The Baseball Bunch facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Baseball Bunch
Genre	Educational, sports, comedy
Starring	Johnny Bench Tommy Lasorda The San Diego Chicken
Opening theme	"The Baseball Bunch"
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
Production
Executive producer(s)	Geoff Belinfante Larry Parker
Producer(s)	Rich Domich Jody Shapiro Gary Cohen
Production location(s)	Tucson, Arizona
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Major League Baseball Productions
Release
Original network	Syndicated
Picture format	Color
Original release	Pilot / Special August 23, 1980 Series May 2, 1981 – Fall 1985

The Baseball Bunch is an American educational children's television series that originally aired in broadcast syndication from August 23, 1980 through the fall of 1985. Produced by Major League Baseball Productions, the series was a 30-minute baseball-themed program airing on Saturday mornings, which featured a combination of comedy sketches and Major League guest-stars, intended to provide instructional tips to Little League aged children.

Throughout its five-season run, the series starred Johnny Bench, Tommy Lasorda and The Famous San Diego Chicken alongside a group of eight children (boys and girls ranging in age from 8–14) as "The Bunch".

Premise

Season 3 cast of The Baseball Bunch

The series starred Johnny Bench as the coach to a fictional baseball team of eight little league aged children known as "The Baseball Bunch". The ninth team-member was "The San Diego Chicken" (played by Ted Giannoulas) who served as a comic foil to Bench as he would attempt to mentor the children. Each episode was divided into two segments. The first segment featured a current or former Major League player demonstrating a baseball fundamental to the children (e.g., learning to pitch within a hitters' strike zone) as well as the children's sometimes humorous attempts to imitate the star. The Major League guest-stars would also serve to steer the children clear of what not to do (e.g., explaining why a growing child should not attempt to throw a curve ball). The second segment featured a skit with "The Dugout Wizard" (played by Tommy Lasorda), a mystical turban wearing "Swami" character who taught a second baseball fundamental (e.g., how to catch a fly ball). This second instructional segment was often accompanied by a music video (a genre then in its embryonic stage), composed of clips of Major League players either performing the act or failing at it-for instance, the episode which featured knuckleballer Phil Niekro mentions how difficult a knuckleball can be to catch and showed several clips of frustrated catchers trying to do so. In addition to the technical fundamentals of the game, the series would also touch on some of the psychological challenges youngsters face, including addressing performance anxieties (an adolescent boy's fears of not being "good enough" before a big game) and sportsmanship (a "little league father" criticizing his son unmercifully from the sidelines gently being urged to relax and enjoy the game).

The Bunch

Throughout the show's five-season run, the series featured a rotating cast of eight children who starred as "The Bunch", usually ranging in age from eight to fourteen. As the youngsters entered adolescence and outgrew their roles, they would be replaced by younger children closer in age to the target audience. Linda Coslett ("Kate", season 1) said of her time on the series, "I was eleven (when the show started). I turned twelve actually during the month of February, during the filming, and I was on (the show) for one year. [...] As you know, women get mature during those years and (by the second season) I didn't look like a little girl anymore, so they wanted to go with somebody that was younger looking." Erik Lee ("Rick", seasons 1–4) said of his run on the series, "I was all of twelve years old when I started with The Baseball Bunch. I stayed with The Bunch for four incredible years, until my voice changed and I was taller than Johnny Bench." With a rotating cast that included new children every season, only three youngsters appeared as "Bunch" team-members for all five seasons; Stacy Blythe ("Michelle"), Jared Holland ("Sam") and Danny Santa Cruz ("Louie", sometimes credited as "Luis"). The children who appeared as "The Bunch" team-members at one time or another during the show's five-season run are, in alphabetical order:

Guest stars

With the rare exception of the occasional "Best Of" episode (which were composed of clips of previous episodes), most every episode featured a well-known guest-star from the Major Leagues brought in to mentor the children in their particular field of expertise and included many future Hall of Famers. Some of the Major League guest-stars to appear on the series include, in alphabetical order:

Broadcasting

The Baseball Bunch aired in broadcast syndication, with local stations carrying the original run of the series from the spring of 1981 through the fall of 1985. During this time, the series also aired nationally on the basic cable network WTBS and later, in reruns on ESPN.

Home video

After the series' original run ended in the Fall of 1985, Scholastic-Lorimar, along with the show's long-time sponsor Kool-Aid, released three one-hour "Best Of" VHS tapes in April 1986. Each tape was dedicated to a particular aspect of the game; "Pitching", "Hitting" and "Fielding", and compiled segments of various episodes from all five seasons. Hosted by Johnny Bench and the only three children to appear on all five seasons of the series; Stacy Blythe as "Michelle", Jared Holland as "Sam" and Danny Santa Cruz as "Louie", the three tapes also included new "Drill" segments, in which Bench would recommend basic drills young viewer's could use to improve their game, while the three children (by that time, teens) demonstrated each exercise. As compilations of previous episodes, no segments of Lasorda as "The Dugout Wizard" were included on the videos, instead, the tapes focused exclusively on segments which had featured The Bunch with Major League guest-stars. The tapes also did not include the show's well-known "The Baseball Bunch" theme song, replacing the opening and closing theme with an alternate instrumental version of the music.

Revival series

Television producer, Steve Church produced a local, St Louis market version of The Baseball Bunch with the St. Louis Cardinals and then team President, Mark Lamping . Church felt a modern-day version of the series could work and, in 2002 Church launched production of "The Cardinals Kids Club", which still airs on Fox Sports Midwest. Several years later Church went on to produce and directed an 8-minute pilot for a new national version of the series for ESPN. The unaired pilot was filmed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, California starred Harold Reynolds as the mentor and Philadelphia Phillies mascot The Phillie Phanatic, as well as cameo appearances by Jimmy Kimmel, J. K. Simmons, Roy Firestone, Scott Rolen, José Lima, Fernando Valenzuela and Bobcat Goldthwait. However, ESPN eventually "shelved" the project

Church began development on another Baseball Bunch, this time under a production shingle CG Entertainment Partners with actor John Goodman, This re-boot still has an MLB star as host and Phillie Phanatic, alongside a new cast of kids. In describing his vision for the premise of the show, Church stated "It's more scripted (oriented), (although) we're still going to have that Big League tip as the narrative in there. The host's friends come on the show and teach the kids how to play the game. Those elements will still be there." (2016) WME/IMG Sports went into contract with Church and his agent Jason Dravis, President of The Dravis Agency in Studio City, California, (properties include Hunger Games, Hugo) the IMG development deal expired. Development is underway for the reboot of the Baseball Bunch with Church and Turner Sports. Jimmy Rollins is rumored to host, along with the Phillie Phanatic. Sources close to the project say Turner Sports sees the Baseball Bunch Series as a launch to expand its ancillary programming of its new MLB broadcast deal.