Throwing a screwball through glass ceiling
“Pitch,” a new Fox drama, is about the thoroughly modern idea that a woman could pitch for a majorleague baseball team. It says a lot about how far we’ve come in recent years that the notion doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.
The show itself, premiering Thursday, Sept. 22, has a pleasantly old-fashioned feel to it — almost like one of those ’40s films about someone overcoming impossible odds through commitment, hard work and selfconfidence. There are no women playing for an MLB team — yet. Nonetheless, it takes virtually no time for us to suspend disbelief that Ginny Baker (Kylie
Bunbury, “Twisted”) can break this glass ceiling.
Ginny shows aptitude for baseball at an early age. We see her dad, Bill (Michael Beach, “Third Watch”), trying to get her brother interested in playing ball in a flashback to when both children were young. Her brother has no interest, but Ginny does, and she’s already got an arm.
Bill becomes a sports dad, pushing Ginny ever forward through youth baseball, high school ball and amateur teams as she smashes one obstacle after another with her patented screwball. Each time Ginny succeeds, she tells her dad, “We did it,” and he invariably answers, “Not yet.”
Although the series, created by Dan Fogelman and Rick Singer, is officially sanctioned by MLB, it attempts an honest and all-too-likely depiction of the kind of sexism and resentment the real first female player will encounter.
After getting signed by the San Diego Padres, Ginny is taunted by other players as soon as she shows up in the locker room. She’s especially resented by catcher Mike Lawson (Mark-Paul Gosselaar, “Franklin and Bash”), until he realizes that his own success is tied to Ginny’s.
Team owner Frank (Bob Balaban, “Show Me a Hero”) is determined that Ginny will succeed, not necessarily because he believes in equality but because he gets that her success will help the team’s attendance. Oily team president Oscar (Mark Consuelos, “Queen of the South”) is married but that doesn’t stop him from hitting on Ginny until she puts him in his place.
Just like one of those inspiring ’40s films, Ginny screws up her first time on the mound. It’s a formula: We always appreciate a hero or heroine’s eventual success if they flop the first time out.
Bunbury is great and the rest of the cast is solid, although the hair and makeup people must have drained the La Brea tar pits to get Gosselaar’s hair to look so hilariously black. Ali Larter plays a PR manager who knows nothing about baseball, and Tim Jo plays Eliot, the social media manager, because of course you hire an Asian American actor for any job involving the Internet. I’m glad Jo got the part, though: He’s good.
The show’s downside is that it’s virtually an infomercial for Fox Sports. If the Fox Sports logo isn’t flashing on the screen between actual scenes, we are subjected to Joe Buck and John Smoltz playing themselves and getting almost as much air time as some of the real actors. Apparently, other Fox sports commentators are warming up in the bullpen for future episodes. It’s too much, and it throws the show’s balance off.
But if Ginny Baker can overcome prejudice, chauvinism and overactive male hormones in the locker room, she stands a good chance of overcoming the excessive product placement in the show. Maybe Joe Buck has finally met his match. We can only hope.