The Americanization of Machiko - August 4, 1953 - S2-E3
Factual error: In the scene where the guy is telling Machiko about the major league teams that wanted him, he mentions the Indians, Yankees, and Orioles. The episode is set in 1953 and the story is from before World War II. While there had been a minor league team called the Orioles up to that point, there was no major league team called the Orioles until 1954.
The Americanization of Machiko - August 4, 1953 - S2-E3
Factual error: The episode takes place in rural Ohio, however several times in the distance, large mountains are visible. Ohio has hills, but not large mountains.
The Americanization of Machiko - August 4, 1953 - S2-E3
Revealing mistake: When Sam is first looking at his reflection of himself in the glass at the beginning of the episode, the items behind his reflection do not match his point of view. A man walks through the shot and never leaves the frame, however is gone when the shot flips back to Sam.
Chosen answer: Per the Quantum leap page at http://www.scifi.com/quantum/episodes/season5.html. 8 August 1953: An enigmatic leap lands Sam in a Pennsylvania tavern, as his own grown self on the day of his birth. As Al and Gushie work frantically to locate him, Sam befriends a wise bartender (popular character actor McGill, who'd appeared in a different role in the very first "leap") and a group of coal miners. As a host of familiar-looking faces pass through the bar - with different identities than Sam remembers - Sam ponders his life of leaping with Al the bartender, who tells Sam he controls his own destiny. Pressed for more, Al the bartender simply shrugs and says, "Sometimes, 'that's the way it is' is the best explanation." Sam realizes he must right at least one more wrong before he can go home, and leaps back to tell Al Calvavicci's wife Beth (from "M.I.A.") to wait for Al, who will survive Vietnam and come home to her. The closing title cards state that Beth and Al have four daughters and will shortly celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary ... and that Sam Beckett never returned home.
Boobra