- The Baseball Bunch
infobox television
show_name = The Baseball Bunch
caption =
format =Sports
runtime = 30 minutes
creator =Major League Baseball
starring =Johnny Bench Tommy Lasorda The San Diego Chicken
country = USA
network =Syndicated
first_aired =March 21 1982
last_aired =January 1 1985
num_seasons = 3
num_episodes =
imdb_id = 355065
tv_com_id= 34784|"The Baseball Bunch" was a syndicated television show hosted by
Johnny Bench that ran fromMarch 21 , 1982 untilJanuary 1 , 1985. "The Baseball Bunch" was shown nationally on WTBS at 7 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday mornings.Format
The show ran thirty minutes and featured children chosen from the
Tucson, Arizona Little League. Each show was divided into two halves. The first half featured a current or former major league player demonstrating a baseball fundamental to the children as well as their sometimes humorous attempts to imitate the star. The second half featured a skit called "The Dugout Wizard" (played byTommy Lasorda ) who taught a second baseball fundamental (for example, use two hands to catch a fly ball). This second instructional unit was usually accompanied by a music video (then agenre in its embryonic stage) that showed players either performing the act or failing at it. Another star of the show wasThe San Diego Chicken .Notable guest stars
Numerous major leaguers made appearance on "The Baseball Bunch", including
Bucky Dent ,Tug McGraw ,Bruce Sutter ,Keith Hernandez ,Jim Rice ,Frank Robinson ,Mike Schmidt ,Pete Rose (who appeared twice),Andre Dawson ,Cal Ripken, Jr. ,Ted Williams ,Ken Singleton ,Dan Quisenberry ,Graig Nettles ,Rick Dempsey ,Tom Seaver ,Joe Morgan andOzzie Smith .upporting cast
The following persons were featured the first two seasons of "The Baseball Bunch".
*Stacy Blythe as Michelle
*Linda Coslett as Kate
*Lance Crawford as Ozzie
*Hurst Dornan as Harold
*Jared Holland as Sam
*Erik Lee as Rick
*Danny Santacruz as Louie
*Eddy Tonai as Freddie
*Tom McCabe as AndyIn later seasons, other appearances were made by:
*Tom Cribe as Billy
*John Fordney as Sherman (who replaced Hurst Dornan)Trivia
*According to the
Jump the Shark website, Jared Holland attendedKansas State University and was a good debater. The same article claims Holland later committedsuicide .
*Yankees outfielderLou Piniella 's playing career was ended in 1984 when he injured his rotator cuff on the show while being pitched to byThe San Diego Chicken . However, Ted Giannoulas, the man inside the Chicken suit, in a 2007 podcast interview said the Piniella story was a "really big fable": "I read that on something called Wikipedia and I couldn't believe it. I laughed out loud. Lou Piniella was never injured in the making of The Baseball Bunch."External links
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* [http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/baseball-bunch-general-comments/161 Jump The Shark - The Baseball Bunch]
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