What happens
Professor Vernon Simpson, a chemist at a Midwestern college, accidentally discovers a chemical that makes a baseball repel wood. Hoping to earn money for his marriage to college president's daughter Debbie, he uses the formula to become a pitcher under the name Kelly. Lux Radio Theatre presented this adaptation of the 20th Century Fox film It Happens Every Spring on October 3, 1949, starring Ray Milland and Colleen Townsend. The story follows Vernon's rise with the St. Louis team and his growing worries about Debbie and the mounting pressures on his secret.
A Midwestern college, then St. Louis and New York baseball parks, in the late 1940s
Characters: Vernon Simpson, Debbie, Dr. Greenleaf, Jimmy Dolan, Mr. Stone, Monk Lannegan, Kelly
Listen for: Vernon's discovery of the chemical formula's effect on a baseball, and his first pitching success under the name Kelly
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.