!!SPOILER ALERT!!
Pitch, a new series focusing on the fictional first female pitcher in Major League Baseball, premiered Thursday, September 22nd on FOX. The show follows Ginny Baker, a 23-year-old woman from North Carolina known for her screwball pitch, and her rise to the Majors.
The series opened with Baker being escorted to the San Diego Padres’ stadium after she is called up from the Minors to be the starting pitcher for the team in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Baker steps out of the car and is greeted outside of the stadium by thousands of fans. The camera pans to one little girl holding a sign that reads, “I’m next.” The scene shifts to a flashback of Baker throwing her first baseball with her father.
We first see Baker as a calm, composed character who understands the situation at hand. She handles herself with the team’s general manager and owner with confidence and poise, and doesn’t let the Padres players’ comments about her being a woman get to her. But as the episode progresses, we come to witness Baker become overwhelmed. The pressure of being a role model and pleasing all of the young girls and women in the stands gets to Baker’s head. She throws 10 balls in a row, letting in one run in her first game. She requests to be taken out of the game and feels like she let everyone down. We see Baker’s father urge her to practice. The two go to the Padres’ stadium and Baker pitches to her father until she throws strikes.
After thinking she will be sent back down to the Minors due to her poor performance the first time on the pitcher’s mound, Baker gets word that she will be starting another game. As the Padres take on the San Francisco Giants and Baker throws two balls in a row in her second start, the catcher gives Baker a pep talk on the mound. Baker goes on to prove herself in the six-and-a-half innings she pitches, and when she is taken out of the game, she receives massive applause from the crowd as she tips her hat.
The biggest shocker of the episode was not when she redeemed herself, but when we find out that six years earlier, her father passed away in a car crash (talk about throwing us a curveball). Baker was not pitching to her father after her first Major League game, she was pitching to the backstop of the bullpen.
It seems that Baker is not trying to prove herself to the millions of fans watching her, or to her teammates or competition. It seems that Baker is trying to prove herself to her father, seeking his approval.
This series looks to be emotional, inspirational, and powerful. It is going to be the empowering to young girls and women of all ages because it shows that women can do anything.
Bless FOX for pitching us this series (get it?).