Pitch: Pilot
September 22, 2016 7:52 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
A young pitcher adjusts to life in the spotlight after making history as the first woman to play Major League Baseball.
I couldn't figure out what I'd seen Eliot, social media dude, in before until I checked imdb to discover he's Tim Jo, who was playing adorkable alien teenager Reggie Jackson on ABC's "The Neighbors" only a few years ago. Now he's got mustache? Time moves too fast.
Fictional baseball might be my favorite genre.
I am a sucker for sports movies, yet have near-zero-minute attention span when it comes to actual televised sport events. Though, a few years ago I went to my first stadium baseball game, and it was a revelation -- it was like that scene in Blast From The Past when grew-up-in-an-underground-bomb-shelter Brendan Fraser sees his first game and is all "Now I get it - you have to see it to understand it!" (I still can't keep my eyes on a broadcast game, but I could finally see why people would enjoy going to games in person and becoming devoted to their home team.) So, I'm curious to know how Pitch works for sports fans. I noticed some comments in one of the articles I linked saying that a knuckleball would have been a more realistic signature pitch than a screwball for a female pitcher.
I enjoyed this as a pilot, but I'm not sure where they go from here.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:46 PM on September 23, 2016
Fictional baseball might be my favorite genre.
I am a sucker for sports movies, yet have near-zero-minute attention span when it comes to actual televised sport events. Though, a few years ago I went to my first stadium baseball game, and it was a revelation -- it was like that scene in Blast From The Past when grew-up-in-an-underground-bomb-shelter Brendan Fraser sees his first game and is all "Now I get it - you have to see it to understand it!" (I still can't keep my eyes on a broadcast game, but I could finally see why people would enjoy going to games in person and becoming devoted to their home team.) So, I'm curious to know how Pitch works for sports fans. I noticed some comments in one of the articles I linked saying that a knuckleball would have been a more realistic signature pitch than a screwball for a female pitcher.
I enjoyed this as a pilot, but I'm not sure where they go from here.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:46 PM on September 23, 2016
Oh, also, funny series of tweets from Hello Tailor in response to dumb NY Times tweet - what even are sports
posted by oh yeah! at 4:49 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by oh yeah! at 4:49 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had't heard of this show, just came across it and when I saw the premise and that the lead is a black woman decided to give it a shot.
I'm not a sports fan at all and I loved it. It all just worked. I also teared up several times and pretty much lost it at the end. I was not expecting this at all.
Definitely on the very top of my must watch again a see where it goes list.
posted by Jalliah at 5:27 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm not a sports fan at all and I loved it. It all just worked. I also teared up several times and pretty much lost it at the end. I was not expecting this at all.
Definitely on the very top of my must watch again a see where it goes list.
posted by Jalliah at 5:27 PM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've been so excited about this show and it lived up to my expectations. There were so many great bits, from the number they assigned her to her friends helping her out. I can't wait for the next episode!
posted by angelchrys at 7:27 PM on September 23, 2016
posted by angelchrys at 7:27 PM on September 23, 2016
The Vulture article on how the fake baseball games are staged is really entertaining.
I loved this. When I was a little girl I always dreamed about being a hitter who would take the Cubs to the Series. :) (I usually played third base as I was the only T-ball player who could throw to first from third!)
Can hitters see the pitch? (The answer is sort-of, but without the red stitching it'd be a very different game.) How different pitches look to batters.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:01 PM on September 23, 2016
I loved this. When I was a little girl I always dreamed about being a hitter who would take the Cubs to the Series. :) (I usually played third base as I was the only T-ball player who could throw to first from third!)
Can hitters see the pitch? (The answer is sort-of, but without the red stitching it'd be a very different game.) How different pitches look to batters.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:01 PM on September 23, 2016
I liked this. Obviously Ginny should actually be a knuckleballer rather than a screwballer but the screwball is probably about as close as they could get while still being able to do the things they want to do dramatically. So that's okay.
The show wouldn't work nearly was well without all the MLB licensing. It gives it real verisimilitude. I don't even mind that it's a weekly hour long advertisement.
posted by Justinian at 2:56 AM on September 24, 2016
The show wouldn't work nearly was well without all the MLB licensing. It gives it real verisimilitude. I don't even mind that it's a weekly hour long advertisement.
posted by Justinian at 2:56 AM on September 24, 2016
Interesting pilot, and I agree it's tough to see how they'll sustain this. They've kept a tight focus on a few players - the catcher skeptic, the outfielder friend, and the hurt pitcher rival. That means there's 22 other players on the roster we haven't met, so there may be some drama there. You know romance/sex/relationships are going to be involved (maybe a teammate is attracted to her, for instance, and it's not reciprocated), obsessed fan (pro or anti), and she'll be sent to the minors at some point. It will be interesting to see how they create more drama than that.
The baseball scenes were OK, reasonably realistic, although the announcers were a little too scripty. Big buy-in from MLB, obviously. But the idea of an unknown making it to the bigs on a trick pitch, or being so out of her depth in her first appearance, strikes a wrong note to me. Players in baseball don't skip the minors. You don't go from high school or a year or two of college to the majors, like you might in basketball or football. You're signed by a big league club and then assigned to their farm system - A, AA, then AAA. Your time in each of them can vary and you might skip a level, but you're playing near MLB calibre players and proven yourself first. She would have at least a year of playing minor league ball, and a lot of these problems would have emerged there.
I know there's a couple years between the 2010 state championships she wins and the MLB call-up, so she probably did play minor ball and it just wasn't shown. But it was never touched on. A few of the players on the MLB team would have been her teammates in AAA, for instance, either fellow rookies or players doing rehab after injury. She should be more of a known commodity.
Also bugged by the tryout on the little league team scene. I've been coaching for nine years, and there's always been girls on my teams. There was a girl on my team when I played in the late 1970s. They're not weird outsiders (although they are outliers), and they sure don't need a trick pitch to do well. I've had slick fielders, strong hitters, fast runners, and hard throwers. The second best player on my son's team this year (12 & 13 year olds) was female, and almost every opponent we faced had at least one girl. They might have been skeptical of the level of her talent, but they wouldn't have been dismissive about giving her a chance. (and the coach wouldn't be the one at bat... sheesh.)
Still, worth checking out. Not enamoured of it, but I'll give it a chance.
but next time, if they have the out-of-town scores showing my Blue Jays losing to the Red Sox again, I'll reconsider.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:32 AM on September 24, 2016
The baseball scenes were OK, reasonably realistic, although the announcers were a little too scripty. Big buy-in from MLB, obviously. But the idea of an unknown making it to the bigs on a trick pitch, or being so out of her depth in her first appearance, strikes a wrong note to me. Players in baseball don't skip the minors. You don't go from high school or a year or two of college to the majors, like you might in basketball or football. You're signed by a big league club and then assigned to their farm system - A, AA, then AAA. Your time in each of them can vary and you might skip a level, but you're playing near MLB calibre players and proven yourself first. She would have at least a year of playing minor league ball, and a lot of these problems would have emerged there.
I know there's a couple years between the 2010 state championships she wins and the MLB call-up, so she probably did play minor ball and it just wasn't shown. But it was never touched on. A few of the players on the MLB team would have been her teammates in AAA, for instance, either fellow rookies or players doing rehab after injury. She should be more of a known commodity.
Also bugged by the tryout on the little league team scene. I've been coaching for nine years, and there's always been girls on my teams. There was a girl on my team when I played in the late 1970s. They're not weird outsiders (although they are outliers), and they sure don't need a trick pitch to do well. I've had slick fielders, strong hitters, fast runners, and hard throwers. The second best player on my son's team this year (12 & 13 year olds) was female, and almost every opponent we faced had at least one girl. They might have been skeptical of the level of her talent, but they wouldn't have been dismissive about giving her a chance. (and the coach wouldn't be the one at bat... sheesh.)
Still, worth checking out. Not enamoured of it, but I'll give it a chance.
but next time, if they have the out-of-town scores showing my Blue Jays losing to the Red Sox again, I'll reconsider.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 10:32 AM on September 24, 2016
But it was never touched on.
Yes...? Yes it was? Like, multiple times? Her friend on the team, the outfielder or whatever with the wife and kids she's friends with, played in the minors with her for nearly a year. They said that. They said that with words, it was in the script. They made multiple references to her playing in the minors and being called up, and then again references to her being sent back down. Back down to where? The minors. Where she had been playing. Which they mentioned. Multiple times.
posted by phunniemee at 11:51 AM on September 24, 2016 [11 favorites]
Yes...? Yes it was? Like, multiple times? Her friend on the team, the outfielder or whatever with the wife and kids she's friends with, played in the minors with her for nearly a year. They said that. They said that with words, it was in the script. They made multiple references to her playing in the minors and being called up, and then again references to her being sent back down. Back down to where? The minors. Where she had been playing. Which they mentioned. Multiple times.
posted by phunniemee at 11:51 AM on September 24, 2016 [11 favorites]
Anyway I LOVED THIS and am going to rabidly consume every episode. This could not be more my thing. BOB BALABAN IS FREAKING IN IT, of all people. I love baseball movies, I love the girl against the odds trope in general, I love all the predictable baseball movie tropes in particular, and this show has so many right off the bat. Love it.
posted by phunniemee at 11:54 AM on September 24, 2016
posted by phunniemee at 11:54 AM on September 24, 2016
Hold on, phunniemee, I don't think I quite got your point. Could you go over that again? It wasn't clear the eighty-seventh time. Something about the minors...?
sheesh
posted by GhostintheMachine at 1:48 PM on September 24, 2016
sheesh
posted by GhostintheMachine at 1:48 PM on September 24, 2016
Not to pile on but they did mention explicitly that she'd played five seasons in the minors.
I thought this had a pretty typical network show cheese factor - Bob Balaban's character was unnecessarily stereotypical and Ali Larter's was was officially too much entirely, so over the top I found it hard to believe Ginny would want her around. That said, I'm a big baseball fan and, to be honest, kind of a fan of network show cheesiness as well, and I found myself tearing up a bunch of times. It's like watching a combo of the end of Rudy and Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech at the DNC.
Plus I love Zack Morris. His little speech on the mound was great.
posted by something something at 2:03 PM on September 24, 2016
I thought this had a pretty typical network show cheese factor - Bob Balaban's character was unnecessarily stereotypical and Ali Larter's was was officially too much entirely, so over the top I found it hard to believe Ginny would want her around. That said, I'm a big baseball fan and, to be honest, kind of a fan of network show cheesiness as well, and I found myself tearing up a bunch of times. It's like watching a combo of the end of Rudy and Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech at the DNC.
Plus I love Zack Morris. His little speech on the mound was great.
posted by something something at 2:03 PM on September 24, 2016
Which doesn't invalidate my point. She would not have been an unknown commodity. She would have faced big league calibre hitters. She would have been better prepared. She would not have utterly freaked out in her first appearance. She would not have been surprised with a player slapping her butt (especially if he's known for it openly). And she would have been well scouted by the opposition before her call-up.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 2:47 PM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by GhostintheMachine at 2:47 PM on September 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
I don't know, I thought they did a decent job of conveying that the issue was the scale of the attention vs what she had dealt with in the minors. All the little girls in the stands, etc. Not to say she wouldn't have dealt with some level of that sort of thing from the beginning of her career, but the majors are a huge step above AAA, and few rookies make a seamless transition even if they're, you know, men.
Her manager did say something like, "we've done this before," to her during a pep talk.
posted by something something at 3:34 PM on September 24, 2016
Her manager did say something like, "we've done this before," to her during a pep talk.
posted by something something at 3:34 PM on September 24, 2016
Rookie getting psyched out during the big game is textbook sports movie trope.
posted by phunniemee at 3:45 PM on September 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 3:45 PM on September 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Dude, chill out. You can have whatever opinion you want, you just can't accuse the writers of skipping all mention of the minors when they did in fact more than mention it several times. It undermines the validity of your opinion when it appears to be based on misperceptions.
I don't entirely disagree with you on the idea that a bad day for an MLB pitcher wouldn't look as terrible as the pitching of Ginny's starting game, but I figure they were doing that for dramatic effect. As far as the ass slapping, I don't know that she was surprised, just that she was pushing back and trying to establish some boundaries. The way she shifted gears afterwards indicated to me that it wasn't her first time at that rodeo.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
I don't entirely disagree with you on the idea that a bad day for an MLB pitcher wouldn't look as terrible as the pitching of Ginny's starting game, but I figure they were doing that for dramatic effect. As far as the ass slapping, I don't know that she was surprised, just that she was pushing back and trying to establish some boundaries. The way she shifted gears afterwards indicated to me that it wasn't her first time at that rodeo.
posted by oh yeah! at 9:07 PM on September 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
The "five years in the minor leagues" thing isn't a throwaway detail. It means they gave her zero breaks. She earned every promotion the slow and tedious way, with sustained success. She signed out of high school then played a full year in rookie ball. She did well enough they moved her to Low A ball the next year. She did that for an entire year. Then High A ball. Another year. Then AA ball. Then another year. Then AAA ball. At no point was she given favored prospect status. At no point did they rush her through the system. She did it all the long way.
Her repertoire is pretty ideal. A knuckleballer would have made sense in some ways, but then, the knuckleball is so weird, it would have needed to practically be the focus of the show. Screwball makes sense. Also, a reliever might have made more sense, as pitchers who pitch shorter stints tend to add a mile or two per hour to their fastball. With her low velocity being an issue, that might have been a consideration. But then, for the tv show, we definitely want to see her hit, so starter it is. Though on second thought, since she's said to succeed with a long list of pitches, that might make more sense after all.
The GM introducing himself felt weird. Let's say you work for a billion dollar company for five years. You might have never met the CEO, but you probably don't need him to tell you who he is. Still... it helps from an exposition sense, so fair enough.
Putting her in that clubhouse attendant's room was horseshit. A clubhouse as new as the Padres would have several private physical therapy rooms. They could give her one of those to avoid the humiliating optic of her dressing next to cases of gum and sunflower seeds.
Also: SLAP ASS.
Also... average number of times per year a regular viewer of SportsCenter will see a rookie pitcher freak out and detonate in their first appearance? At least once or twice. Not uncommon at all. Also not uncommon for them to do well 1-4 times then suddenly seize up when the adrenaline wears off in a later appearance. Even the manager in the show said, "It's nothing we haven't seen a billion times before."
The part about her dad was jaw-dropping.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:55 AM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Her repertoire is pretty ideal. A knuckleballer would have made sense in some ways, but then, the knuckleball is so weird, it would have needed to practically be the focus of the show. Screwball makes sense. Also, a reliever might have made more sense, as pitchers who pitch shorter stints tend to add a mile or two per hour to their fastball. With her low velocity being an issue, that might have been a consideration. But then, for the tv show, we definitely want to see her hit, so starter it is. Though on second thought, since she's said to succeed with a long list of pitches, that might make more sense after all.
The GM introducing himself felt weird. Let's say you work for a billion dollar company for five years. You might have never met the CEO, but you probably don't need him to tell you who he is. Still... it helps from an exposition sense, so fair enough.
Putting her in that clubhouse attendant's room was horseshit. A clubhouse as new as the Padres would have several private physical therapy rooms. They could give her one of those to avoid the humiliating optic of her dressing next to cases of gum and sunflower seeds.
Also: SLAP ASS.
Also... average number of times per year a regular viewer of SportsCenter will see a rookie pitcher freak out and detonate in their first appearance? At least once or twice. Not uncommon at all. Also not uncommon for them to do well 1-4 times then suddenly seize up when the adrenaline wears off in a later appearance. Even the manager in the show said, "It's nothing we haven't seen a billion times before."
The part about her dad was jaw-dropping.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:55 AM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
but then, the knuckleball is so weird, it would have needed to practically be the focus of the show.
That's what I meant about it being just fine that they went with a screwball even if it requires more suspension of disbelief. If she were a knuckleballer every time they showed a game it would be "here comes a knuckleball to a random place!".
posted by Justinian at 4:25 PM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
That's what I meant about it being just fine that they went with a screwball even if it requires more suspension of disbelief. If she were a knuckleballer every time they showed a game it would be "here comes a knuckleball to a random place!".
posted by Justinian at 4:25 PM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
BOB BALABAN IS FREAKING IN IT, of all people.
I got five bucks that says he's going to end up trying to have her killed at the end of the season.
posted by Etrigan at 6:20 PM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I got five bucks that says he's going to end up trying to have her killed at the end of the season.
posted by Etrigan at 6:20 PM on September 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I love Michael Beach!!!!!! I thought the flashbacks were a little heavy handed, but I will follow the Padres to a heartbreaking loss in game 7 of the NLCS with the promise of a redemptive and triumphant second season! I hope Michelle Obama makes an appearance.
posted by ChuraChura at 7:58 PM on September 25, 2016
posted by ChuraChura at 7:58 PM on September 25, 2016
The dead dad thing is interesting to me. Were he alive, his yoda/svengali way of motivating and guiding Baker could have been seen as taking away from her own sense of agency. As it is, his "appearances" and motivational speeches not only don't detract from the strength of her personal resolve, but since they come from within her, they are more like proof of it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:12 AM on September 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:12 AM on September 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
The only thing I didn't like was the dead dad thing - I like Michael Beach, just would it have been so hard to have him be alive for her great success? and of course he dies right when she's like "we made it daddy!"
were the mom and brother around?
posted by zutalors! at 11:32 AM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
were the mom and brother around?
posted by zutalors! at 11:32 AM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Zutalors! - the brother is played by B.J. Britt in episode 2, I don't think he was in the pilot. And while I had been assuming that the woman next to ghost-Dad in the stands was Mama Baker, I think she was just an extra there for the Sixth Sense effect.
posted by oh yeah! at 12:13 PM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by oh yeah! at 12:13 PM on September 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
I just watched it again and got teary again when Ginny came off after her second start.
Vulture has a guide to women in baseball specifically noting Stacy Piagno (pitcher) and Kelsie Whitmore (left field) with the Sonoma Stompers, who also fielded the first openly gay pro baseball player (Sean Conroy -- who came out on pride night with the support of his teammates). "They will be the first players on a professional co-ed baseball team since Eri Yoshida pitched in the Golden Baseball League in 2010. Before Yoshida, Ila Borders pitched in a minor league game in 1997, and Toni Stone, Mamie Johnson and Constance Morgan played with the Negro Leagues in the '50s."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:20 PM on October 3, 2016
Vulture has a guide to women in baseball specifically noting Stacy Piagno (pitcher) and Kelsie Whitmore (left field) with the Sonoma Stompers, who also fielded the first openly gay pro baseball player (Sean Conroy -- who came out on pride night with the support of his teammates). "They will be the first players on a professional co-ed baseball team since Eri Yoshida pitched in the Golden Baseball League in 2010. Before Yoshida, Ila Borders pitched in a minor league game in 1997, and Toni Stone, Mamie Johnson and Constance Morgan played with the Negro Leagues in the '50s."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:20 PM on October 3, 2016
Also bugged by the tryout on the little league team scene. I've been coaching for nine years, and there's always been girls on my teams. There was a girl on my team when I played in the late 1970s. They're not weird outsiders (although they are outliers), and they sure don't need a trick pitch to do well. I've had slick fielders, strong hitters, fast runners, and hard throwers. The second best player on my son's team this year (12 & 13 year olds) was female, and almost every opponent we faced had at least one girl. They might have been skeptical of the level of her talent, but they wouldn't have been dismissive about giving her a chance.
We were seeing 13 or 14 year old Ginny trying out, though, with similar-aged peers. Maybe Pony League, travel, could be JV. That's exactly the age when girls are pushed out of baseball and/or converted to softball. Participation numbers for girls in baseball fall off a cliff at 14. A lot of coaches suddenly get really dismissive of girls at that point, because the diamond gets bigger and most of the boys have entered puberty and gotten a boost to their upper-body strength. The show definitely takes artistic liberties, and I think it sometimes over explains basic baseball stuff, but that detail was unfortunately exactly perfect and incredibly relatable to the girls who have been converted by fiat in high school.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 5:08 PM on December 4, 2016
We were seeing 13 or 14 year old Ginny trying out, though, with similar-aged peers. Maybe Pony League, travel, could be JV. That's exactly the age when girls are pushed out of baseball and/or converted to softball. Participation numbers for girls in baseball fall off a cliff at 14. A lot of coaches suddenly get really dismissive of girls at that point, because the diamond gets bigger and most of the boys have entered puberty and gotten a boost to their upper-body strength. The show definitely takes artistic liberties, and I think it sometimes over explains basic baseball stuff, but that detail was unfortunately exactly perfect and incredibly relatable to the girls who have been converted by fiat in high school.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 5:08 PM on December 4, 2016
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Someone, I don't remember who, told me about this nearly a year ago and I was waiting and waiting and then eventually forgot about it...and now it's here!
Totally watching this when I get home. Fictional baseball might be my favorite genre.
posted by phunniemee at 8:53 AM on September 23, 2016 [1 favorite]