The Baseball Bunch

The Baseball Bunch
Format	Sports
Created by	Major League Baseball
Starring	Johnny Bench Tommy Lasorda The San Diego Chicken
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Syndicated
Original run	March 21, 1982 – January 1, 1985

The Baseball Bunch was a syndicated television show hosted by Johnny Bench that ran from March 21, 1982 until January 1, 1985. The Baseball Bunch was also shown nationally on WTBS at 7 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday mornings.

Format

The show ran thirty minutes and featured children chosen from the Tucson, Arizona Little League. Each show was divided into two halves. The first half featured a current or former major league player demonstrating a baseball fundamental to the children as well as their sometimes humorous attempts to imitate the star. The second half featured a skit called "The Dugout Wizard" (played by Tommy Lasorda) who taught a second baseball fundamental (for example, use two hands to catch a fly ball). This second instructional unit was usually accompanied by a music video (a genre then in its embryonic stage) that showed players either performing the act or failing at it. Another star of the show was The San Diego Chicken who served as a comic foil to Bench as he attempted to keep the show under control.

Notable guest stars

Numerous major leaguers made appearance on The Baseball Bunch, including Bucky Dent, Tug McGraw, Bruce Sutter, Keith Hernandez, Jim Rice, Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose (who appeared twice), Goose Gossage, George Brett, Andre Dawson, Al Hrabosky, Cal Ripken, Jr., Ted Williams, Ken Singleton, Dan Quisenberry , Graig Nettles, Don Mattingly, Rick Dempsey, Tom Seaver, Joe Morgan and Ozzie Smith.

Supporting cast

The following persons were featured the first two seasons of The Baseball Bunch.

• Stacy Blythe as Michelle
• Linda Coslett as Kate
• Lance Crawford as Ozzie
• Hurst Dornan as Harold
• Jared Holland as Sam.
• Erik Lee as Rick
• Danny Santacruz as Louie
• Eddy Tonai as Freddie
• Tom McCabe as Andy

In later seasons, other appearances were made by:

• Tom Cribe as Billy
• John Fordney as Sherman (who replaced Hurst Dornan)
• Joshua Raymond as Josh

External links

• The Baseball Bunch at the Internet Movie Database
• The Baseball Bunch at TV.com