Respectfully submitted for your perusal: a classic Twilight Zone theme league. The Twilight Zone was an anthology television series that originally ran from 1959-1964. Its thought-provoking episodes, often punctuated with twist endings, were culturally influential and still resonate to this day. This league will pay tribute to what I believe to be the greatest television show in history.
SPOILER ALERT: this league description will reveal twist endings from a few iconic episodes…
League parameters:
$100M cap
No DH
No WW
No Trades
Use any stadium that was in use for at least one season from 1959-1964
Clones? One set will be allowed. Details below…
Each team’s roster will be constructed as follows. Each requirement must be fulfilled by a different player; in other words, Jack Taylor can be used to fulfill the Jack requirement or the Taylor requirement, but not both. Unless otherwise noted, player names used must EXACTLY MATCH the parameters listed below. Jon does not count for John, nor does Vaughan count for Vaughn. The 25 parameters:
1. Any discussion of The Twilight Zone must begin with Rod Serling. Creator, executive producer and narrator of the series, and author of 92 of its 156 episodes, Rod’s singular vision was the creative force behind the show’s brilliance. Each roster must include one player with the first name
Rod.
2. While Rod Serling wrote the majority of the Twilight Zone episodes, two other writers were also very heavily involved: Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, who penned 22 and 16 episodes respectively. Each roster must include a player with the first or last name of either
Charles,
Beaumont, or
Richard (sadly, there are no players in the database named Matheson).
3. The actor with the most credited roles on The Twilight Zone is character actor Vaughn Taylor, who appeared in five episodes. Each roster must include someone with the first or last name
Vaughn or
Taylor.
Three actors had credited roles in four Twilight Zone episodes each: Jack Klugman, Burgess Meredith, and John Anderson.
4. Each roster must include either
Joe Klugmann or a player with the first name of
Jack
5. Each roster must include a player with the first or last name of
Burgess or
Meredith
6. Each roster must include a player with the first or last name of
John or
Anderson
7. The actor with the most uncredited appearances on The Twilight Zone is Robert “Bud” McCord, who appeared as an extra in at least 67 episodes. Each roster must include a player with the first or last name of
Robert,
Rob, or
Bud.
8. In the episode “Time Enough at Last”, Henry Bemis (played by Burgess Meredith) longs for a simpler world where he has all the time he needs to read his favorite books. He gets his wish when a nuclear war erupts while he’s in an underground vault, leaving him as the only person left on earth. Then…he drops his eyeglasses, and they shatter. Each roster must include one player
who appeared on a baseball card wearing glasses. A simple search on Google images yields many possibilities for this one. Either eyeglasses or sunglasses are fine.
9. In the episode “To Serve Man”, aliens known as Kanamits visit earth and bestow upon humankind many gifts that turn the planet into a utopia. No more hunger, no more war. As people begin to travel voluntarily to the planet of the Kanamits, U.S. military cryptographers struggle to translate a seemingly altruistically titled book, To Serve Man, which a Kanamit representative had left behind. Later, as one such cryptographer waits in line to board a Kanamit spaceship, a colleague hurriedly approaches and screams “Mr. Chambers…don’t get on that ship…the rest of the book…To Serve Man…it’s…it’s a cookbook!!!” Each roster must include a player with first or last name of
Chambers,
Cook,
Cooke or
Cookie.
10. The episode “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You” takes place in a dystopian future where all teenagers must undergo “the Transformation” whereby their bodies are permanently altered to fit one of an admittedly attractive, yet small number of, patterns. One plain-looking teenage girl rebels against this idea, questioning whether a world where everyone is beautiful really means that no one is. Each roster must include a player who
wore uniform number 12 at some point during their major league career.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/numbers.cgi?number=12
11 - 12. The episode “In His Image” centers on a man who creates a clone of himself. Each roster must include
one set of clones. Choose any player in the database and clone him exactly once. These will be the only clones allowed.
13. The second Twilight Zone episode ever broadcast was called “One for the Angels,” a heartwarming story in which an aging petty salesman endeavors to make the “big pitch” that has eluded him for his entire career, in the form of saving the life of a young girl by distracting the angel of death from taking her away. Each roster must include a version of one player from the Anaheim, Los Angeles, or California
Angels. An Angels version must be used; for example, for 2008 Mark Teixeira, either the Angels partial or combined season may be used, but the 2008 Braves partial or combined version may not be used.
14. Much of the episode “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” takes place in a barroom, where the characters are watching and discussing baseball. Each roster must include
one of the players mentioned in the episode, listed below. Any season of their career is fine:
Duke Snider
Wally Moon
Frank Howard
Clem Labine
Robin Roberts
Johnny Logan
Joe Pignatano
15 - 19. Choose
five bolded names from the titles of the Twilight Zone episodes listed below, and roster one person whose first or last name matches each. For episode titles with multiple words bolded you can use any or all words. Words bolded multiple times (such as Long) can only be used once.
“
Long live
Walter Jameson” (I’ll allow
Jamieson here)
“A Stop at
Willoughby”
“The Mighty
Casey”
“
King Nine Will Not Return”
“
Nick of Time”
“The Trouble with
Templeton”
“A
Penny for Your Thoughts”
“
Long Distance Call”
“The
Rip Van Winkle Caper”
“The
Hunt”
“Showdown with
Rance McGrew”
“A Piano in the
House”
“The Last Rites of
Jeff Myrtlebank”
“
Person or Persons Unknown”
“The
Little People”
“The
Dummy”
“Jess-
Belle”
“The Incredible World of
Horace Ford”
“Passage on the
Lady Anne”
“The
Bard”
“The Old Man in the
Cave”
“Uncle
Simon”
“The
Long Morrow”
“The Self-Improvement of
Salvatore Ross” (I’ll allow
Sal or
Salvador here)
“
Black Leather Jackets”
“
Queen of the Nile”
“Mr. Garrity and the
Graves”
“Come
Wander with Me”
If you find a name in a TZ title that I missed please let me know, but do not use anything unless I officially add it to the list.
20 - 25. Roster one player from each of the years in which The Twilight Zone originally aired:
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
I recognize that some of these parameters have a small number of options, but I believe that there still is enough variety to yield unique teams. I also realize that this will take a ton of research and might not even fill, but I had a lot of fun coming up with the idea. I will ask that, when you complete your roster, you sitemail me a list of which parameters are fulfilled by which players, to aid in roster validation. Please feel free to ask any questions.