‘Brockmire’ not quite the majors
In the new IFC comedy series “Brockmire,” Hank Azaria plays a colorful baseball play-by-play announcer Jim Brockmire, who has a Vin Scully gift for description.
One day, while calling a major-league game in Kansas City, his abilities and anger get the better of him. With the microphone live and drink in hand, he details the ins and outs of an orgy he had walked in on with his wife at the center of it.
During his public apology his bitterness only makes things worse. Brockmire then disappears, calling whatever sporting events throughout the world, including cock fights in the Philippines, when he is lured back to the U.S.
Because he doesn’t use the internet, Brockmire doesn’t realize how much of legend his tirades have become. Some of his descriptive phrases have even become slang.
For some reason, though, Jules (Amanda Peet), the owner of the Morristown Frackers, a very minor league ball team in the Rust Belt, wants Brockmire to call their games – not on radio
but over the PA system.
Turns out, Jules has a balloon payment on a loan she has taken out to buy the club unless the awful team finishes above .500. The Frackers include a 400-pound former competitive eater in their lineup as well an aging ex-majorleaguer who walks to the plate to hit while smoking.
“Brockmire” then pivots on a couple of strange points, including a plot by the natural-gas company to demolish the stadium for a waste-water pit and sex as a necessity for a winning streak.
The series was born out of an episode of the Funny or Die web-series “Gamechangers,” and “Brockmire” feels a bit thin sometimes. Azaria is solid as the self-absorbed announcer who occasionally likes to describes his own life out loud, keeping him from being an annoying jerk. Peet is good, despite the fact that her character is more mystery than defined.
Not exactly a hit, “Brockmire” is something of a middle of the summer ball meandering toward the end with some occasional moments of fun.