Struggling baseball team, The Pioneers – a minor team in the major leagues – is owned by Mitzi Balzer (Rose Marie), a bitchy widow who hates most of the members of the team.
Dave Logan (Bruce Greenwood) is the wisecracking veteran pitcher, Mike Widmer (Mike Starr) is the out-of-shape catcher, and Ernest “Happy” Talbot (Dann Florek) is the dour no-nonsense team manager who served 23 years in the minor leagues.
Energetic second baseman Arnold Nixon (Phill Lewis) is struggling with financial problems, while cocky centre-fielder Frank Valente (Joe Rogan) has delusions of grandeur. Lloyd LaCombe (Chris Browning) is the rookie pitcher with potential but no consistency.
Lee Emory is the perky novice publicity manager (Alexandra Wentworth), and the team have a mascot known as “Hardball” dressed in the team uniform with a mean-looking baseball for a head in a coonskin hat.
Originally titled Bullpen, the FOX series was based on the motion picture Major League and was cancelled after seven episodes after it premiered during a national baseball strike and just couldn’t find an audience, despite being sandwiched between The Simpsons and Married . . . With Children.
Not to be confused with the 1989 cop show of the same name, starring John Ashton and Joe “Kaz” Kaczierowski.
Dave Logan
Bruce Greenwood Mike Widmer
Mike Starr Lee Emory
Alexandra Wentworth Ernest ‘Happy’ Talbot
Dann Florek Frank Valente
Joe Rogan Arnold Nixon
Phill Lewis Brad Coolidge
Steve Hytner Lloyd LaCombe
Chris Browning Mitzi Balzer
Rose Marie
Episodes
Pilot | Mike’s Release | The Butt Winnick Story | Whose Strike Is It Anyway? | Frank Buys an Island, Mike Pays the Price | Lee’s Bad, Bad Day | My Name Is Hard B. | See Spot Rum | The Rookie, the Batgirl, and the Coach and His Wife
Energetic second baseman Arnold Nixon (Phill Lewis) is struggling with financial problems, while cocky centre-fielder Frank Valente (Joe Rogan) has delusions of grandeur. Lloyd LaCombe (Chris Browning) is the rookie pitcher with potential but no consistency.
