Everything you need to know about 'Pitch' before it returns to TV

Caution: This post contains spoilers for the first four episodes of the TV show “Pitch.”

“Pitch” returns on Thursday night after a week off, just in time for the World Series. If you’ve got that baseball itch and the World Series alone can’t scratch it, this is a great time to jump into “Pitch.” You’ll get some baseball, you’ll get some drama, and you’ll get bearded Zack Morris playing a catcher. There isn’t as much baseball as this fan would like (I think there should be more of it in every episode), but they’re trying to build a world that exists beyond what happens on the field, one that involves front office staff like the owner and the GM, behind-the-scenes people like Ginny’s agent, and even a few personal relationships.

So if you’re new to “Pitch,” or if you just need a quick refresher before Thursday night’s new episode, I’ll give you everything you need to know.

ON THE FIELD
Let’s start with the basics: the show is about Ginny Baker, the first woman to play Major League Baseball. Ginny is a pitcher with the San Diego Padres, and she’s called up for a spot start and ends up sticking around. She’s not a pitcher that can overpower hitters, so she uses a screwball to fool them instead.

It all seems so promising, but her debut start goes awry pretty quickly. She can’t settle down or find the strike zone, and ends up asking her manager to take her out of the game. After a little soul searching and a high quality motivational speech from her catcher, Mike Lawson, Ginny slays ’em in her second start.

Not surprisingly, the Padres clubhouse isn’t overwhelmed with happiness at her arrival. She has one friend, Blip Sanders, who she played with in the minors. The rest of the guys aren’t really on board. And it doesn’t seem like it’s just related to her gender — the guys are upset at the huge amount of publicity she’s getting. It’s an unavoidable part of being the first female player in the MLB, but it’s understandably annoying for her teammates.

Ginny’s relationship with her teammates starts to turn around when the Padres face the Cardinals. The two teams have a history, and that’s mostly because a Cardinals pitcher threw at a Padres pitcher earlier in the season, sending him to the DL. That Padres pitcher happens to be one of Ginny’s loudest critics, and he’s constantly telling her that as soon as he’s better, he’s taking his job back. I mean, who wouldn’t want a teammate like that around?

Ginny is 100% ready to play beanball with the Cardinals, and even intentionally hits one of their players. But no one will go after her (partially because she’s a girl, and partially because the Cardinals’ catcher is Ginny’s ex-boyfriend). Ginny eventually charges the mound herself, demanding to be thrown at just like any other baseball player. So of course that starts a brawl, and Ginny gains respect from everyone, especially her most obnoxious critic, for starting a fight. “Violence is the answer” isn’t the best message in the world to send to viewers, but the point is that it brought Ginny and her teammates closer.

Ginny also makes the All-Star Game after a massive fan campaign. She’s chosen as the Padres’ representative but doesn’t cover herself in glory at the game. She faces Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez, who hits an absolutely enormous home run. That one probably won’t make her end-of-season highlight reel.

OFF THE FIELD
While this might not be true for the first women to play in the majors in real life, Ginny’s personal life is kind of a mess. Her father, Bill, was domineering and single-minded, completely focused on getting his daughter into professional baseball to the detriment of literally everything else, including his marriage and his wife. Ginny never got to have a childhood, which leaves her ill-equipped to handle adult things like making friends and having non-baseball interests.

The major twist from the first episode of “Pitch” (and if you don’t want to find out what it is, skip this paragraph) is that Ginny’s father died in a car accident six years before her MLB debut. She spends the first episode of the series, AKA her MLB debut, seeing and talking to her father as if he’s alive and there with her. We haven’t seen this particular storytelling device return in the three subsequent episodes, so it’s hard to tell if it was something the showrunners decided to use just for the first episode, or if Ginny has conversations with her dead dad during particularly difficult moments.

Ginny’s father also damaged her relationship with her mother. Ginny’s mother only wanted what was best for her daughter, but she couldn’t ignore her own needs. He was so consumed by his mission to get Ginny into professional baseball that he pushed his wife right into the arms of another man. Ginny found out when she was a teenager, and it’s not until her mother visits during the All-Star Game that she stops blaming her mother and realizes how hard it must have been to live with her father.

THE MINOR PLAYERS
The show isn’t just about Ginny, but about the people in her life, both on and off the field. There’s her catcher, Mike Lawson, who’s got bad knees, a bad back, and is nearing the end of his career. He’s newly divorced and has no idea what the future holds. Ginny’s agent, Amelia Slater, decided to go out and sign Ginny after her marriage dissolved. Now Mike and Amelia are secretly sleeping together, and I’m sure that won’t end badly for anyone.

In the Padres’ front office, owner Frank Reid and GM Oscar Arguella butt heads on what’s best for the team. Frank’s handling of the team, and of Padres manager Al Luongo, has been called into question by the other owners, so he might be out of the picture soon. Oscar is just trying to keep his head above water as he runs the team and tries to maintain a relationship with his daughter, who now lives with his soon-to-be ex-wife.

There’s also Padres center fielder Blip Sanders and his wife Evelyn. They’re both friends of Ginny’s, and Blip’s there to support her on the field and in the clubhouse while Evelyn tries to help her everywhere else. Evelyn and Blip have a great relationship, and they’re a serious delight to watch together. I’d be down with an Evelyn and Blip spinoff.

BEHIND THE SCENES
We’ve been lucky enough to get a peek at what’s happening behind the scenes with the actors on “Pitch.” Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who plays Mike Lawson, has discussed how his kids have reacted to him playing a baseball player on TV.

Kylie Bunbury, who plays Ginny, had to do a lot of preparation to play this role. The creators and producers want all the baseball to be as real as possible, and in this video Bunbury talks about all the preparation she went through to get ready — and stay ready — for her role as a professional pitcher.

And in the video at the top of this article, Bunbury discusses how her arm needs rest just like a real life pitcher’s arm.

And now you’re all caught up with “Pitch.” You can catch the new episode Thursday at 9 p.m. ET (technically 8:59, according to the show’s website) on Fox.

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher