Documentary: Playing for Peanuts
April 9, 2010As some of you may remember, “Playing for Peanuts” was a reality/documentary show about minor league baseball that aired on SNY. The show followed the South Georgia Peanuts and their manager – former Mets 2B and current Brooklyn Cyclones skipper, Wally Backman. Since Wally Backman is back in the Mets organization, “Peanuts” producer John Fitzgerald has sent me some of the bonus footage that he has released online, along with some commentary. Check it out below.
Playing for Peanuts – Episode 1 (Segment 1)
John Fitzgerald:
This is the first segment that aired on TV. My goal here was to set up the entire 10-episode TV series by explaining the backstory of Wally Backman – the ’86 Mets, his success as a minor league manager, and his legal troubles – in 8-minutes or less. I didn’t want to dwell on Wally’s past throughout the show, so all of the major details had to be covered right up front. To do this, I traveled to Wally’s hometown in Oregon for an in-depth interview and I also caught up with Jeff Pearlman (“The Bad Guys Won”) and Mark Healey (Gotham Baseball Magazine) for their thoughts on Wally’s past, present and future.
If interested you can Buy the 3-DVD Set (10 episodes + Bonus Content).
