In sports, there is drama and the press’ job is to bring that drama to life in words. Stan Freeman’s baseball drama, The Pitch, is about the press’ one job…to uncover the truth.
The Pitch focuses on the story of Vernon Peters (Reynolds Whalen), a pitcher for the New York Yankees. His only major league appearance was as a relief pitcher. He made one pitch for the Yankees, and he would never step on the mound again. His life was quickly shattered by divorce, homelessness, and alcoholism. It never turned around until his recent death.
Fast forward to today. Young reporter Mike Resnick (Julian Findlay) recently heard about the story of Vernon Peters and thought it should make a great book. He travels to Peters’ hometown, where he meets famed sports writer Roger Pennell (John Haag), who happened to have worked at Mike’s newspaper not so long ago. Hoping to get the scoop on Peters’ life, he visits Pennell only to have the door slammed in his face.
Persistence pays off for Mike as Roger agrees to speak with him. Excited about the opportunity, Mike’s publisher agrees to a book only if the novice writer can get a seasoned editor to work with him. Roger reluctantly agrees that it is not for the money but so he can control what information Mike includes in the book.
As the story plays out, there’s more to Roger and his relationship with Vernon than meets the eye. As Roger helps Mike with the book, Mike becomes increasingly frustrated with the “help” he’s been getting as Roger only wants Mike to focus on Vernon’s sports career and to stay the hell away from Vernon’s personal life.
“…made one pitch that lost the game for the Yankees, and he would never step on the mound again.”
The Pitch is the film adaptation of Stan Freeman’s original New England play. What I like about the story is that our lead characters have two competing goals: a seasoned writer trying to mentor a young protégé while keeping a secret buried, and a young writer, eager for the truth, determined to uncover what the veteran is hiding. Mike needs mentorship, while Roger needs to keep his secrets…well, secret. This dynamic held my attention and played itself through to its surprising end.
The Pitch comes across as a low-budget indie from the onset. Though Freeman’s stars in the film are the actors from his off-Broadway play, the translation from stage to screen has its challenges. I’ll just say it: The film needed a lot more money. The sound is inconsistent, and the sets in the flashback sequences are very basic. I’ll also note that dialogue written for stage often works best on stage versus the screen.
Since you have the actors from the original play who know the lines from pure muscle memory, you almost want to shoot multi-camera, capturing natural rapport and timing of the moment rather than trying to edit the puzzle pieces together in post. It sometimes struggles to capture that stage magic.
The Pitch is a compelling drama that explores the tension between uncovering the truth and protecting secrets, set against the backdrop of baseball and journalism. Stan Freeman’s adaptation from stage to screen retains the strong character dynamics, with the veteran and novice writers clashing over how to tell the story of a fallen pitcher.
"…explores the tension between uncovering the truth and protecting secrets..."
