BAY CITY BLUES: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
One in this dramatic series about the public and private lives of the members of The Bluebirds, a minor-league baseball team based in Bay City, California.
The Bluebirds come off of their latest loss and tensions are high amongst several team members. The team owner, Ray Holtz, confides in Joe Rohner that he plans to secretly replace one of the pitchers, Bobby Stang, with a talented up-and-coming rookie named Mickey Wagner. Another player, Rocky Padillo, overhears their conversation and tells Stang about it, vowing to help him keep his position. Yet another player, Frenchy Nuckles, initiates a bar-fight when he hears one of the patrons make a racially offensive remark about some of his teammates. He returns home and tells his wife Judy about the encounter, who chides him for giving in to his "dumb guy" tendencies. Meanwhile, in the room below them, player Terry St. Marie and his wife Cathy discuss Terry's habitual bed-wetting, which is beginning to have a serious impact on their relationship.
Padillo sets Wagner up on a date with a woman he has a crush on as part of a scheme. Meanwhile, Joe is offered to chance to become the manager of a college baseball team. As he contemplates this opportunity, he walks in on a lecture held by a woman named Sunny Hayward, who often attends games to watch Joe and is having marital difficulties. Nuckles works on improving his pitching and manages to perfect a spit-ball. He runs home and finds Judy with another man, much to his shock and disgust. Alone, she admits that she's been lonely due to Nuckles's lifestyle. However, the two of them manage to reconcile with each other.
Game day comes around and Wagner is nowhere to be found. He finally arrives, disheveled and still drunk from the previous night, announcing that he lost his virginity. Joe declares him unfit for play but Holtz gives him a cold shower and insists that he be allowed to pitch. The game begins and at first Wagner pitches exceptionally well, but he soon falters. Stang is called to the bullpen as Wagner vomits in his mitt. He is replaced by Stang, who pitches well. By the end of the game, the Bluebirds are down one run and have one man on base and two outs. Player Ozzie Peoples hits a home run at the last moment, catapulting the Bluebirds to victory. Joe confronts Wagner about his drinking problem and says he can always come to him. Holtz arrives and yells at Wagner for his performance. Holtz doesn't have enough money to pay the players this week and hopes to delay payday for a few days while he sells his shares of the team.
Wagner accuses Padillo of setting him up to ruin him for the game, but Padillo says he has only himself to blame. However, Wagner discovers he is being transferred to St. Louis, to the major leagues, instead of being fired. He is ecstatic at the news. Joe speaks to Max Clancy, the scout who sold Wagner to St. Louis, and they verbally spar. As Joe returns to his car, he finds Sunny inside waiting for him. She tells him that her husband is away and she'd like to go out with him, but Joe recounts a story from his rookie days when he was transferred to the major leagues and fell in with a woman who turned out to be Clancy's wife. This accounts for their enmity and his reluctance to pursue a relationship with Sunny. They kiss but he gets uncomfortable and she leaves, indicating that they may see each other again. Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Bell Atlantic Foundation, 1998.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: October 25, 1983 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:49:22
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:34169
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Baseball - Drama
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1983
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Steven Bochco … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Gregory Hoblit … Co-Executive Producer, Director
- Jeffrey Lewis … Supervising Producer, Created by, Writer
- Rick Wallace … Producer
- James Hart … Associate Producer
- Mike Post … Composer
- Michael Nouri … Cast, Joe Rohner
- Pat Corley … Cast, Ray Holtz
- Perry Lang … Cast, Frenchy Nuckles
- Michele Greene … Cast, Judy Nuckles
- Patrick Cassidy … Cast, Terry St. Marie
- Sharon Stone … Cast, Cathy St. Marie
- Dennis Franz … Cast, Angelo Carbone
- Ken Olin … Cast, Rocky Padillo
- Jeff McCracken … Cast, Vic Kresky
- Larry Flash Jenkins … Cast, Linwood Scott
- Tony Spiridakis … Cast, Lee Jacoby
- Mykel T. Williamson (See also: Mykelti Williamson) … Cast, Deejay Cunningham
- Peter Jurasik … Cast, Mitch Klein
- Marco Rodriguez … Cast, Bird
- Kelly Harmon … Cast, Sunny Hayward
- Bernie Casey … Cast, Ozzie Peoples
- Sheree North … Cast, Lynn Holtz
- John Karlen … Cast, Max Clancy
- Barry Tubb … Cast, Mickey Wagner
- E. Erich Anderson … Cast, Bobby Stang
- Kaz Garas … Cast, Wheeden
- Denise Galik … Cast, Wanda
- Kevin McCarthy … Cast, George Hayward
- Julius J. Carry III … Cast, Willie Henderson
- Art LaFleur … Cast, Umpire DeJacomo
- Eddie Velez … Cast, Pepe Garcia
- Winnie Gardner … Cast, Dancer
- Kevin Bash … Cast, Rod Matthews
- Steven Greenstein … Cast, Umpire Appley
- Chris Anastasio … Cast, Bartender
- Murray Staff … Cast, Bar Customer
- Gary Allen Poe … Cast, Cable TV Man
- Stephen Day … Cast, Announcer