MacGyver’s Baseball Card Episode

Back in April I signed up for Netflix.  Marvel was debuting it’s first Netflix original series Daredevil, and being a big superhero fan I couldn’t let it pass by.  The next exclusive Marvel show to hit Netflix is Jessica Jones which comes out this Friday.

After watching Season 1 of Daredevil a few times, I decided to look around to see what else Netflix had to offer.  It didn’t take long for me to find MacGyver.  Netflix currently has all seven seasons.  I remember MacGyver being on television when I was little, the type of character he was, and the cool things he did.  But as far as the story lines for specific episodes, I couldn’t remember that much.  MacGyver has been my go-to show in between a few others.  He has definitely got to be one of my favorite T.V. action stars.

Its exciting to see sports cards carry over into a T.V. show or movie.  Imagine what I thought when I saw MacGyver standing in a card shop.  That’s exactly what happened during the episode I watched last night.  My head almost exploded.  Episode 11 in Season 6 is entitled “Squeeze Play”.  Frank Colton, a bounty hunter, is out of town when his box of baseball cards is stolen from his mother’s house.  Mamma Colton asks MacGyver to help get them back.  MacGyver finds his way to a local card shop where he meets Wendy, the daughter of a famous baseball player named Novis Riley.  Together they discover a counterfeiting operation.  After the counterfeit cards have been made, they’re put up for sale in the card shop and/or this very primitive looking online marketplace.  But things get even bigger once we find out that the main bad guy who operates the printing facility, where the fake cards are made, has information on Novis Riley that could expose his gambling habits.  Plus he kidnapped Wendy too.  Riley is currently in the process of helping to open a baseball museum with the help of Reggie Jackson.  Jackson plans to donate memorabilia he used during the 1977 World Series.  If Riley doesn’t steal that memorabilia and give it to the bad guy, his gambling habits will be exposed and Wendy will be a goner.  Riley steals Reggie Jackson’s memorabilia and heads to the printing facility.  MacGyver follows and it all leads up to a big fight.  MacGyver fights it out with former Eagles linebacker Tim Rossovich who plays a bodyguard like character.  The head of the whole operation is taken out in a way that resembles Robert Redford in The Natural.

The scenes in the card shop are probably my favorite.  There was a lot of 1990 Topps and 1990 Donruss.  Makes sense as this episode aired on December 17, 1990.  Its a great snapshot of what a card shop looked like back then.  Off the top of my head I remember seeing counterfeit cards of Lou Gehrig, Robin Yount, and Stan Musial.  One of the cards from Frank Colton’s collection was a Mickey Mantle 1953 Bowman Color #59.

MacGyver had it’s share of sports celebrities make appearances – Randall “Tex” Cobb, Hank Aaron, Lyle Alzado, and even Dick Butkus.  I heard there is a new MacGyver show in the works.  It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be connected to the original show.  This time the character of MacGyver will start off young when he’s in his twenties.  Richard Dean Anderson needs to make an appearance in the new show, even if its just for a quick cameo.  He could play the guy who gives the new MacGyver his pocket knife.  The show itself never had any trading card sets made.

After implanting a baseball with a tracking device, MacGyver goes in disguise as “Dexter” to make a trade with the crooks.

Reggie Jackson and MacGyver.