck and Bogues just look strange anyway? They both wound up being very good players regardless of their stature, but Eckstein's throwing motion was unique.
Sacramento
11/04
Not only that, but Bashir's hand-eye coordination and reflexes were enhanced by genetic engineering when he was a child.
Scartore
11/04
Thanks Larry, this was all kinds of awesome. This reminded me of another Star Trek/Baseball scene from one of the Novels "The Pandora Principle" Which details the early life of Spock's Protege Saavik (Played by Kirsty Alley in Wrath of Khan and then Robin Curtis in The Search for Spock).
During her time at Starfleet Academy, Saavik joins a baseball team as a pitcher. Her Vulcan/Romulan physique and preternatual concentration make her literally unhittable. Lie 27 up adn 27 down with 27 k's.
Cardinals645
11/04
Another point about Worf playing 1st base, which I gleaned from the wikia page for this episode: Michael Dorn is left-handed and in the episode Worf fields lefty and bats righty. Perhaps Capt. Sisko wanted a lefty at 1B. It's a trivial reason to make such a decision, but a reason nonetheless.
lgranillo
11/04
It would certainly explain why Worf wasn't behind the plate.

I still think he's too good of an athlete to be stuck at first, but there aren't too many places he can go with Leeta on the team as well...
SeanDoyle
11/04
Great article - now I can't stop thinking about other ways to assign positions:
1) How about Capt Sisko at catcher, since his size, arm strength, and experience would all help? Presumably Jake would be comfortable working with him too
2) Col Kira moves to 2B, Bashir to SS, and Nog to LF. Even without baseball experience, Bashir's enhanced reflexes would make him a great SS
Also, poor jake must have had a heck of a pitch count, having pitched to something like 55 batters. It would be illogical to go to the plate hacking against a team without a bullpen.
amolmodi
11/05
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the most obvious reason for keeping Worf out from behind the plate; his size. I don't know how tall he is, exactly, but he's obviously the biggest guy on the team and quite a bit bigger than your prototypical catcher.
tinseltown
11/05
For someone making a career of it, the extra size may be a strain on the knees of the player (Bill James wrote about this theory many years ago; not sure if it has been studied), but as long as Worf has the necessary agility to play catcher, his size wouldn't be an impediment for this one-time game.
MulderUnited
11/06
I'm sure it had something to do with Sisko keeping the team amongst his crew (which only makes sense if you ignore Kasidy, Quark, Jake, Leeta, and Rom) but Sisko is missing SERIOUS speed and power issues. He should have scouted better!

General Martok looks to be a slugging natural though I can't imagine him being able to run for squat. He might be the catcher. . .he can hit and can throw just don't expect him to stretch any could-be doubles.

Admiral Ross seemed a similar type to Martok as well. He'd have good field vision, power, but very little speed.

Garak was a former spy so he has to be crafty and fast. I can imagine he'd get caught from a catcher's throw since he was outrunning authorities on multiple planets after committing high level assassinations.

Too bad Gul Dukat was bats*(& insane by this episode. . .he'd be the Evan Longoria of the team: fast with the glove and on his feet, could hit for power, and has the patience to get walked at least four times.

Anyone think Morn the barfly could play a position?

Hell, throw in Gowron! He could do that Fetters-stare thing as a relief pitcher and do his best to at least rankle the emotion-less Vulcans.

dianagramr
11/17
Ummm .... is this mere coincidence ....

http://www.fangraphs.com/not/index.php/take-me-out-to-the-holosuite/