The Braggart deals with my favorite sport. Hobie Shank, who we learn is an orphan who spent a summer living with the family four years earlier. Now a young man, he returns to visit the family. He seems to be adored by everyone except John-Boy, who later admits that he can't warm up to him because he seems to frequently be putting down John-Boy, such as his question of the high schooler, "Are you married yet?"
He tells everyone that the St. Louis Cardinals, are to send a scout to check him out as a pitcher. He was too embarrassed to let them know he lived in an orphanage not far from Walton's Mountain.
Here's where the episode's title gets in the way. Having seen "The Braggart" I am sure most viewers expected him to be making up the business about a big league baseball team being interested in him. Lo and behold, a scout shows up. Even more surprising is that he is supposed to be a famous old pitcher, Preacher Harroway, whose name is recognized by John. As John starts to talk to him about seeing him pitch back in 1912, the scout cuts him off, as he is much more eager to live in the present and just do his job, of scouting the prospect. He arranges for a brief tryout on the nearest ballfield, just down the road.
Harroway has brought with him a young man to bat against Hobie's pitches. John serves as Hobie's catcher, on request. Although they got it slightly wrong, they have a neat scene where Grandpa gives Hobie a bit of "good-luck" advice by telling him about Eddie Collins (actual Hall of Famer) habit of sticking chewing gum on his cap, and taking it out and chewing it when he really wanted to concentrate. Essentially, this is what Collins was known to do.
Although his first pitch was tagged, Hobie strikes out the batter three times. Next we see John Walton, sort of the Scott Boras of his day, negotiating with the scout, who offered $50/month with a $50 bonus for signing. John gets Hobie a $150 per month contract with a $100 bonus. Hobie is surprised that the scout wants him to report to a Class D team, instead of going to the major leagues right away.
Without giving away every plot point, I will reveal that we do have a brief look at a baseball game, between "the Waltons Mountain team" and the kids from the orphanage. We see Mary Ellen at first base (not the shortstop she is often supposed to be), Jason pitching, John-Boy catching, and a couple of the little kids batting. Jason is merely tossing the ball softly, underhanded, and a couple of the swings from the boys suggests they were told to make sure they do not hit the ball because their swings just about could not be farther from where the ball went by them. One guy watches a ball go in front of his chest and about the time it is in front of him, swings as though the pitch is higher than his head.
The story is about Hobie growing some humility and becoming interested in people other than himself. That focus was handled decently and this isn't a bad episode by any means, although he seemed to learn his lesson really quickly, after his low point.
The baseball inaccuracies were plentiful and they gave this fan many chuckles. Starting with when Hobie shows John something he pulls out of his bag and John identifies it as "my old pitcher's mitt." It was a glove (separate fingers) and nobody who has played or followed baseball would mis-identify a glove as a mitt. There are two kinds of "mitts"—now or in the 1930s. One is the kind used by a first baseman, the other by a catcher. Pitchers don't have a distinctive glove. It was just a "fielder's glove" or a "baseball glove." The player Hobie pitched to in the tryout is identified as a player on the Richmond Rebels, and the player is said to be "tearing up Triple-A pitching." I don't care that there never was a pro team called the Richmond Rebels. It doesn't really matter that Richmond never had a team in the Triple-A level until 1954. But it would be impossible for anyone to be tearing up "Triple-A" pitching in 1933-34, when this story was set, as baseball had no such level until 1946. I will also report that from the way he swung and missed, that player would have trouble tearing up my local co-ed softball league.
The salary that John negotiated would have been a marvelous salary for a minor leaguer with no experience in that era. He was to play in the lowest level, Class D. I found one website stating that in 1933, a certain Class A league—three levels higher—had a maximum salary limit of $1200 per month per team. If the team only had 12 players, that would leave room for an average of $100 per month. This makes it hard to imagine a much lower level team having a player getting $150 per month.
Funniest scene in the whole show was Grandma standing with other women at the local baseball game, "explaining" the game to these women.
On the whole, this episode brought some humor and it had a nice contrast from the episodes with serious drama involving the regulars. I think the title was a poor choice because the guy didn't really brag about himself that much, mostly just talked big about his dreams of playing in the big leagues.
He tells everyone that the St. Louis Cardinals, are to send a scout to check him out as a pitcher. He was too embarrassed to let them know he lived in an orphanage not far from Walton's Mountain.
Here's where the episode's title gets in the way. Having seen "The Braggart" I am sure most viewers expected him to be making up the business about a big league baseball team being interested in him. Lo and behold, a scout shows up. Even more surprising is that he is supposed to be a famous old pitcher, Preacher Harroway, whose name is recognized by John. As John starts to talk to him about seeing him pitch back in 1912, the scout cuts him off, as he is much more eager to live in the present and just do his job, of scouting the prospect. He arranges for a brief tryout on the nearest ballfield, just down the road.
Harroway has brought with him a young man to bat against Hobie's pitches. John serves as Hobie's catcher, on request. Although they got it slightly wrong, they have a neat scene where Grandpa gives Hobie a bit of "good-luck" advice by telling him about Eddie Collins (actual Hall of Famer) habit of sticking chewing gum on his cap, and taking it out and chewing it when he really wanted to concentrate. Essentially, this is what Collins was known to do.
Although his first pitch was tagged, Hobie strikes out the batter three times. Next we see John Walton, sort of the Scott Boras of his day, negotiating with the scout, who offered $50/month with a $50 bonus for signing. John gets Hobie a $150 per month contract with a $100 bonus. Hobie is surprised that the scout wants him to report to a Class D team, instead of going to the major leagues right away.
Without giving away every plot point, I will reveal that we do have a brief look at a baseball game, between "the Waltons Mountain team" and the kids from the orphanage. We see Mary Ellen at first base (not the shortstop she is often supposed to be), Jason pitching, John-Boy catching, and a couple of the little kids batting. Jason is merely tossing the ball softly, underhanded, and a couple of the swings from the boys suggests they were told to make sure they do not hit the ball because their swings just about could not be farther from where the ball went by them. One guy watches a ball go in front of his chest and about the time it is in front of him, swings as though the pitch is higher than his head.
The story is about Hobie growing some humility and becoming interested in people other than himself. That focus was handled decently and this isn't a bad episode by any means, although he seemed to learn his lesson really quickly, after his low point.
The baseball inaccuracies were plentiful and they gave this fan many chuckles. Starting with when Hobie shows John something he pulls out of his bag and John identifies it as "my old pitcher's mitt." It was a glove (separate fingers) and nobody who has played or followed baseball would mis-identify a glove as a mitt. There are two kinds of "mitts"—now or in the 1930s. One is the kind used by a first baseman, the other by a catcher. Pitchers don't have a distinctive glove. It was just a "fielder's glove" or a "baseball glove." The player Hobie pitched to in the tryout is identified as a player on the Richmond Rebels, and the player is said to be "tearing up Triple-A pitching." I don't care that there never was a pro team called the Richmond Rebels. It doesn't really matter that Richmond never had a team in the Triple-A level until 1954. But it would be impossible for anyone to be tearing up "Triple-A" pitching in 1933-34, when this story was set, as baseball had no such level until 1946. I will also report that from the way he swung and missed, that player would have trouble tearing up my local co-ed softball league.
The salary that John negotiated would have been a marvelous salary for a minor leaguer with no experience in that era. He was to play in the lowest level, Class D. I found one website stating that in 1933, a certain Class A league—three levels higher—had a maximum salary limit of $1200 per month per team. If the team only had 12 players, that would leave room for an average of $100 per month. This makes it hard to imagine a much lower level team having a player getting $150 per month.
Funniest scene in the whole show was Grandma standing with other women at the local baseball game, "explaining" the game to these women.
On the whole, this episode brought some humor and it had a nice contrast from the episodes with serious drama involving the regulars. I think the title was a poor choice because the guy didn't really brag about himself that much, mostly just talked big about his dreams of playing in the big leagues.
