First performed on television in 1958 and slightly revised in 1971 and 1977, the sketch depicts a fictional baseball game with the manager, players, and umpires all speaking in Shakespearean verse.
The dialogue parodies lines from the plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III while referencing modern baseball culture.
[2] Like other works by Wayne and Shuster, the sketch assumes knowledge of the classics, in this case the plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Richard III.
Wayne was concerned that the new sketch wasn't yet ready for the US, while Shuster felt it was worth the risk to make a bigger impact and help attract additional job offers as their CBC contract had expired.
The setting for the sketch is "Bosworth Field (A Baseball Stadium Near Stratford)", an allusion to the site of the final battle in Richard III.
[12] The catcher mopes in the locker room and soliloquizes in the manner of Hamlet, "Oh, what a rogue and bush league slob am I, who has ten days hitless gone.
Unlike "Casey at the Bat", to which it has been compared, "A Shakespearean Baseball Game" ends with the would-be hero being hit by a pitch in the head, becoming delirious, and ultimately being carried off the field.
Arthur Brydon of The Globe and Mail called it "some of the cleverest Wayne and Shuster comedy of the season", and that it was suitable for Sullivan.
[16] William Drylie of the Toronto Daily Star wrote that the sketch was "one riot followed by another" in one of their strongest shows, and agreed that it was ready for Sullivan.
[6][18] There was considerable speculation that Wayne and Shuster might have permanently moved to New York, as their CBC contract had expired[17] and their hosting Sullivan was a great success.