by Emily Maesar, Staff Writer

When Pitch premiered on FOX in September of 2016 (a full five years ago), it did so next to co-creator Dan Fogelman’s other series, which was airing on NBC: This Is Us. The pilots for both shows aired days apart and, despite being on different networks and covering different subjects, they’re both pretty distinctly Dan Fogelman shows. Which is why it’s deeply unfortunate, at least to me, that Pitch seems to live in the shadow of This Is Us. Especially, when the former was a much more interesting and emotionally complex exploration of gender, race, and relationships. 

And here is where I should say that I really liked the start of This Is Us. I was right there with 8+ million people who watched week-to-week during season one. So, I don’t think it’s approach to the family melodrama was a bad one or anything. Plus, there’s no accounting for the conversations it likely started. It was an empathy machine… until it kind of wasn’t. At some point the series simply became too traumatic for me, and a lot of my friends, to watch. Not quite “trauma porn,” but teetering on a razor’s edge - ready to fall at any moment.

Which is why it’s entirely possible that Pitch might have fallen into that, too, if it had been given more seasons. Except? I simply don’t think it would have. See, the differences between the two shows is that while This Is Us is a flashback heavy family melodrama, Pitch is a sports dramedy, with a medium amount of flashbacks. They’re both ensembles, but Pitch has a very distinct leading character in Kylie Bunbury’s Ginny Baker. Like, with the exception of one episode, every flashback is about Ginny. So, while other characters like Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s Mike Lawson, Mark Consuelos’s Oscar Arguella, or Ali Larter’s Amelia Slater get their arcs and defining moments - Ginny is unequivocally the star.

And that alone is probably the reason I don’t think Pitch would have gone the way that Fogelman’s other series has. However, I’d also argue that the way the series is anchored in reality - that it kind of has to be because of the subject and the deals surrounding that subject - means that the ways the show could go off the rails are masterfully different than a series like This Is Us. But speculating how the series might have failed me, and many other people, is simply not useful - especially not when the ten episodes we actually got are basically perfect. 

Now, I realize that I haven’t really talked about the series on it’s own, just how it relates to another show. So, what’s Pitch about? Pitch is the story of Ginny Baker. She’s the first woman to get called up to the Majors to pitch professionally for baseball. She’s doing so on the Padres, in San Diego. You’ve got Ali Larter playing her manager, Mark Consuelos playing the Padres’ general manager, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar playing the captain of the Padres, a seasoned veteran catcher who Ginny has always looked up to. 

The gender and race politics at play as Ginny enters the League are fully on display and the way the series deals out backstory is always a punch in the gut. Except, it never feels cheap or purposefully painful. Every moment is something that makes sense for where we see the character now, and as a continuation of that character (almost always Ginny) and their present arc.

The other stuff that I think works amazingly well is the baseball stuff. Obviously, it’s a big part of the show, since it’s a sports dramedy, but the extremely detailed aspects of MLB actually make the show really interesting. The episode about the trade deadline, the no hitter storyline in the finale, and all the ins and outs of the front office are things that I didn’t think I’d love… but they’re some of the most compelling television I’ve seen in the last five years. 

Also… everybody, and I do mean everybody, is absolutely smoking hot. So, the romantic and sexual chemistry? Man, I know everybody went feral over that Getty Images video of Oscar Issac and Jessica Chastain (guilty as charged), and that the hot take, after everybody got their jaws off the floor, was about how we don’t have enough romantic relationships with chemistry in media these days. And I think that’s pretty true. Like, a lot of casting is based on name or face recognition and what fanbase it can bring to the table. For better and for worse. 

But back in 2016, there were still shows that had absolutely palpable romantic chemistry and Pitch? It was one of them. I cannot tell you what even the slightest mention that Ginny had Mike’s poster on her wall does to me! Even five years later, the absolute undeniability of those two characters is completely batshit. And I know that if Pitch had gotten to go on, Ginny and Mike would have been the ultimate “Will They, Won’t They?” couple, especially given how the season (and, by proxy, series) ends. 

And, not to be exactly the person I am, I just wanna take a quick look at the fandom numbers to back up that suspicion. As it currently stands, This Is Us is still on air. It’s got one season left, but has been going over the last five years with over 80 episodes. On Archive of Our Own (AO3), a very popular fanfiction website, This Is Us has a grand total of 92 fanworks. Now, that’s not bad for a network show that doesn’t really have any queer shipability, or any genre elements (two of the biggest factors in modern fanfiction). But Pitch on the other hand, which also doesn’t have any real queer shipability or genre elements, has just over 800 fanfics on AO3. Which, again, is not a lot compared to other shows - but I think the fact that over 700 of those are Ginny/Mike really speaks to the fandom’s focus. And had the series been given a few more seasons, then it would have popped off in a truly big way. Or… if it had been on a different network entirely. 

Like, I am of the opinion that if Pitch had been on something like HBO, then the extremely niche and inside baseball (pun intended) aspects that make the show so wonderful, but ultimately alienating to a larger, commercial audience, would have been an asset. Think about shows like Succession, which have never broken a million viewers per episode, but remains one of HBO’s most successful shows. Or even Westworld, which allows the genre of its material to exist and take the audience with it - understand be damned, at least for a little while. So, there are two major tragedies of Pitch because of this. The first, is that it was up against Thursday Night Football on CBS, a David and Goliath situation where David can never win. And second, is that Pitch could only ever exist on FOX, given the network’s connection to Major League Baseball.

And believe me that the deal Pitch had with the MLB - the one to use likenesses and logos and fields - gave the series, as short-lived as it was, a kind of authenticity that cannot be understated. It might also never be replicated again, in all honesty, given a) the weird nature of making television in the first place and b) the recent Disney acquisition of FOX (but not FOX Sports) that happened since the show aired. Everything’s a bit too weird to make something like Pitch again. As depressing as that thought might be.

The other thing that I’ll always love Pitch for is that, as someone who was only ever into hockey (and just barely), the show made me into a baseball fan. I’d always had some passing interest in the Cubs and (ironically) the Padres hold a special place in the mythology of my parents, but Pitch made me interested in the sport in a way I’d never thought was actually possible. Not to say that I understand baseball, but it does a great job at showcasing the drama inherent in the sport. It has a sort of Aaron Sorkin or Adam McKay quality in that way, which I think really works to the show’s advantage.

So, because Pitch made me a fan of baseball in a way I hadn’t been before, and I had this passing interest in the Cubs already, the year Pitch aired… I actually paid attention to the World Series. And what will always be wild to me is that if Mike Lawson had actually let the deal go through, and let himself be traded to the Cubs, then he literally would have gotten the ring he so badly wanted before he retired. A thought I’ll never let go of, to be completely honest. Absolute madness! Especially with the joke-y references to the Cubs never breaking their curse, which were shot after the World Series win as a nod to the audience. 

And then, of course, we can’t really talk about the ending of Pitch without talking about Ginny’s injury. Modeled after an injury the show’s pitching coach and former MLB relief pitcher Gregg Olson suffered from, Ginny’s story ends with her getting into an MRI machine - her future uncertain. Pitch’s showrunner, Kevin Falls talked to The Hollywood Reporter before the fate of the show had been handed down, and in that piece he was asked if they’d be satisfied if the finale of season one had to serve as the series finale. “No,” was his very direct answer, which is painful in retrospect. They had apparently talked about writing and shooting something that might serve as a more satisfying series finale, but didn’t want to make anyone’s choice easier by having it in the bag. I totally get that choice, but oof! What an absolute bummer of an ending. 

So, I rewatched Pitch to write this retrospective and it remains one of the best shows in the last five years. The twists and turns are still gut wrenching. The comedy still lands. And the empathy and realism the series has about Ginny’s place in history? It still hits you right where it needs to. And it’s something that could have aged badly with the breakneck speed that social media and technology advances, but it’s only aged well. While Pitch might have almost no chance of being revived, I’m hopeful that its return to streaming (currently on Hulu) will bring more eyes to the series. And real or not, Ginny Baker made it to Cooperstown, and into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The assistant curator, another woman in baseball, Gabrielle Augustine made sure of it, according to ESPN.