10 Background Star Trek Items More Important Than You Think

Everyone knows that Ben Sisko kept a baseball on his desk, but if you haven't rewatched the first season of Deep Space Nine recently, you may have forgotten why that ball was so important.

Ben and his son Jake were huge baseball fans. We knew this since the first episode. They were such huge fans that, when an alien shapeshifter chose to visit the station to learn about the imaginations of Humans in the episode If Wishes Were Horses, it chose to assume the form of Buck Bokai, a (fictional) famous baseball player from the 21st century.

The entire crew was super confused when a 21st century baseball player and several other ridiculous characters appeared on the station, but Buck later revealed his identity and tossed Sisko a baseball as a memento. Sisko held onto that ball for the rest of the series.

His baseball went on to be really significant to the plot. After Gul Dukat seized control of Deep Space Nine in the episode Call To Arms, he found Sisko's baseball and realised that Sisko left the ball there as a subtle reminder that he would be back to retrieve it.