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Saying goodbye to 'Parks and Recreation,' network TV's biggest baseball fan

Saying goodbye to the baseball-loving 'Parks and Rec'

By Ben Cosman

After seven seasons in professional television, NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" has retired. Boasting a career average that would make even Ted Williams envious, the show's final outing aired on Tuesday night. MLB fans everywhere should be a little sorry to see it go, because no sitcom on television was as big a baseball fan as "Parks and Rec."

Helmed by noted baseball enthusiast Michael Schur, "Parks and Rec" had plenty of great sports moments, but its affection for baseball was a highlight -- and a true delight for appreciators of both situation comedy and a good ballgame. 

There were the throwaway jokes, like Pawnee, Indiana's most advanced-stats-minded law firm, which has grown its ranks considerably since founding partners Babip, Pecota, Vorp and Eckstein:

Has any other television show awarded David Eckstein a law degree? We think not.

And there's this -- literally the most beautiful (if slightly inaccurate) rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" we've ever heard, courtesy of Rob Lowe's Chris Traeger:

But there were a couple of occasions when baseball actually featured into the show's plot.

Like when Pawnee's affluent, snobbish neighbor Eagleton built a wall in the middle of a park the two towns shared, and Leslie Knope decided to turn Pawnee's half into a baseball diamond and host a Wiffle Ball league.

parkswiffleball.jpg

According to "Parks and Rec," when all else fails, make a baseball diamond.

And in Season 3's "Road Trip," Leslie and Ben Wyatt travel to Indianapolis and lobby Pawnee bid to host the Indiana Little League tournament.

parkslittleleague.jpg

They were successful, of course, because Pawnee is the most baseball-friendly fictional city in America. We should also note that this is the episode when Leslie and Ben first kiss, beginning a romance that leads to marriage and triplets. Again, according to "Parks," nothing gets people feeling romantic like hosting an amateur baseball tournament. 

So goodbye, "Parks and Rec." A show that was so pleasant about so many things, baseball included. And in 2020, maybe it'll be a first-ballot inductee for the TV Hall of Fame.