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Not long after I became general manager of a national cable network, I began to receive hate mail from those triggered by seeing a Black woman ascend to such a position. As upsetting as it was, I knew how I would handle it — just like my Uncle Hank did.

Uncle Hank — better known to the masses as Hank Aaron, the Hall of Fame slugger whose legacy transcended that of baseball — had to deal with far worse as he chased, and then surpassed, Babe Ruth’s home run record. Despite the racial slurs heaped upon him and the death threats ...

Not long after I became general manager of a national cable network, I began to receive hate mail from those triggered by seeing a Black woman ascend to such a position. As upsetting as it was, I knew how I would handle it — just like my Uncle Hank did.

Uncle Hank — better known to the masses as Hank Aaron, the Hall of Fame slugger whose legacy transcended that of baseball — had to deal with far worse as he chased, and then surpassed, Babe Ruth’s home run record. Despite the racial slurs heaped upon him and the death threats ...

Baseball legend Hank Aaron, the Black power hitter who faced discrimination and death threats in 1974 as he toppled Babe Ruth’s record for all-time home runs, has died, according to CBS affiliate Wsb-tv Atlanta. He was 86.

The Atlanta Braves veteran died Friday at his home, Aaron’s daughter told Wsb.

Aaron’s records in Major League Baseball include becoming the first player in history to rack up 500 home runs and 3,000 hits. He also logged an astounding eight seasons with 40 or more home runs. He ended his career with 755 homers, a mark that stood until 2007 when Barry Bonds, playing for the San Francisco Giants, hit home run No. 756.

All told, Aaron had a 23-year career in the major leagues. He signed with the Boston Braves in 1952. The team moved to Atlanta in 1966 at a time when Aaron’s success gave him prominence in the civil rights movement.

“I think it hit...

Henry Aaron, the slugger known as “Hammerin’ Hank” who cemented himself in baseball lore when he broke Babe Ruth’s career home run mark in 1974, died Friday. He was 86. His daughter confirmed the news to media outlets.

The Hall of Famer played 21 seasons for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves and finished his Major League career with two seasons on the Milwaukee Brewers in 1975-76. A 21-time All-Star, he topped Ruth’s treasured mark with his 715th homer — a blast against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Al Downing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on April 8, 1974. It remains among baseball’s most-played clips of all time.

He finished with 755 home runs, a career record that stood until Barry Bonds beat it in 2007 during MLB’s “steroids era.”

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms paid tribute to the local hero in a statement Friday:

“Derek, our family and I join the nation in sending heartfelt condolences to Mrs.

As though it was fate, former Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully was the person who called Hank Aaron’s milestone home as he passed Babe Ruth for the most career home runs when he slugged his 715th bomb.

Aaron died Friday. He was 86.

The Dodgers were playing Aaron’s Atlanta Braves on the evening of April 8, 1974. Aaron, as he detailed in Ken Burns’ 1994 documentary, Baseball, said he had received death threats warning he would be hurt or killed if he broke Ruth’s record. He continued to play his best.

Scully, no doubt aware of that situation, made clear ...

As though it was fate, former Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully was the person who called Hank Aaron’s milestone home as he passed Babe Ruth for the most career home runs when he slugged his 715th bomb.

Aaron died Friday. He was 86.

The Dodgers were playing Aaron’s Atlanta Braves on the evening of April 8, 1974. Aaron, as he detailed in Ken Burns’ 1994 documentary, Baseball, said he had received death threats warning he would be hurt or killed if he broke Ruth’s record. He continued to play his best.

Scully, no doubt aware of that situation, made clear ...

Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record and gracefully left his mark as one of baseball’s greatest all-around players, died Friday. He was 86.

The Atlanta Braves, Aaron’s longtime team, said he died peacefully in his sleep. No cause was given.

Aaron made his last public appearance just two-and-a-half weeks ago, when he received the Covid-19 vaccine. He said he wanted to help spread the to Black Americans that the vaccine was safe.

“Hammerin’ Hank” set a wide array of career hitting records during a ...

Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record and gracefully left his mark as one of baseball’s greatest all-around players, died Friday. He was 86.

The Atlanta Braves, Aaron’s longtime team, said he died peacefully in his sleep. No cause was given.

Aaron made his last public appearance just two-and-a-half weeks ago, when he received the Covid-19 vaccine. He said he wanted to help spread the to Black Americans that the vaccine was safe.

“Hammerin’ Hank” set a wide array of career hitting records during a ...

Poker is a very popular game that is played around the world, but there is a surprising lack of films centered around the game. It's not uncommon for movies to feature characters going to Vegas or gambling in some capacity, but movies centered exclusively around poker seem exceedingly rare.

Related: The 9 Best Gambling Anime Of All Time

Fortunately, the movies that are exclusively about poker are usually pretty good. Of course, not every poker movie is a winner, just as every baseball or soccer movie isn't a winner, but there are a surprising amount of great poker movies out there, and according to IMDb, these are the greatest of them all.

Baseball and sex.

We know these two mix, for many euphemisms about sex involve America's favorite pastime.

However, those two words took on a new meaning on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist Season 2 Episode 2 during Zoey and Max's first time.

As insane and highly enjoyable as the world's weirdest mashup of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “I’ll Make Love to You” was, what came next was even better.

The emotional heart-to-heart between Zoey and Max before they slept together was such a sweet and perfect moment, as the new couple laid themselves bear -- and that was before they got naked.

Zoey: I don’t care what songs are coming out of you.

Max: But I do. I really just wanted both of us to be in the moment, you know? To give you that grief vacation you’ve been wanting so badly without having you hear every...

For decades, the name “Tommy Lasorda” has been synonymous with not just The Dodgers, but also with Los Angeles. Fittingly, it seemed like the whole town took to Twitter to pay tribute to the Hall of Fame manager who guided the Dodgers to two World Championships.

Among the L.A. icons who remembered Lasorda were Magic Johnson, Billy Crystal, Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Lakers, the Rams, USC Trojans Athletics, the L.A.P.D, the chief of the L.A.F.D. and the great Vin Scully.

The Dodgers organization itself posted a lengthy statement that recognized Lasorda’s seventy-one seasons affiliated with the club, as well as his status as one of baseball’s most popular ambassadors.

pic.twitter.com/E1qyeKtfjl

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) January 8, 2021

Scully said there are two things he will always remember about Lasorda: his enthusiasm and his determination.

pic.twitter.com/700EkWmrTN

— Los...

Tommy Lasorda, two-time World Series champion manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers, died Thursday of a sudden cardiopulmonary arrest. He was 93.

Lasorda’s death was announced Friday morning by the Dodgers. It comes less than three months after the Dodgers won their first World Series since the manager led the team to a title in 1988.

pic.twitter.com/E1qyeKtfjl

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) January 8, 2021

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement: “Tommy Lasorda was one of the finest managers our game has ever known. He loved life as a Dodger. His career began as a pitcher in 1949 but he is, of course, best known as the manager of two World Series champions and four pennant-winning clubs. His passion, success, charisma and sense of humor turned him into an international celebrity, a stature that he used to grow our sport. Tommy welcomed Dodger players from Mexico, the Dominican Republic,...

Phil Niekro, a Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher best known for playing 20 seasons with the Atlanta Braves (which includes the final two seasons in which the team was still known as the Milwaukee Braves), died Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 81.

Niekro was a knuckleball pitcher whose 318 career wins comprise the most for anyone pitching in that style; he also ranks 16th on Major League Baseball’s list of all time career wins.

“Phil Niekro was one of the most distinctive and memorable pitchers of his generation. In the last century, no pitcher threw more than Phil’s 5,404 innings. His knuckleball led him to five All-Star selections, three 20-win seasons for the Atlanta Braves, the 300-win club, and ultimately, to Cooperstown,” Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

“But even more than his signature pitch and trademark durability, Phil will be remembered as one of our game’s most genial people.

Charley Pride, the pioneering black country singer known for such hits as “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'” and “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” has died in Dallas, Texas, from complications related to Covid-19, according to his publicist. He was 86.

Born in Sledge, Mississippi, in 1934, Pride picked cotton, played baseball in the Negro leagues, served in the U.S. Army, and worked in a smelting plant in Montana before moving to Nashville and becoming country music’s first black superstar. He scored 52 Top 10 country hits, including 29 Number Ones, and was the...

Sony Pictures Television found no third taker for One Day at a Time, and as such the acclaimed sitcom is “officially” done. The sad news comes two weeks after the Netflix-turned-Pop TV comedy was cancelled for a second time, after a truncated fourth season on the latter outlet.

“It’s officially over,” co-showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett announced on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. “There will be no new @OneDayAtATime episodes. But there will always be 46 episodes that we got to make that live Forever. Thank you to this beautiful cast. Our dedicated crew. And to you, our loyal fans. We loved making this for you.

Felicity Huffman has booked her first role since she was ensnared in the college admissions scandal last year, starring in a baseball comedy pilot at ABC.

The series, which currently has a pilot production commitment, is based on the real-life story of Susan Savage, the owner of the Sacramento River Cats minor league baseball team. The series is written by Becky Hartman Edwards.

“Peanut Butter Falcon” star Zack Gottsagen would co-star with Huffman.

Huffman would star as the “unlikely owner of a minor league baseball team.” After suddenly losing her husband and inheriting his beloved squad, she is forced to navigate her new normal with the help of her dysfunctional family — including her oldest son, a baseball devotee with Down’s Syndrome (Gottsagen) — her work family and the Sacramento community at large.

The River Cats are the Triple-a affiliate of the San Francisco Giants.

Huffman is no stranger to ABC,...

Cable news outlets focused on nothing last week but the presidential election. On Fox News Channel, however, Bill Hemmer found a few seconds to peer into the future.

“The thing about our industry, Dana, and you know it very well: When there is information, when there is data, when the story is changing, you can run on adrenaline for a long time,” he said to anchor Dana Perino during hours spent on air. “It’s those periods where you hit

the walls and nothing is new and you start to think, ‘Hmm, what’s next?’”

A lot of top media executives will be called upon in the coming days to answer Hemmer’s question. Gobs of influence and millions of dollars are at stake.

Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have for more than four years been caught up in the whirlwind of the Trump presidency, a period when tweets, not physical news events,...

Sports movies have always been a very popular genre for viewers of all ages. Baseball is America's pastime, and Disney has used that fact to create quite a few films. The long tradition of choosing a favorite team, eating Cracker Jacks, and watching a game never gets old, even if it's a fictional game in a movie.

Related: 15 Weird Times Baseball Players Showed Up In Movies And TV Shows

Most of Disney's baseball movies were made for children and families, with some of them available for fans to revisit on Disney+. From a ball-playing dog to a teen who wants to cook instead of swing, these are wonderful movies to remember.

Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corp., said Fox News would welcome the arrival of a rival news and opinion brand led by Donald Trump if he is no longer president.

“We love competition,” Murdoch said in response to a direct question from an analyst about Trump’s future during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “We have always thrived with competition. … The only difference today versus some years ago is as our audience has grown and our reach has grown, we see our competition as no longer only cable news providers but also as the traditional broadcast networks.”

From Labor Day to Election Day, Murdoch noted, Fox News was the top network in broadcast or cable in terms of total audience. Prior to the call, Fox Corp. reported so-so results for its fiscal first quarter, exceeding analysts’ estimates but revealing a major toll from Covid-19.

Trump, who faces a stiff...

From the very first Atari game of Pong that attempted to recreate an arcade version of table tennis, to Nintendo’s Wii Sports whose efforts to get us up off the sofa were a good thing, video games based on sports have always been popular. As console technology developed better graphics and more complex gameplay the sports genre has produced some classic games. But what is it about sports games that have us so hooked?

For some, it’s merely a love of the sport itself. Not content with a full sports schedule on TV, the playability offered by internet access allows gamers to interact with other players for some exciting competition. It’s the same drive with fantasy football leagues; the excitement of playing the game is enhanced when you have a greater interest in the outcome. So, which sports have made it big as video games?

General Sports...

ABC’s Shark Tank again was the Friday night overall winner among shows, scoring an 0.6 and the biggest total P2+ audience at 4218. But it wasn’t enough to top the network averages, where Fox claimed the crown.

Baseball has long been considered the national pastime. But if we were to judge that status solely by television ratings, wrestling would have a strong argument. Recovering from a World Series that brought record lows to the table, Fox saw a strong showing by perennial kings WWE wrestling. The WWE Friday Night SmackDown scored an 0.6, the same score as the network for its two-hour slot.

ABC’s Shark Tank was followed by 20/20 pulling an 0.5 for its examination of the hunt for the Golden State Killer.

At NBC, a repeat of American Ninja Warrior came in at an 0.3, with Dateline’s segment on a woman’s search for her mother rising to an 0.4.

CBS...

Becoming a producer Sarah Schechter love baseball again. Today the powerhouse behind a record-breaking 17 current television series, Schechter found her way in the business making movies.

“When I first started working in film, what became so nice about watching sports was you didn’t know what was going to happen,” she says. “When you’re reading so many scripts, you start to feel like you know what’s going to happen in each one. Then you work on projects where you read the script over and over again, and you don’t have surprises. So I kind of fell back in love with baseball, particularly, because it was like, “Oh, I don’t know what’s gonna happen here. There’s no script to read. You’re going to have to wait till the end.’”

Schechter doesn’t just work in film anymore. The chairman of Berlanti Prods., she’s...

Photo: 'Moneyball'/Sony Pictures Releasing Moneyball is a solid drama starring Brad Pitt as real-life Baseball manager Billy Beane. It charts his quest to circumvent his team’s lack of finance and the ensuing revolutionary strategy he and his partner Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) introduced into the sporting world: Moneyball, an intelligent concept devised to evaluate players based solely on statistics. A Sports Film Unafraid To Be About Sports You don’t have to be a baseball fan to enjoy Moneyball, but its' surprisingly detailed portrayal of the inner workings of an athletic institution should be universally interesting to anyone who follows sports more generally. Most sport-dramas overemphasize personal struggles in order to appeal to a wider audience, yet Moneyball is unafraid to primarily be about baseball, which is a gutsy approach given the mass appeal it seeks. It mostly succeeds; I am not a baseball fan, and I was...

Steve Perry has kept a low public profile ever since he shared a lockdown rendition of the 1963 Beach Boys classic “In My Room” in April, but he tells Rolling Stone that since that time, he’s been busy creating new music. “I have a studio and I’m always writing and always recording stuff,” he says. “I have lots of music, so much stuff.”

First up is an acoustic version of his 2018 comeback LP Traces that he plans to release on December 4th. “It’s eight songs from the Traces...

George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Bob Dylan are adapting Calico Joe — There are probably countless young, idealistic filmmakers who thought they had the perfect material for Bob Dylan to interpret, but the Nobel Prize Winner has been largely absent in cinema.That’s about to change, and not quite how you’d think. Dylan has signed on [...]

Continue reading: Calico Joe: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, & Bob Dylan to adapt John Grisham’s Baseball Novel...

Stop me if you heard this one: Geroge Clooney, Jon Grisham, and Bob Dylan get together and say, “Let’s make a movie!” No, this isn’t the set-up of a joke. Instead, it’s news about a new movie. George Clooney is considering directing Calico Joe, a film adapted from the John Grisham novel of the same name. […]

The post ‘Calico Joe’, John Grisham’s Baseball Novel, Being Turned Into a Movie By George Clooney (and Bob Dylan) appeared first on /Film.

A new George Clooney project is similar to that of stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt. They’re not things that come around often and when they do, you have to pay attention. And in the case of Clooney, it may not even be an acting role, as the A-lister has grown more accustomed to taking on directing jobs, such as the upcoming baseball drama, “Calico Joe.”

Read More: First Look: George Clooney’s Sci-Fi ‘Midnight Sky’ With Felicity Jones & More Coming To Netflix In December

According to Variety, Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov are taking on the development of a film based on the John Grisham sports novel, “Calico Joe.” The baseball feature is also a project that Clooney is eyeing as a potential directing gig.

Continue reading ‘Calico Joe’: George Clooney Looking To Direct Film Based On John Grisham’s Baseball Novel at The Playlist.

Joe Morgan, the Cincinnati Reds’ Hall of Fame second baseman who powered the team’s legendary Big Red Machine era of the 1970s before co-anchoring with Jon Miller ESPN’s must-watch Sunday Night Baseball for 21 seasons, died Sunday at his home in Danville, CA. He was 77.

A family spokesperson the cause of death was nonspecified polyneuropathy. He’d had a bone-marrow transplant in 2016.

Nicknamed Little Joe (he stood 5-foot-7), Morgan, along with Reds teammates Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez, was a key force in the team’s World Series championships in 1975 and 1976; he was named National League Most Valuable Player both of those seasons.

A 10-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner, Morgan also was a stolen-base specialist, swiping 40 or more bags in nine of his 22 seasons. He also was known for his habit of cocking his left elbow up and down as he awaited a pitch.

“Simply the best,...

Swing and a miss. Striking out. Fair or foul. Rounding the bases. Touching them all.

Baseball is back. The latest opening day in history is upon us but nonetheless it’s still opening day.

Baseball is as much a part of America as mom, apple pie, the flag – and the movies.

No sport has been romanticized on the silver screen as often as baseball. Hollywood has been betting on baseball for decades and it still delivers a winning performance. Diamonds Are Forever isn’t just a James Bond film. It perfectly describes the relationship between the Silver Screen and the American Pastime.

Grab your peanuts and Cracker Jack, because you’re about to get caught in a run down of the greatest baseball films ever made.

42 (2013)

A biopic of when Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier while wearing No. 42 for the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, hence the title. The film earned $27.3 million during its opening weekend.

Translated by Grace Han

Choi Yoon-tae was born in 1982 in the Yeongdeok county on the eastern coast of South Korea. A graduate of the prestigious Korean Academy of Film Arts (Kafa), Choi would go on to work as an editor for a number of years and work in the editing department on projects such as “Bedevilled” and “The Piper”. 2019 saw him take a leap to behind the camera with his debut feature “Baseball Girl“, an independent production funded by Kafa. The film screened at the Busan International Film Festival in the “Korean Cinema Today – Panorama” section as well as competed at the Seoul Independent Film Festival, where it won the Independent Star Award.

On the occasion of “Baseball Girl” having its international premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival, we spoke to him on his inspiration for the story, the situation of female sportspersons in Korea, his leading lady Lee Joo-young and more.

Inspired by a mix of Nobel Literature Prize-winner Yasunari Kawabata’s short novels, “The Master of Funerals” is a debut feature by Naofumi Higuchi, who turned the whole project into a homage to the late writer. The orphaned writer in fact, had moved from his birthplace Osaka to Ikibari to stay with his grandmother and attend the Prefectural Ibaraki Junior High School, the same school (now a Senior High School) featured in the movie. The title too refers to the sorrow nickname Kawabata gave to himself after burying his parents first, his sister not long after, and finally both his grandparents. However, despite the sadness connected with the title, Higuchi’s work tries hard to retain the true spirit of Kawabata’s elegies to beautiful things.

“The Master of Funerals” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival

Single mum, factory worker and blogger Yukiko Watanabe (Atsuko Maeda) lives her simple and busy life in Ikebara,...

Bob Gibson, the intimidating St. Louis Cardinals pitcher who set the record for earned run average and won seven consecutive World Series starts, has died. The team confirmed his death from pancreatic cancer on Friday in his home town of Omaha, Nebraska.

Gibson set the earned run record during the 1968 season, finishing with a microscopic 1.12 Era. He died on the anniversary of one of his greatest games, when he struck out 17 Detroit Tigers in the 1968 World Series.

Known as one of the fiercest competitors in baseball, few batters dared to dig in against the powerful right-hander. Gibson spent his entire 17-year career as a St. Louis Cardinal, and was a two-time Cy Young Award winner as the best pitcher in baseball during that span. He was also named the World Series Mvp in their 1964 and ’67 championship seasons, and was the National League’s Mvp in 1968. His performance during that season...

WarnerMedia’s Turner Sports and Major League Baseball have reached a seven-year rights extension through 2028, with HBO Max potentially a future venue for game broadcasts.

While the partners are not commenting on the valuation of the deal, it has been reported to be $3.75 billion, or $535 million a year.

The re-up will keep games on TBS, a longtime MLB broadcaster with particular prominence in the postseason. Under the new agreement, TBS will add a season-long Tuesday night game franchise and digital rights will be added to Bleacher Report plus what the official announcement called “additional WarnerMedia platforms.”

One of those platforms is HBO Max, which launched in May and has gotten off to a sluggish start. An ad-supported tier of the subscription service is due to launch in 2021 and executives have said it will include live sports and news. No details have emerged about those offerings as of yet and a...

Major League Baseball is staying on TBS thanks to a new TV deal between the league and Turner Sports, which now runs through 2028.

As part of the deal, TBS will shift its Sunday MLB game of the week to Tuesday nights beginning in 2022 which will run through the entire season.

The Tuesday night franchise will feature a new studio show anchored by “Inside the NBA” host Ernie Johnson and former MLB stars Pedro Martinez, Jimmy Rollins and newcomer Curtis Granderson. The new studio team will debut during this year’s MLB Postseason beginning with the American League Division Series. Granderson will also contribute to Bleacher Report.

TBS’ postseason slate will remain unchanged. It will get one Wild Card Game, two of the four Division Series, and one League Championship Series each year, alternating between the American and National League each year. The 2020 postseason was massively expanded to include 16 teams, up...

WarnerMedia extended its relationship with Major League Baseball with a new seven-year agreement that maintains Turner Sports’ access to post-season games and will create a Tuesday-night broadcast that seeks to emulate the Thursday-night franchise Turner has built with the NBA.

The new agreement will be in effect between 2022 and 2028.

WarnerMedia is expected to pay $3.7 billion, or around $535 million a year, over the course of the agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. The new pact represents an increase of approximately 65% over the company’s prior terms, which called for WarnerMedia to pay around $325 million per year, these people said.

“We’re delighted to extend our long-standing relationship with Major League Baseball and all of the opportunities this agreement offers us as we broaden our coverage of the game across all of our platforms,” said Jeff Zucker, chairman of WarnerMedia’s news and sports operations, in a statement. “We will...

Believe it or not, there was a time during Brad Pitt‘s ascent up the Hollywood ladder when he faced accusations of being little more than a pretty face, with his acting abilities frequently called into question. The 56 year-old has more than put those doubts to rest, though, and recently picked up an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his latest collaboration with Quentin Tarantino in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in what was his fourth acting nomination in total.

Not only that, but Pitt has also gained a reputation as the producer of high quality movies, winning his first Oscar for backing Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave and receiving another nod for Adam McKay’s The Big Short. The only time he’s been nominated for his work both in front and behind of the camera in the same film, however, was 2011’s Moneyball,...

Nintendo Switch Online is the subscription service for owners of, you guessed it, the Nintendo Switch. The portable games console’s snazzy membership club launched properly in September 2018, and, although membership isn’t essential to enjoying the Switch, it does connect you to some pretty cool stuff.

In terms of pricing, single-user membership to Nintendo Switch Online is priced on the official Nintendo website at $3.99 for one month, $7.99 for three months or $19.99 for a year. There is also an option to spend $34.99 for a family of up to eight members to have access to the service for a year. Alternatively, you can buy a membership through Amazon, which can be a bit cheaper depending on the retail giant’s current pricing fluctuations.

As for perks, members of Nintendo Switch Online can use online multiplayer features on a vast selection of games. They can also make the most of cloud saves and exclusive offers,...

Exclusive: CBS has put in development Closure, a one-hour drama loosely based on the life of baseball Hall of Famer-turned-funeral home owner Andre Dawson, from Samantha Corbin-Miller, DeVon Franklin (Breakthrough) and his Franklin Entertainment and CBS Television Studios, where Franklin is under an overall deal.

Written by Corbin-Miller, in Closure, a beloved baseball Hall of Famer takes over his uncle’s funeral home in an unexpected second chapter of his career in the wake of the unsolved disappearance of his adult son. Rocked by his family’s loss, he and his three daughters — a homicide detective, coroner and trauma nurse, who each have their own parallel journeys in the business of death — commit themselves to helping others find the peace and closure their family hasn’t been able to yet.

Corbin-Miller executive produces with Franklin. Jenna Nicholson, VP Television for Franklin Entertainment, will co-executive produce. Dawson will serve as a consultant.

Tom Seaver, who was known as “The Franchise” during his time pitching for the New York Mets, has died. He was 75 and passed away in his sleep from complications of dementia and Lyme disease, according to the Mets.

“We are heartbroken to share that our beloved husband and father has passed away,” wife Nancy Seaver and daughters Sarah and Anne told the Baseball Hall of Fame. “We send our love out to his fans, as we mourn his loss with you.”

Seaver won 311 games during his 20-year career, including five 20-win seasons, a track record which brought him to baseball’s Hall of Fame and acknowledgement as the greatest player in New York Mets history. His overall career record was 311-205 with 3640 strikeouts and an earned run average of 2.86

He retired in 1987, his resume listing the 1967 Nl Rookie of the Year award, three Cy Young awards, and appearances as a 12-time All-Star.

Much has been written about the late actor’s appreciation of his work’s significance. But this is to underestimate both the agency and far-sighted initiative that made his short career so revolutionary

Chadwick Boseman began his career playing African American icons and pioneers; he ends it as one himself. His career has been cut tragically short, but his achievements, as an actor and as a cultural force, will surely prove to be as heroic as those of the characters he portrayed. At the very least, he leaves the film-making landscape looking very different to how it was when he entered it.

Boseman’s talents extended to not only inhabiting his roles but choosing them, too. As he once put it, he had a “manifesto”. From the outset, he was aware of the kind of stories he wanted to tell, even if it took a decade of soaps and TV parts to get there.

ESPN and Little League International have announced an eight-year, multi-platform media rights extension, effective 2023 through 2030.

Under the deal, ESPN will produce and televise live Little League events as the exclusive global media rights holder of Little League Baseball and Little League Softball. The announcement was made today by Stephen D. Keener, Little League president and CEO, and Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN president and Disney Media Networks co-chair.

ESPN and Little League are celebrating the legacy of the Little League World Series today with a full day of related programming across ESPN platforms.

As part of the rights extension, ESPN platforms will exclusively carry more than 300 Little League live events annually, including games from every baseball and softball World Series tournament. ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+, Longhorn Network and ESPN international platforms will combine to carry the events.

Additionally, ESPN and ABC will continue to produce and televise the entire Little League Baseball World Series,...

Amazon has handed the A League of Their Own reboot a series order. Broad City's Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham created the new one-hour show, which is a reinterpretation of the original movie following the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Development on the series started back in early 2018, with Jacobson reaching out to original director Penny Marshall to receive her blessing to continue on with the series idea. Marshall agreed and sadly passed away shortly after.

This reinterpretation of A League of Their Own evokes the joyful spirit of Penny Marshall's beloved classic, while widening the lens to tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. The show takes a deeper look at race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths towards the field, both in the League and outside of it.

Ok, we’ll allow a little bit of crying in baseball. Just this once.

Amazon announced today that it has officially picked up to series its previously announced reboot of A League of Their Own. The project was created by Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) and Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle) and will “reimagine” the 1992 baseball film directed by Penny Marshall. Jacobson will also star. The announcement came along with a first look at some new characters.

“Will and Abbi have taken a classic movie, reimagining it for a new generation with new characters and their own fresh, modern vision on a timeless story of big dreams, friendship, love, and, of course, baseball,” said Vernon Sanders, Co-Head of Television, Amazon Studios. We’re so excited to partner with Sony to bring this emotional, exciting new series to our Prime Video customers around the world.”

1992’s A League of Their Own...

Amazon Studios has picked up to series to A League Of Their Own, a reimagining of Penny Marshall’s 1992 film, from co-creators Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), who also stars, and Will Graham (Mozart in the Jungle), and Sony Pictures TV.

The hourlong series, described as a fresh approach to Marshall’s classic about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, will follow brand new characters who embody the spirit of a generation of women who dreamed to play professional baseball. “The show takes a deeper look at race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths towards the field, both in the League and outside of it,” according to the streamer.

“28 years ago, Penny Marshall told us a story about women playing professional baseball that up until then had been largely overlooked. We grew up obsessed with the film,...

Amazon’s series adaptation of “A League of Their Own” has been ordered to series, Variety has learned.

Like the 1992 Penny Marshall film, the hour-long series will tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. The show will also explore race and sexuality, following the journey of a whole new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths towards the field, both in the League and outside of it.

The series is co-created and executive produced by “Broad City” alum Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham, with Jacobson also starring.

“There’s no crying in baseball, or at Prime Video,” said Vernon Sanders, co-head of television for Amazon Studios. “Will and Abbi have taken a classic movie, reimagining it for a new generation with new characters and their own fresh, modern vision on a timeless story of big dreams, friendship, love, and, of course,...

And now for some good baseball news in 2020: Amazon has officially ordered to series A League of Their Own, an adaptation of the beloved 1992 film.

Billed as a “reinterpretation” of the Penny Marshall classic, Amazon’s hour-long adaptation — which first went into development in 2018 — will widen the lens to tell the story of an entire generation of women who dreamed of playing professional baseball. As it takes a deeper look at race and sexuality, A League of Their Own follows a new ensemble of characters as they carve their own paths toward the field, both in the League and outside of it.

There may not be crying in baseball, but there is definitely cheering, and this is something to cheer about. Amazon Prime has officially picked up A League of Their Own, an hour-long series that's billed as a "reinterpretation" of the 1992 Penny Marshall movie. Broad City's Abbi Jacobson is not only starring in the series but she also co-created it with Will Graham. D'Arcy Carden, Chanté Adams, and Gbemisola Ikumelo also star alongside Kelly McCormack, Roberta Colindrez, and Priscilla Delgado. Molly Ephraim, Kate Berlant, and Melanie Field will recur as guest stars.  The show, which was first announced as being in development in early 2019, will not center around the...

There’s one specific memory from A League of Their Own that actor Lori Petty carries with her.

Every night, co-star Tom Hanks would move his trailer onto the outfield grass of Wrigley Field in Chicago, the site of the film’s tryout scene, and park it in front of the historic ballpark’s famed ivy wall. The film’s stars cracked beers, took batting practice, and soaked in the big league atmosphere after hours. One evening, Petty, who played Rockford Peaches pitcher Kit Keller, and Hanks were having a casual game of catch when the future Oscar-winning actor paused the throwing session to take in the moment.

“Petty, you know when people go, ‘Remember when?’ That’s this right now,” Hanks said. “This isn’t going to happen again. This isn’t every movie. You’re going to do a lot of movies. This is not going to happen again.

On Saturday afternoon, Adam Duvall hit a screaming line drive into the right-field stands at Citi Field in Queens. The ball reached the second row before anybody could react, hitting a spectator in the head with a resounding "Thwack!" that could be heard through the stadium. The spectator in question was a jovial-looking dog, tongue lolling, wearing some sort of Mets bandana. The pup, named Willow, belongs to Jeff McNeil and was fortunately unharmed, because the dog was one of three canine cardboard cutouts occupying an otherwise empty bleacher.

Baseball in 2020 is extremely weird, kids.

It has been ...

What’s more American than baseball, hot dogs and, well, Tom Hanks? Thanks to the Oakland Athletics, you can have them all at once.

The Major League Baseball team announced Friday that they have enlisted the two-time Oscar winner to record shouting from the bleacher aisles as if he was a hot dog vendor selling munchables you’d find while enjoying an in-person baseball game.

“Hot dogs here! Colossal hot dogs! Not a ballgame without a hot dog! Who wants a hot dog?” he will be heard shouting when his voice is piped in during the Oakland A’s home games at Oakland Coliseum. He’ll also be heard hawking peanuts, soda, scorecards and programs.

Also Read: Fox Sports to Put 'Virtual Fans' in the Stands for Mlb Games (Video)

Hanks, who is a native of the San Francisco Bay area, is no rookie when it comes to baseball or...