Review: Abbott Elementary, “Ballgame” | Season 5, Episode 3

Has any TV show ever loved its city as much as Abbott Elementary loves Philadelphia? I’m sure there are some contenders. The Drew Carey Show had a whole theme song about how much Cleveland rocks and The Bear certainly loves the Chicago restaurant scene. But Abbott’s love of its hometown seems purer and louder than basically any other show I can think of—which, to be fair, is pretty much the vibe of everyone I know from Philly. (Go Birds!) That hometown love anchored last season’s big novelty episode, the unexpected but weirdly great It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia crossover. And now it’s behind this year’s big swing gimmick too: an episode filmed at a real-life Phillies baseball game.

As gimmick’s go, this one is a little less original (and a little less funny) than the Always Sunny crossover. But that earnest Philly love is so palpable—and so baked into Abbott’s DNA—that the whole thing still winds up feeling really endearing. Yes, you can practically feel the writer’s room sitting down to quickly sketch out “How would each of our leads act at a baseball game?” And, yes, it’s clear that MLB was heavily involved in this episode about how baseball is the greatest game that has something for everyone. But that commercial-lite feel still fits with a show that could very well be considered an unofficial part of the Philly tourism board by now.

In fact, as I learned after Googling “who is Kyle Schwarber?” (I’m a Janine, not a Gregory), it was sheer coincidence that the show happened to be filming at the August 28th game where he became just the 21st player to ever hit four home runs in an MLB game. While he was already set to be featured in the episode, they rewrote some scenes on the fly to acknowledge the achievement. Not since Fever Pitch has there been a more wholesome art-meets-sports story. And if that’s not Philly magic, I don’t know what is.