Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 6 – “Parth Ferengi’s Heart Place”
Grand Nagus Rom’s (Max Grodénchik) love of baseball on Star Trek: Lower Decks began with one of the funniest episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In Lower Decks season 4, episode 6, Rom and his wife, First Clerk Leeta (Chase Masterson), negotiate the Ferengi Alliance joining the United Federation of Planets with the USS Cerritos’ Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) and Admiral Vassily (Fred Tatasciore). Rom and Leeta’s “dumb cop/reasonable cop” routine totally bamboozles Vassily, as Rom behaves like an imbecile obsessed with baseball. But the Grand Nagus really does love baseball.
In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 7, episode 4, “Take Me Out To The Holosuite,” Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) recruits DS9’s entire senior staff to form a baseball team, the Niners. Sisko is incensed when his Vulcan rival from Starfleet Academy, Captain Solok (Gregory Wagrowski), challenges him to a baseball game against his Vulcan squad, the Logicians. Rom asks to join the Niners as a chance to bond with his son, Ensign Nog (Aron Eisenberg), but the Ferengi bartender is inept at the game, and an increasingly unhinged Captain Sisko kicks him off the Niners. However, after Sisko himself is ejected from the game, Rom is called back in to bat, and his bunt allows Nog to score the Niners’ only run, which the Niners hilariously celebrate as their “manufactured triumph” over the Vulcans.
Why Rom Loves Baseball After Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rambling about baseball wasn’t just a cornerstone of an ingenious scheme by the Ferengi to bamboozle Admiral Vassily and the Federation in Star Trek: Lower Decks; Grand Nagus Rom does genuinely love baseball. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s “Take Me Out To The Holosuite,” Rom was the hero of the game because his bunt allowed the Niners to score a run over the Vulcans. Captain Sisko even apologized to Rom for his behavior and asked the Ferengi for “pointers.” It was one of the happiest and best moments of Rom’s life on Deep Space Nine, even if he didn’t know what a “bunt” was at the time.
Grand Nagus Rom also loves baseball because “It’s fun.” Outdoors in the fresh air (of the holodeck), baseball built a greater camaraderie between Rom and his Starfleet friends. It was a rare occasion for Rom to play alongside DS9’s entire senior staff, most of whom also knew nothing about baseball when Captain Sisko formed the Niners. Plus Rom got to spend quality time with Nog and Leeta outside the confines of his brother, Quark’s (Armin Shimerman), bar. In Star Trek: Lower Decks, years removed from that glorious day with the Niners, Grand Nagus Rom’s love of the game continues, and his baseball collection is a cherished reminder of one of his happiest times on Deep Space Nine.
Rom & Leeta’s Return In Star Trek: Lower Decks Explained
Rom and Leeta join Colonel Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) and Quark as guest stars on Star Trek: Lower Decks in the animated comedy’s second crossover with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Hilarity aside, the return of the capitalist aliens to Lower Decks was also a substantial update to the Ferengi’s status in post-Dominion War Star Trek of the late 24th century. After Captain Freeman proved she could match wits with the Ferengi while respecting their customs, Grand Nagus Rom signed the Ferengi’s formal intent to join the Federation, which is a historic step forward for both societies.
Only Grand Nagus Rom could have brought the Federation and the Ferengi Alliance together because he is someone who respected his Starfleet friends for years, and whose own son became the first Ferengi in Starfleet. Rom’s policies are also shifting the Ferengi away from war profiteering through the selling of arms to hospitality and tourism, which becomes evident on Freecloud years later in the Star Trek: Picard season 1 episode, “Stardust City Rag.” But even as the most powerful figure in the Ferengi Alliance, Grand Nagus Rom is still the same sweet, caring, baseball-loving husband and father on Star Trek: Lower Decks as he was on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
