Greatest American Hero S2/E1 : The Two Hundred Mile An Hour Fastball

9:47 AM

"Well actually, its umm, actually, i umm, think its a little bit faster."

Ahh the first episode of Season Two. The first full season starts off with Ralph using the suits powers to win at pro baseball. It's a good episode with the first theme of fulfilling your dreams, but not getting so carried away that the power corrupts you. It would be easy to see how suit's powers could tempt and corrupt someone of low moral character, and fortunately Ralph has his friend's on hand to point out when he's getting carried away.

There's some good interaction between Bill and Ralph again, and Bill being caught out after blustering about his contract negotiation skills is priceless. Ralph becoming a little bit caught up in himself and boasting about how his pitch "is a little bit faster" than 120mph mirrors Bill's bragging, especially since they both wind up looking like fools. Eventually Ralph is forced to realise that once he's had his 15 minutes of fame, nobody cares or remembers anymore. Pam is mostly missing from this episode as Connie Sellecca was heavily pregnant at the time, and she's mostly relegated to on-the-phone conversations with Ralph.

Plot Synopsis:

Players in the Stars baseball team are being terrorised and beaten by thugs to stop them winning their games. Bill recruits Ralph and the suit to join the sports team and stop whatever is going on. Bill takes Ralph for a try-out to see if he can throw, and Ralph is delighted because his childhood dream was always to pitch in pro-baseball, even though he was never that good. Ralph throws the ball so fast, it breaks Bill's hand when he tries to catch it, and catapults him backwards across the field. Despite the pain, Bill realises this is going to work better than he could have hoped, and rushes Ralph to the Stars training field to show him off.

The tryout goes well, and Ralph pitches out the Stars best hitter. They rush to sign him up, and Bill decides to take care of all the contract negotiations. Ralph leaves it up to Bill and can't believe that he's going to be pitching for the Stars. When he returns home he's attacked and threatened by the thugs. Ralph puts on the suit and chases the thugs across town, stopping their car. But when a civilian car and a bus nearly have an accident, Ralph is forced to let the thugs go to stop the bus.

Bill is disappointed that Ralph let them get away, but brags about he contract he secured for Ralph, complete with a 3 million dollar salary. Ralph cannot believe it! He starts appearing on TV chat shows, and Pam warns Ralph not to get too carried away. It's the suit thats responsible for his amazing pitching performance anyway. The thugs are concerned that Ralph will jeopardize their plans; they need the Stars to lose the pennant, so they can bet against them and win enough money to pay for a huge shipment of guns which will be used for a revolution in a South American country.

At the game, Bill realizes that he's messed up the contract negotiations when Deborah the Stars owner, comments to Bill about the contract being a giant insurance policy, not an actual salary, and that Ralph won't get a cent until he dies. During the game, Deborah is kidnapped from her box by the thugs on the recommendations from the team captain. Ralph holographs in on her abduction, but by the time he gets to the box, she is gone. Bill arrives and is disappointed again that they got away, but Ralph manages to holograph off a hotdog that one of the thugs dropped. Exciting the stadium under the pretense of a skydiver, Ralph flies to the thugs hideout. Ralph quickly disables the thugs, and locates Deborah. Bill arrives, but can't get the thugs to talk, so Ralph deposits one of them on top of a billboard until he blabs the whole story. Bill tells Ralph he has to win the game, and Ralph tries to fly back to the stadium with Deborah, but crashes in the dust outside.

Racing back to the stadium, Ralph puts Deborah back in her box, and gets her to put him into bat. He knocks the ball out of the park and wins the game for the Stars. Bill arrests the thugs and the team captain, and busts up the gun running ring. Bill later points out to Ralph that people will forget about him over time, and takes him to a bar where they try to stump Big Al, a sports trivia nut. They struggle to remember Ralph's name, and Ralph admits that even though people will forget what he did, he never will.

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