Fox has ordered a pilot for a new television hour-long drama titled Pitch. Kylie Bunbury (The Sitter, Twisted, Under the Dome) has been cast to start in the series that focuses on a young female pitcher who defies the odds and becomes the first woman to play in the major leagues. It’s unclear if Major League Baseball will have any role in the drama, however it is worth noting that Fox is also the home of the All-Star game, several playoff series, and the World Series.
There has never been a woman who has played in the big leagues. Eleanor Engle was signed by the Harrisburg Senators in 1952, but the team’s manager opposed her playing and her contract was subsequently canceled. In the 1990s, the Colorado Silver Bullets were revived, becoming the first all-female baseball team since the folding of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League — featured in A League of Their Own — in the ’50s. The team — sponsored by Coors Brewing Co. — lasted four seasons of play, taking on men’s all-star amateur and semi-pro teams.
Of course this is only a pilot, and many pilots never see the light of day, this one is worth following. It would be pretty interesting to see professional baseball be represented on the small screen.
Fan Interference 
I look forward to the male executives and writers bringing us subtle scenes of our heroine in yoga pants fighting to finish sprints among a pack of men in loose athletic shorts. Oh, and I hope there’s a dramatic scene where the GM dances around asking her to grow out her “butch” haircut so she looks more feminine for fans and the end of the season cliffhanger where — whew! — we discover she is thankfully hetero and gets an endorsement deal from Revlon!
Still, great casting. I mean, she looks more athletic than the new Wonder Woman, even if not like the women in the Body Issue…
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Yep. I guess it is ballsy of them to try this because it could easily come off as pandering, condescending, or gimmicky. If they can treat it like a true story and give the characters depth and tackle real issues, it could be a good show….but you KNOW there is going to be a few marginal characters that are the designated misogynists (“she’s taking some guy’s job!”) that will be won over by her pluck or spunk as if now you should stop hating those characters because they are magically not dicks anymore….and somehow, they’ll manage to go through that story line without anything resembling true sexism in that environment.
There are just so many lazy and trite story possibilities….that avoiding them seems almost impossible…especially for network TV.
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Taking a quick look at the IMDB pages of the two guys that article says will write the pilot…Dan Fogelman and Rick Singer…it’s impossible to imagine a world in which they don’t do the most lazy and trite shit you can think of, because their resumés are absolutely packed with lazy and trite shit.
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Well. That is disappointing. Unsurprising, but disappointing.
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“…however it is worth noting that Fox is also the home of the All-Star game, several playoff series, and the World Series.”
Unfortunately, they are also the home of Joe Buck and Harold Reynolds.
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No longer! Harold and Verducci have been replaced by John Smoltz. Massive, massive improvement, even if we do still have to listen to Joe Buck.
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Hey, we watched a touching little Canadian film last night called Still Mine. It was good…despite the “aboots.”
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WTF are you talking aboot?
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Aboot you.
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I’m choking on my dinner.
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I’ll withhold judgement until I see the final product, but until then, I think it sucks.
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