11/11/2006

Blood Ties (2)

This is the second in the series of posts this off-season that deal with baseball appearing in television shows.

Homicide: Life on the Street was an NBC police drama that was critically acclaimed, but never reached the heights of popularity that the critics wanted for it. It lasted for seven seasons and followed a Baltimore homicide squad as they dealt with the murders and the tolls that solving (or sometimes, not solving) murders took on the detectives.

The sixth season of the show opened with a three part story. The main crime in these three episodes was the murder of the housekeeper for a prominent Baltimore citizen (played by James Earl Jones).

The second episode of that season was Blood Ties (2).

The detour into baseball had nothing to do with the James Earl Jones character. On Homicide: Life on the Street, there was typically more than one murder to an episode. This particular murder occurs at Camden Yards during an Oriole game against Oakland.

Detectives Munch and Kellerman are called out to the stadium and find out that the victim is a Yankee fan. One of the detectives notes something along the lines of "A Yankee fan? Great. We only have 48,000 suspects."

Munch and Kellerman, new partners who don't particularly like each other, find a ticket stub and go to where the victim had been sitting. A couple of rows up, in the same section they seen an obvious Yankee fan and have the following exchange.

Munch: Hey pal, where you from?
Scott Russell (an obvious New Yorker): Baltimore.
Kellerman: Oh yeah?
Russell: Abso-freakin'-lutely. I love Baltimore. Eat crabs. Go, Orioles.
Munch: That's not how we say it.
Kellerman: It's 'Bawlmer,' hon. We lose the 't.'
Russell: Oh yeah, well lose this, pal.

It's been a while since I've seen this episode, but I'm pretty sure Munch and Kellerman take the Yankee fan to identify the body of the victim. Russell says something along the lines of "Yeah, he's my friend. The dope deserved this because he talked me into taking the train down here for a make-up game between the Yankees and Orioles. Instead we're watching this crappy game between two teams I don't care about."

At this point, Munch and Kellerman realize they have a suspect. (Hey, not all the murderers were geniuses on this show.)

They take the Yankee fan to a room that had a view of the field (from the right field corner if I am remembering correctly for an interrogation. Munch and Kellerman close the drapes and block the view of the game and begin with some questions. The Yankee fan realizes that he isn't going to get out of this situation. But, he wants to watch the end of the game. So, he tries this tactic:

"Look. You open those drapes, bring me a beer and a hot dog, and let me watch the end of this game and I will tell you everything you want to know."

Munch and Kellerman look at each other, shrug, and give the Yankee fan what he wants so they can close the case.

As they are leaving Camden Yards, the detectives see Armando Benitez and Scott Erickson leaving the ballpark. Kellerman tells Munch that he has a fantasy baseball team and is thinking about adding Benitez to his team for some saves. He heads over and strikes up a conversation with the Oriole pitchers before awkwardly mentioning his fantasy team and asking Benitez how many saves he thinks he'll have. Both pitchers give him a strange look and Erickson pretty much calls Kellerman a loser.

It might have been because Benitez was a setup man for Randy Meyers, who had 45 saves for the Orioles in 1997.

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