Hardball

Hardball was one of those replacement series that never got off of the ground and was shown the door pretty much before it had debuted. There are so many things going against sports-fiction based TV comedy series that it is not surprising that few survive. it was a good series. Dann Florek of Law and Order SVU fame was the manager of the baseball team -- the Pioneers. the team owner was Rose Marie - a watered down Marge Shott. Because the team did not play well, the main conflict was between the two team mascots. The marketing department's mascot, the Pied Pioneer, a dancing mime dressed up like Davy Crocket, and HARDBALL, a large baseball-head who was the fan's favorite. Long before the day of the Rally Monkey, when the team was down, the call would go to bullpen for not only a relief pitcher, but for Hardball, to do his thing to rally the fans -- by going into the stands and beating the stuffing out of the Pied Pioneer to the raucous cheers of the fans. The only thing I can remember about every episode was in that in EVERY inevitable locker room scene before or after the game, Florek would kick Hardball in the rump and say, "Get out of my way you stitch-headed freak." I give it a 9 out of ten because it gave me what I EXPECTED out of your basic baseball based half hour broadcast network comedy.