Pitch Winds Up Its First Season With A Bang

It won't surprise regular readers to learn that I think Pitch should retire after a single season, but it's not because the show isn't for me. It isn't; it's for people who don't know anything about baseball, and that's fine -- except that in ten episodes, the writers burned through so many "baseball stories" that they'd already have to start repeating themselves in a second season. That, or tread water in subplots nobody cares about like Oscar's sex life, or the out-of-nowhere tension in the Blip household. As it is, we've gone through rookie stories, veteran stories, trade stories, All-Star stories, the sketchy relative, the Cuban import, etc. and so on -- and we end on an injury, which isn't such a viable story arc because it takes Ginny off the field and closes off the baseball avenues that are left narratively.

So, Pitch can buckle down, trust its cast, and be about the game; or it can end. I don't see another way forward -- and can't see myself returning to watch them figure it out.

How Pitch-y was the season (?) finale of Pitch?

Pitch-eresque Element		Present?
Sports-radio issue du jour		Debating pitchers' pitch counts, particularly young pitchers and whether to shut them down if their teams have no shot at the pennant; pitch counts in-game, and whether to leave a hurler in if s/he's laboring or has thrown more than 120. Given how much shit I've given the show, I was a little surprised they didn't take the opportunity to get into it about the ethics of trying to break up a no-no with a bunt, i.e., "Bunting is considered poor form here."
Show is the worst at accurate		Eliot would know not to utter the words "no-hitter" while one is in progress. You know who else knows not to use that exact phrasing? Dick Enberg. Literally everyone in the truck at FS1. If anyone's ever seen that on a broadcast, I will sit corrected. And the climactic hear-Baker-roar chat on the mound would have gotten broken up by an umpire about halfway through. Pace of game and all that.
Ginny acts like it's her first day		Baker's pitch count and the guidelines for her "use" would have gotten worked out months, if not years before she got to the bigs, and she hadn't spent the entire season with the big club anyway, so the consternation on all sides about her running up against the innings limit didn't play for me. Neither did her rant at Amelia; she "interfered" because that's her job. (Part of that job is not to whine about how much crap you "take" from the client, though, not for nothing; seems like someone should trail Scott Boras for an afternoon and get a better grip on that relationship.) And let's settle down with the "END OF THE ROAD FOR GINNY BAKER?" chyrons, y'all. She's 23; it's not a compound fracture. Matt Harvey had a rib removed and he's planning to start for the Mets next year. Yes, pitcher injuries are sobering and unpredictable. They're also a daily occurrence.
Shut up, product placement		Not sure Bruno Mars needed the assist here, but I like that song so I'll let it slide.
Timeline follies		Evelyn confirms that she left college as a sophomore to have the kids -- just about the only thing I liked in that dust-up.
Clank clank clank goes the dialogue		"Besides, the Cubs'll never win it." ...Sigh. Plenty of time to cut around that line, but no, it stays in. "Ha"? The scuffle in the dugout is labored exposition, with Lawson blaring that he's the captain and it's his job to settle the McGuffin down, and we can see what Noah's doing with his mini-TED talk about failing five times before he became a billionaire about two sentences in, but that just kept going too.
Ghost Dad alert!		Alas.
Hey: no one cares		It's not that I don't care about the Blips; I like both characters and both actors. But I don't buy that Blip would be this oblivious to Evelyn's stance on another kid, or that she would turn on this dime to rip him for not supporting her in a project she's using...his money on. Like, I could care about such storylines, but not when they come out of left field (as it were) and aren't in character.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar saves a scene		Honorable mention to Meagan Holder's delivery of "vivid, electrifying, specific details"; I would come back to the show for a bottle ep with these three: But once again it's MPG as MVP. The eye-flicking awkwardness in the elevator with Noah is surpassed, hilariously, by the moment when Lawson spots Baker and his ex returning from their interview. He is so teeny in this shot and still conveys social paralysis. Hee. Hee!
Nice feminism, jeez		I agree that Baker doesn't need a man to come save her, but the stemwinder fell flat for me given that her male catcher actually did have to come settle her down. And see above re: Evelyn's Carmela Soprano moment -- not that couples don't have agreements about who's "leading," or that it means it's imbalanced by definition, but I'd expected better for that character.
Shut-in statheads live in their mom's basements		With love for Jack McGee's gorgeous response to "Apparently her RPMs are lower" -- "So's my NUTSACK!" -- Oscar calling Ross "Beautiful Mind" isn't cute.