If you\u2019ve been a long-time reader of this site, then you know of my love for this franchise and have likely encountered my sweaty attempts to link the Giants and Star Trek before. So, on one hand, I feel like there\u2019s not a lot of reason to try to make the connection, but on the other hand, just in case, why not? If you don\u2019t know anything about Star Trek, check it out!<\/p>\n So, with all that background to maybe make the case, I figured we could play a little game here on Star Trek\u2019s 60th birthday. The traditional television season (fall to spring) doesn\u2019t really lineup with the traditional baseball schedule, which adds a fun little wrinkle to this idea. If we look at the TV schedule and the baseball schedule, what episode airdates coincided with Giants wins? If the Giants won on a day a new episode of Star Trek aired, then let\u2019s stamp that episode as GOOD. And just because it ought to be considered part of The Original Series canon, I\u2019m expanding the list to include episodes from the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated Series that ran from 1973-1974.<\/p>\n If you want some less ridiculous measures of episode quality, you can consult many sorces that rank episodes of not just The Original Series, but all the series, from the 1991 Star Trek Viewers Choice Maratho<\/a>n that made a lasting impression on me to a recent ranking of the Top 60 episodes<\/a> according to fans at the big Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, to my very own Star Trek podcast, Trek Marry Kill<\/a>, which grades episodes by tiers: TREK (fine\/good), MARRY (excellent\/all-timer), KILL (watch it once or never).<\/p>\n The \u201cdid the Giants win on a day a new episode of Star Trek aired\u201d game is maybe not as fun as \u201cwhich Simpsons episodes premiered on days when Barry Bonds homered?\u201d which I did on Twitter over a decade ago and this list has episodes that would never be included on a Best Of list, but this can be the joyful mess we make when we meld geek stuff with jock stuff.<\/p>\n For this post, I\u2019ll just stick with The Original Series & The Animated Series, even though there are 12 series in total. Unfortunately, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, and 1974 weren\u2019t playoff seasons in Giants history, though the franchise did go 362-285 (.560). Star Trek: The Original Series aired its final episode on June 3, 1969, which means that it survived long enough to see the creation of the National League West (the Giants went 90-72, 2nd place in the division\u2019s first year of existence). The 1973 (88-74) and 1974 (72-90) seasons were the first of the post-Willie Mays seasons. To sort the rankings, we\u2019ll go with margin of victory and any historical accomplishments within the game. Only 11 times in the run of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Animated Series did the San Francisco Giants win a baseball game on a day when a new episode premiered.<\/p>\n 11. \u201cWho Mourns for Adonais?\u201d (9\/22\/67) | Giants 1, Pirates 0<\/a> (+1)<\/p>\n This episode is best known for featuring a giant hand in space holding the starship Enterprise in place.<\/p>\n Summary: An underrated episode in the pantheon of the franchise. This one really solidifies two long-standing Star Trek tropes: (1) god is a jerk and (2) earth was visited by ancient aliens. In this case, the Greek gods were actually aliens, and only one of them has bothered to stick around in our dimension: Apollo. He wants the Enterprise to worship him and he wants one of the crewmembers to become his woman.<\/p>\n Is it actually good? Yes. On the podcast, we are trying to prove if the fan theory that 40% of episodes are fine to good, 30% are stinkers and 30% are excellent is an accurate assessment of the franchise 60 years later. It was a ratio that fans came up with in the 70s, when all there really was was TOS. Given that, you\u2019d say that 23-24 episodes of TOS\u2019s 79 episodes are excellent, and I think this one would just sneak into that group.<\/p>\n How about the Giants? Tom Haller hit a walk-off home run against Pittsburgh\u2019s Al McBean, who had pitched all 8 innings to that point. Against him? Ray Sadecki, who pitched 9 shutout innings and struck out 7 while walking 3.<\/p>\n 10. \u201cThe Enterprise Incident\u201d (9\/27\/68) | Giants 3, Reds 2<\/a> (+1) (15)<\/p>\n Season three of The Original Series was hampered by severe budget cuts because both the studio (Lucille Ball\u2019s Desilu Studios had been sold to Paramount) and the network wanted to kill it. For the studio, it cost too much (Paramount was notoriously cheap) and for the network, Gene Roddenberry was a huge headache. But before the brain drain really went down, one of the few women writers working in TV at the time, Dorothy Fontana, wrote a strong episode based on the USS Pueblo Incident<\/a>.<\/p>\n Summary: The Enterprise violates the Neutral Zone with the Romulan Star Empire and is captured by a Romulan Commander and her unit. Their ships look like Klingon ships now not for any story reason but because the production had lost the model of the Romulan warbird built in season one (or somebody had stolen it). Anyway, Spock tries to free the crew by claiming Kirk has lost his mind and seems to kill his captain with a Vulcan death grip. But rather than buy that story and release the crew, the Romulan Commander takes to Spock and hopes to seduce him into defecting to her side with the Enterprise becoming a trophy. Soon, we learn that Kirk and Spock are doing a little bit of acting to distract the Romulans long enough for them to steal the Romulan cloaking device for examination.<\/p>\n Is it actually good? One of the best of season three, for sure, and would definitely be one of the upper echelon episodes for The Original Series. A wonderful performance from Joanne Linville as the Romulan Commander.<\/p>\n What about the Giants game? A real hero\/goat situation in this 15-inning affair. Pete Rose went 1-for-7 for the Reds, Johnny Bench went 1-for-6 and hit into two critical double plays (bottom of the 9th, bottom of the 11th), and all of the Reds\u2019 came off of Lee May\u2019s 2-run homer in the 6th (he\u2019d go 2-for-7 for the game). The game was decided by Willie Mays\u2019 final home run of the 1968 season, his 587th overall, hit in the top of the 15th. Mike McCormick pitched 4 innings in relief for the win.<\/p>\n But the Giants were good, right? Finishing at 88-74, they were once again runner-up to the Cardinals (97-65). But just as they\u2019d done the previous season, they went on a run at the end of the season, going 36-22 from August 1st on. Juan Marichal pitched a shutout to raise his record to a league-leading 26-8. Willie McCovey went 2-for-3. Jim Ray Hart homered, which by WPA was the biggest play of the game.<\/p>\n 9. \u201cThe Practical Joker\u201d (9\/21\/74) | Giants 8, Reds 6<\/a> (+2) (10)<\/p>\n Summary: The Enterprise computer is turned into joke machine after the ship passes through a strange energy cloud.<\/p>\n Is it any good? Kinda. Kirk is able to trick a computer again, as he\u2019s done many times before. Mainly, though, it features this iconic image:<\/p>\n The holodeck makes its first appearance in franchise history, too.<\/p>\n The Giants: Ed Goodson homered off of Pedro Borbon in the bottom of the 10th for the walk-off win. He had 3 RBI on the day. Steve Ontiveros went 3-for-4, too. Jim Barr gave up 10 hits and 5 earned runs (6 overall) in 8.1 IP. On the Reds\u2019 side, Pete Rose went 2-for-4. Johnny Bench had a hit and a walk. Ken Griffey (Sr. ) was 2-for-5 and Darrel Chaney had a pair of RBI to go with his 3-for-4.<\/p>\n 8. \u201cOperation \u2014 Annihilate!\u201d (4\/13\/67) | Giants 2, Atlant<\/a>a 0 (+2)<\/p>\n So now we\u2019re in a whole new season of Giants Baseball while still being in the first season of The Original Series. It\u2019s the second game of the 1967 season for the San Francisco Giants while being the season finale of Star Trek\u2019s first season.<\/p>\n Summary: The colony that\u2019s home to Captain Kirk\u2019s brother Sam falls under attack by flying parasites that cause their victims to go insane before death. Kirk\u2019s brother is found dead but one of his nephews is saved. Spock is stung by one of these parasites and Kirk & crew must figure out how to save him before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n Is it actually good? Uh, sure. It\u2019s not terrible. The flying creatures are funny to watch now. There\u2019s some location shooting that really helps sell that they\u2019re on a different planet (even if it\u2019s just the Northrop Grauman campus in Southern California). Space madness is always a good story idea. The Original Series definitely trotted out the idea that maybe humanity wasn\u2019t meant to travel into space on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n How about the Giants? Okay, the Giants must\u2019ve been rained out because they opened the season in St. Louis but played only one game. Two days after that first game, they were in Atlanta for three. This is the only game the Giants won in that series and the only game the Giants won in their first 8. That\u2019s right. They started 1967 1-7. Thankfully, they went 90-64 the rest of the way.<\/p>\n But in this game, Gaylord Perry held Atlanta to just 5 baserunners (4 hits, 1 walk, 1 HBP) in a complete game shutout. Willie Mays and Willie McCovey hit their first home runs of the season and those were the only runs of the game. The Giants struck out 8 times and walked 0 times. Sounds like Buster Posey\u2019s kind of team!<\/p>\n 7. \u201cOne of Our Planets Is Missing\u201d (9\/22\/73) | Giants 5, Padres 2<\/a> (+3)<\/p>\n This one was written by veteran Star Trek director Marc Daniels.<\/p>\n Summary: The Enterprise must stop a mysterious cloud that is devouring planets. It turns out the cloud is alive and so Spock has to mind meld with it to explain what humanoid life is so that it can stop eating planets.<\/p>\n Is it any good? Lesser Trek, but not terrible.<\/p>\n The Giants? Not a typo. The Giants beat the Padres 5-2 on 9\/15 and 9\/22 of 1973. In this one, Willie McCovey, Mike Phillips, and Garry Maddox all homered. It was Phillips\u2019 first major league home run (he\u2019d hit 144 more). I t was McCovey\u2019s 412th career homer.<\/p>\n 6. \u201cYesteryear\u201d (9\/15\/73) | Giants 5, Padres 2<\/a> (+3)<\/p>\n Some people struggle with a cartoon being considered part of the Star Trek canon, but this 1970s Filmmation TV show was produced by Star Trek writers and producers and featured the voices of the original series cast \u2014 how could it not be canon? With the show moving to a Saturday morning cartoon, that just means the airdates coincided with more Giants games. Here are the winners:<\/p>\n Summary: While visiting the Guardian of Forever, something happens in the past that changes history such that nobody has ever heard of Mr. Spock. To repair time, Spock must go to the past and figure out what went wrong. There, he meets his younger self and must act as a mentor through a troubling episode of his young life.<\/p>\n LOS ANGELES – SEPTEMBER 15: From left to right, Young Spock and Mr. Spock (voice by Leonard Nimoy) cross paths, as Mr. Spock travels back into time in Star Trek: The Animated Series episode, \u201cYesteryear.\u201d Original air date, September 15, 1973. Image is a screen grab. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images) CBS via Getty Images<\/p>\n Is it any good? Heck yes. This is one of the best episodes in the franchise, particularly for those who love Mr. Spock. A fair warning: the dog dies in this one. It was scraped by JJ Abrams for a lot of the Star Trek (2009) movie he directed. We get to see Spock\u2019s upbringing on Vulcan and how having a human mother could be difficult for him. Another banger from D.C. Fontana.<\/p>\n The Giants? Dave Kingman homered \u2018s 2-run homer in the top of the 6th was the key play. Willie McCovey was 0-for-1 with 3 walks but also 1 RBI.<\/p>\n 5. \u201cAmok Time\u201d (9\/15\/67) | Giants 6, Pirates 3<\/a> (+3)<\/p>\n This was the season two premiere of The Original Series but the fifth produced. When you watch it, you see the wisdom in that decision. It focuses on Mr. Spock, who had become a pop culture sensation during the first season \u2014 to the point that he received more fan mail and attention than William Shatner, which caused a lot of problems for the show\u2019s directors, producers, and writers \u2014 and so NBC correctly wanted to strike while the iron was hot.<\/p>\n Summary: Spock must return to his home planet of Vulcan to participate in a ceremony to alleviate him of his pon\u2019farr or blood burning. Vulcan males must mate or die. Kirk and Dr. McCoy accompany him and with Spock discover that the ceremony has been a setup by Spock\u2019s betrothed, who doesn\u2019t want to be hitched to a famous dude and would rather have the man she\u2019s been with in Spock\u2019s absence. Problem is, Spock has to fight to the death to either keep or move on and the champion she chooses to fight for her side is Captain Kirk. Will Spock kill his captain?!<\/p>\n Is it actually good? One of the 10 best episodes in the franchise\u2019s 60-year history, which includes 967 episodes of television and 13 movies. This past weekend, national movie theater chains ran special Star Trek screenings pairing an episode of TOS with one of the original series cast movies. My time is limited so I opted for the \u201cAmok Time\u201d\/Star Trek III: The Search for Spock pairing, mainly because I wanted to see \u201cAmok Time\u201d on the big screen. What people don\u2019t know is that the original series was photographed by a feature film director of photography who made that show look better than anything that was on TV at the time. Guess what? That classic 1960s film look holds up great on a modern movie screen and the performances by Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock are tremendous. I think they should just run Star Trek episodes on movie screens every day.<\/p>\n How about the Giants? Oh, right. My other obsession. The Giants would finish 10.5 games back of the National League winner, the 101-60 St. Louis Cardinals (Tim McCarver, Orlando Cepeda, Lou Brock, Dick Hughes, Steve Carlton, Bob Gibson). But they didn\u2019t give up down the stretch going 21-7 to finish out the season. Willie Mays went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBI. That home run was his 560th. We know he gets to 660. Willie McCovey went 2-for-3 with a pair of homers and 3 RBI. He hit 6 career homers off of Pirates pitcher Steve Blass (both of them off of Blass in this game). For his career, he hit .410\/.521\/.974 off of him. Gaylord Perry again with a complete game: 9 IP 11 H 3 ER 2 BB 4 K. Enough history for this to be the best of the +3s.<\/p>\n 4. \u201cTurnabout Intruder\u201d (6\/3\/69) | Giants 9, Expos 3<\/a> (+6)<\/p>\n The series finale of The Original Series. It was delayed until June meaning there was a two-plus month gap between the penultimate episode and the last one.<\/p>\n Summary: Dr. Janice Lester finds a machine that allows for body swapping and so she lures Captain Kirk to swap bodies with him so she can captain the Enterprise. This is because women aren\u2019t allowed to be starship captains for some reason. Anyway, Lester is nuts for the sake of being nuts and in Kirk\u2019s body decides to use her power to silence the crew\u2019s dissent, who finds their captain\u2019s new behavior strange.<\/p>\n Is it any good? Nope. More sexist dreck. Women are too emotional to be a starship captain is the episode\u2019s central premise. It\u2019s also got William Shatner acting to the extreme by playing a woman inside Kirk\u2019s body.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a genuine shame that this revolutionary and progressive television show ends with such a thud and one that betrays a lot of the message from the prior 78 episodes and three seasons. No need to watch this one.<\/p>\n But the Giants? The Giants went 9-16 in May and that seems to be what sunk their season, as they finished (90-72) just 3 games behind Atlanta (93-69) for the second playoff spot. The Mets were 100-62. Mays and McCovey homered (593 and 285, respectively), Ray Sadecki struck out 8 (but walked 4) in 7.2 IP.<\/p>\n 3. \u201cCharlie X\u201d (9\/15\/66) | Giants 10, Mets 4<\/a> (+6)<\/p>\n Star Trek\u2019s premiere episode, \u201cThe Man Trap\u201d aired a week earlier on an off day. A week later, the Giants kicked off a 3-game set against the Mets that ended on a Saturday with a new series against the Pirates beginning on Sunday. Odd. About as odd as this episode.<\/p>\n Summary: In it, the crew of the Enterprise pick up a teenaged boy who has unfathomable mind powers that he uses to control and torment the crew. But he respects Captain Kirk. Can Captain Kirk teach him how to be a good man in a cruel universe or will a deus ex machina be needed to bail out the crew?<\/p>\n Is it actually good? We\u2019ll play Trek Marry Kill with it next week on the podcast, but this episode doesn\u2019t typically land on a \u201cbest of\u201d list. Robert Walker gives a strong performance as \u201cCharles Evans\u201d \/ \u201cCharlie X,\u201d but the show is still figuring itself out, and Charlie\u2019s primary focus is on a Yeoman Janice Rand, played by Grace Lee Whitney (who was the focus of a lascivious producer in a rather sad backstory that led to her being booted off the show). It became the second episode two air for the simple reason that the episodes producers had intended to run earlier still had yet to be completed due to their then-state-of-the-art visual FX.<\/p>\n How about the Giants? In their 10-4 win, shortstop Tito Fuentes hit 2 home runs including a leadoff home run and went 2-5 with 3 RBI. Willie Mays went 3-for-4 with a a pair of RBI and Jim Ray Hart hit a 2-run home run in the third inning. Bobby Bolin pitched a complete game to make him 10-10 on the season. He allowed 8 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, and 4 K.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Star-Trek-DS9-Sisko-Giants-hat.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/thepracticaljokerhd0125.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"LOS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/gettyimages-519117658.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n