Captain Sisko's Baseball - On
the sci-fi series STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE/SYN/1993-99 Avery Brooks played Captain Benjamin Sisko,
the newly appointed commander of space station Deep Space Nine that
orbited the planet of Bajor near a wormhole in the Alpha Quadrant. Among his many interest, Ben
was fascinated with baseball, a sport that hadn't been played since the
22nd century [The poorly attended 2042 World Series spelled the end of
the professional baseball].
In his off-hours, Ben and his son, Jake tossed a ball around with the aid
of a holographic program that conjure up Ben's favorite baseball players
like Tris Speaker, Ted Williams and "Buckaroo" Buck Bokai, the last of the baseball
legends. Obsessed with the game, Ben had once considered traveling
eight weeks just to see a live baseball game. To show his respect and
admiration for the game, Ben prominently displayed a baseball on his
command desk. The baseball first appeared after the episode "If Wishes Were
Horses." The baseball on Ben's desk is presumably the ball tossed by an alien who
took the form of Buck Bokai just before vanishing.
On another occasion,
when beings who lived in the Bajoran wormhole took Ben hostage to explore
the human psyche, Ben used the theory of baseball and its series of
pitches to explain the linear passage of time to the uncomprehending
aliens.
On episode "Call to Arms" the Cardassian's retake DS9, and Sisko leaves the baseball on his desk as a message
that "He's letting me know...He'll be back." When the Federation returned and defeated
the Cardassians on episode "Sacrifice of Angels" the occupying
Cardassian commander Gul Dukat was seen clutching Sisko's baseball in one hand
while he contemplated his downfall ["Victory was in our grasp...Bajor,
the Federation, the Alpha Quadrant, all lost..."]. After Dukat's
daughter, Ziyal died at the hands of Damar as a traitor, a remorseful
Dukat returned the baseball to Sisko.
On episode "Take Me Out
to the Holodeck", Vulcan Captain Solok challenged Ben and his DS9
crew to a game of holosuite baseball. Ben's team, "The Niners,"
were hopeless but valiantly rallied to defend the honor humanity from the
slurs of inferiority caste by the Vulcans. Even though the Vulcan team
"The Logicians" won the game on points, Ben's team won the game
on team spirit. As a token of appreciation, Kira Nerys
presented Ben with another baseball to place on his desk. This one
contained the autographs of all of "The Niners."
