Object

Imaginary Baseball Bat

A metaphorical object invoked in dialogue to symbolize personal anger

3 appearances

Purpose

To hit pitched baseballs in recreational play; within the scene it functions as a verbally conjured blunt instrument invoked rhetorically rather than as a usable prop.

Significance

Serves as a tactile metaphor for Bartlet's grief-fueled desire for overwhelming retribution, crystallizing the episode's central conflict between escalation and measured statecraft. The invoked bat changes interpersonal dynamics in the room, underscores Bartlet's emotional volatility, and helps diffuse tension through wry, intimate camaraderie.

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.

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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.

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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.

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