"Playing for Peanuts"

Tomorrow night, a new reality series will debut on Sportsnet New York (SNY) called "Playing for Peanuts." It is being made by John Fitzgerald, who made the fine "The Emerald Diamond" documentary a couple of years back about baseball and how it has grown in Ireland.

This reality series is centered around Wally Backman, the former Mets second baseman from the 1980s who was denied the job of managing the Arizona Diamondbacks a few years ago after the stories of his arrest for assaulting a neighbor's wife came to light. The series follows the team he's managing, the South Georgia Peanuts, a minor league team in the now-defunct South Coast League. The team is mixed bag of youngsters and veterans who have dreams of making it to the big time. Backman still has his dream of getting to the Big Leagues as a manager.

"Playing for Peanuts" has 10 episodes, and will make its debut on Sunday night at 6 PM on SNY in New York. The show will also debut on the following stations tomorrow as well:

CSN Chicago (DISH: 429, DIRECT: 640)- May 11 @ 7pm.
Sportsnet Philadelphia - May 11 @ 7pm.
Sportsnet New England (DISH:435, DIRECT: 620) - May 11 @ 7pm
Sportsnet Bay Area (DISH: 419, DIRECT: 654)- May 11 @ 8pm

The above clip is a commercial for the debut of tomorrow night's opener. I hope you will support John's efforts, as I've gotten to know him since "The Emerald Diamond" came out and he is a terrific filmmaker. You can find out more about "Playing for Peanuts" by going to the blog John has for it: http://www.playingforpeanuts.com