El Poderoso Casey
Título V.O.: The Mighty Casey
Guión: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Parrish, Alvin Ganzer
Fecha de emisión en USA: 17/06/1960
Guest Starring: Jack Warden (Mouth McGarry), Robert Sorrells (Casey), Abraham Sofaer (Dr. Stillman), Alan Dexter (Mr. Beasley), Don Kelly (Monk), Jonathan Hole (Team Physician), Rusty Lane (Commissioner)
Sinopsis: Los Hoboken Zephyrs so el peor equipo de la liga de béisbol. Esto es, hasta que un día reciben la visita del Dr. Stillman, que les trae un robusto aunque algo alelado joven para que haga una prueba de lanzador. Un lanzador de habilidad y potencia sobrehumanas...
Frases destacadas:
Opening Narration: Once upon a time there was a major-league baseball team called the Hoboken Zephyrs who, during the last year of their existence, wound up in last place and shortly thereafter wound up in oblivion. There's a rumor, unsubstantiated of course, that a manager named McGarry took them to the West Coast and wound up with several pennants and a couple of world's championships. This team had a pitching staff that made history. Of course, none of them smiled very much, but it happens to be a fact that they pitched like nothing human. And if you're interested as to where these gentlemen came from, you might check under 'B' for baseball, in the Twilight Zone.
Closing Narration: What you're looking at is a ghost, once alive but now deceased. Once upon a time, it was a baseball stadium that housed a major-league ballclub known as the Hoboken Zephyrs. Now it houses nothing but memories and a wind that stirs in the high grass of what was once an outfield, a wind that sometimes bears a faint, ghostly resemblance to the roar of a crowd that once sat here. We're back in time now, when the Hoboken Zephyrs were still a part of the National League and this mausoleum of memories was an honest-to-Pete stadium. But since this is strictly a story of make-believe, it has to start this way. Once upon a time, in Hoboken, New Jersey, it was tryout day. And though he's not yet on the field, you're about to meet a most unusual fellow, a left-handed pitched named Casey.
Curiosidades:
- La historia es una adaptación de una obra de teatro que el propio Serling escribió en sus comienzos.
- Mouth McGarry iba a ser interpretado por Paul Douglas, pero cayó enfermo y tuvo que ser sustituido por Jack Warden, que volvió a rodar sus escenas. Durante el rodaje, Douglas actuaba de forma extraña, le costaba pronunciar sus frases y tenía un aspecto demacrado, lo que hacía pensar al equipo de rodaje que había vuelto a beber (era un conocido alcohólico), algo que tanto él como su agente negaron insistentemente. Douglas murió de una enfermedad coronaria poco después de abandonar el rodaje. Como dijo más tarde Serling, "Lo estábamos viendo morirse literalmente delante de nosotros".
