This (Non) Sporting Life: My Baseball Pitch To Ken Levine

One of my favorite blogs is By Ken Levine. If you don't know who Ken Levine is, he's...well, let me just steal his bio. 

Named one of the BEST 25 BLOGS OF 2011 by TIME Magazine. Ken Levine is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSONS, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG, and has co-created his own series including ALMOST PERFECT starring Nancy Travis. He and his partner wrote the feature VOLUNTEERS. Ken has also been the radio/TV play-by-play voice of the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres. and has hosted Dodger Talk on the Dodger Radio Network. 

Ah, cut 'n' paste: the chief tool of the literary scoundrel. 

So just like I do with Broken News, Ken has a regular Friday feature on his blog where he answers questions relating to his interests and history in his various professions. (Unlike my Friday feature, Ken's is actually read by people and is usually very entertaining.)  

So for the Friday, May 9th, 2014 Friday Questions post, a reader had this question: 

From Charles H. Bryan: Have you ever thought about creating a baseball sitcom? 

Ken noted a number of historic examples of baseball themed TV shows that didn't quite make it as well as the logistical problems of doing one. But he added: 


Still… if there was a way, I’d love to do one.  

Challenged accepted! 

What I know about baseball is...very little. All I know is balls get hit, thrown, caught and scratched. But lack of knowledge of anything has never stopped me before. So.... 

Below is a copy of a post to Ken Levine's comments section. You can tell it's my writing because of my propensity for leaving off articles in crucial places. (Ex: "owner of baseball team" instead of "owner of a baseball team".)  

David Long said...

How about a series about the owner of baseball team? Rich but a bit clueless. Loves baseball but has zero talent for the game. Has a business manager with less passion for baseball and constantly looking to dump the luckless team he owns. Stuff with the team intersects with his family. One of the players is sleeping with his daughter; wait, not his daughter but one of his sons. Wait, his son is gay? Since when? Anyway, you get the gist.

Very little has to occur during games. You want to see some players do baseball type things? Find a southern city with a baseball team that has decent weather during the fall and winter so you can get in a bunch of spring/summer baseball shots.

IT CAN BE DONE!

5/09/2014 8:52 AM 

So there's that.  Of course I can't imagine that no one has ever come up with a similar idea. Still, it seems like a perfect little TV idea, doesn't it? 

If nothing else, it's just sports related enough to warrant a post in my This (Non) Sporting Life feature.  So I get a post out of it. 

But I can still dream, can I? 

So Ken Levine, have your people call my people. We'll do lunch.*

*I do not have people. 

Dave-El 
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You