The “Happy Days” Cast Had a Baseball Team — and They Were Really Good, New Book Reveals (Exclusive)

Garry Marshall started the team to bond everyone who worked on the show

The Happy Days cast shared more than just a love for acting.

As Brian Levant and Fred Fox Jr., producers and showrunners for the beloved series, discuss in their new book — 50 Years of Happy Days: A Visual History of an American Television Classic — the cast also had a baseball league they played in together.

"In the chapter called 'Barnstorming a Softball Team,' we talk about how Garry Marshall enhanced the relationship between the cast. It even enhanced our relationship with the cast, being able to be with them off the set. We made just incredible memories," Fox Jr. tells PEOPLE.

"Marion [Ross] says Garry started a baseball team to build them into a team, but the discipline and teamwork that was exhibited onstage translated to the field," Levant says.

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Related: Ron Howard and Henry Winkler Reunite at Emmys 2024 for 50th Anniversary of Happy Days: 'Feels Like Home'

"And Marion's so funny, we talk about how she used to tell people, 'I'm a 53-year-old woman who has to tell my friends I can't go shopping, because I have baseball practice,' " he adds with a laugh.

What started as a fun hobby that served as another way for the cast to bond ultimately became a beloved tradition for them. What's more, they were good, only ever losing a handful of their matchups. Their team would even open for major league teams at the height of the show's popularity.

They also used sports as a way to honor the troops, traveling and meeting with the enlisted at stops they made to play games. The cast and crew engaged in two USO tours, as well as a number of charity events, showing off the team's skills.

Together, they visited the border between East and West Germany, seven years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The tradition continued even after the show's conclusion, as Fox Jr. and Levant reveal in the book.

"At 6 a.m. on November 12, 1983, the morning after filming their final episode ever, they flew to Okinawa and swept four games in four days against military teams across the island outpost," they share.

The passage continues, "Even for people who were used to the spotlight, on both trips, the entire group was overwhelmed by the incredibly warm response they received from the troops and their families."