The first episode of John Fitzgerald's reality series on independent minor league baseball, Playing for Peanuts, aired on the Mets' SNY network yesterday. It features the titular hero of this blog, Wally Backman, as the manager of the South Georgia Peanuts of the South Coast League.
Fitzgerald spend a good portion of the first episode talking about Wally's past, including the problems he's had. He didn't sugarcoat anything, although there still seems an element of "he said, she said" about the domestic violence charge. According to Wally, he got bashed in the arm by a friend of his wife's, with whom he was arguing and trying to get to leave his house. Wally suffered a broken arm, and pled guilty to a charge of misdemeanor harassment relating to the incident. Weird, but in any case, he's paid his debt to society in more ways than one.
The episode took us up to opening day, so we've yet to see Backman manage a game, although Fitzgerald did present testimonials from several Backman Backers, including Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Conor Jackson, Backman's former teammate and current Mets' broadcaster Ron Darling, and several Peanuts players who'd worked with Wally in the D-Backs' system. Looking forward to seeing him/them in action.
The show's Website is here.
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