C’mon get happy

If you grew up in the ‘70s, yesterday was a tough one.

First we lost Russell “The Professor” Johnson, who could build anything (except a working boat). And then it was Dave Madden, who played agent Reuben Kincaid on The Partridge Family, where his verbal battles with impish Danny Bonaduce were among the funniest things on television to my 11-year-old self.

Which I bring up because Dave Madden’s death reminded me of The Partridge Family, which reminded me a long-forgotten baseball song. In The Partridge Family’s last season, the producers resorted to an old TV trick: adding an impossibly cute little kid to the cast. In this case it was little Ricky Segall, who played next-door neighbor Ricky Stevens. Little Ricky’s mom didn’t trust “show people” but (surprise!) the Partridges quickly won her over. Here’s the last act from that episode, which showcase’s little Ricky’s singing talents and closes with a sample of Dave Madden’s acting talents:

That was the first episode of Season 4. In the season’s fourth episode (“The Strike-Out King”) impish Danny joins a Little League team ... which occasions a song by little Rickey! Alas, I can’t find a clip of “Say Hey Willie,” and these are the only lines I can remember:

Say Hey Willie,
Won’t ya hit one out here?

and then it just went on from there. I’m not saying it was good. But as a baseball-loving kid, I liked it! As a baseball-loving adult and aspiring completist, I’d like to hear the whole song at least once more. Gotta be streaming somewhere, right? That’s how Reuben Kincaid would want it ...