I don’t have many expectations for Pitch. FOX has been buying ads during MLB.tv inning breaks that feature its baseball broadcasting talent. That makes me immediately suspicious that it simply made up a show to draw eyes to remind that it has the MLB post season.
Given the way ratings suffered the past several seasons, that might not be a bad strategy. Any new TV show has a pretty good chance of failing miserably, so why not spend your pilot money on something that could boost your (very, very expensive) live sports programming?
Okay, let’s see how this goes.
(The Exorcist is a new show? I’m concerned that TV is spiraling down the movie industry’s rat hole of recycled ideas. Let’s not.)
Of course the show about the first female player in baseball history starts with a shot of her legs getting out of bed. Come on, try a little bit here.
Greeting cards from Ellen and Hillary Clinton, product placement from Callaway and Nike. Headphones that don’t say beats but sure look like them. Maybe I was too narrow in what I thought FOX wanted to promote.
Hey it’s Colin Cowherd with a hot take.
It took three minutes for the main character to speak.
You know who would have been great in this dad role? My guy Shemar Moore. He might not be old enough though.
The Padres GM has made an appearance. In real life he is on a one-month suspension for hiding injury records.
If we get the same stereotypical crap here that we got from the military guy in Designated Survivor. Whether it’s players or this dreadful agent/publicist character or whatever it’s gonna get old. Fast.
The number 43 is a great touch.
While we’re here, can we talk about the Padres uniforms?
Actually, Kim Kardashian is very talented. I will go to bat on this.
Hey they’re gonna play the Dodgers! This is great!
What is this live video thing? Is it part of the show or a commercial? Oh god it’s a Kohls commercial. This is hot garbage. And it might be the future of TV.
One thing to think about here is the main character is an athlete, so she’s going to act like an athlete. The public version of most athletes would make a terrible TV character, so that’s something to keep in mind. We’ll have to draw a distinction between how the character is written when she’s in “athlete mode” and when she’s not.
But one thing that doesn’t have to be acting is the TV broadcast characters. They should just be able to do their thing, right? That’s what FOX hired them for! I don’t think Joe Buck did. Reminder: I love Joe Buck.
Couldn’t they have cast a southpaw? 🙂
Where have I seen this kid actress? I she the one in Mistresses? I’ll have to look it up. I looked it up. She is. She’s outstanding on Mistresses – well-written and well acted.
Let’s get back to the product placement issue. That’s what we’re used to in sports now. You can’t look anywhere without a logo. So I guess it adds some realism. And this George Clooney commercial about a coffee maker? That was filmed at the Warner Bros. lot.
Oh come on you can’t use real Dodgers? Actually I bet FOX would have gotten way more promotion if it had been able to get Vin Scully. Not only would it be awesome, but Vin was friends with Jackie Robinson so it would be fitting.
Hey this is like watching the Twins pitch! Sorry that was uncalled for. The Twins are worse.
About the decision to have her get off to a dreadful start. From a story perspective, it’s good emotion. It makes me identify with the character. It’s also realistic. Not every debut is Rob Segedin. Wait wasn’t she a starter? You don’t take your starter out that quick. Hey this is a TV show not real life, Watterson.
Remember Matt Fox? Not the actor, Matt Fox the guy the Twins called up in September during a pennant race.
This scene in the hotel is what we should judge the Ginny character by, not the athlete stuff. And it’s good.
He’s right about her being this catcher’s legacy. On and off the field.
Joe Buck can be sarcastic at times, but he is way too professional to ever make a joke like that.
If she beats the Giants you know Pitch is committed to realism.
OMG I just realized the catcher is Zach Morris. WTF. I feel like my life has come full circle. I’m blogging about a show where Zach Morris is a baseball player.
As with every Hollywood production about sports, they managed to find actors with next to no actual athletic ability.
Have you ever held a sparkling white official Rawlings baseball? It’s a beautiful thing. From a pitching perspective, if her fastball tops out in the upper 80s isn’t she basically a screwball version of a knuckleballer.
If this were real life and the manager slapped her butt we’d have a national controversy the likes of which would drive us all off social media forever.
We can add the owner to the list of stereotypical characters.
This better get over, it’s almost time for Dodger baseball.
Hey wait. I approve of what has happened here.
The Wandering Lostie 