Imaginary Baseball Bat

A metaphorical object invoked in dialogue to symbolize personal anger

3 appearances

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

3 moments

S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Closed Door: Retaliation vs. Restraint

The baseball bat appears only as a rhetorical, jocularized threat when Bartlet jokes about pommeling Leo — it functions as a disarming humanizing image that punctures grief with rough affection and releases tension through laughter.

Before: Non‑existent as a prop; present only as invoked rhetoric.

After: Remains rhetorical, marking a tonal transition to camaraderie.

View full event

S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Retribution and Restraint: A President's Fury, A Chief's Counsel

The baseball bat exists purely as a rhetorical image when Bartlet threatens, half‑jokingly, to 'pommel' Leo—it's a moment of intimate, masculine joking that relieves tension and signals trust despite the earlier furious rhetoric.

Before: Imagined, not physically present; used as a figurative threat.

After: Remains a rhetorical flourish that elicits laughter and diffuses the scene's intensity.

View full event

S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Laughter Between Thunder: Bartlet and Leo Recalibrate

The baseball bat exists as a rhetorical, jocular threat when Bartlet says he could 'pommel [Leo] with a baseball bat.' It serves to dissolve severity into intimacy — a domestic, hyperbolic image that triggers shared laughter rather than violence.

Before: Not physically present; invoked verbally as a metaphorical prop.

After: Remains rhetorical; the line functions to relieve tension and is not acted upon.

View full event