May 25, 2024

For immediate release

Contact: Mill River Films

through this website

“Baseball is such a metaphor for people’s dreams anyway. But a guy who throws only one pitch in the major leagues then his life spirals down into despair –– it’s a metaphor on top of a metaphor.” – Dialogue from The Pitch

Baseball, best friends ... and betrayal.

The Pitch, a dramatic feature film based on a successful stage play, may be coming to streaming platforms this summer. This week, the film was picked up by the distributor Filmhub, who will begin marketing it to the various streaming services.

The haunting story is about a retired sportswriter who reluctantly agrees to collaborate with a young sportswriter on a biography of a recently deceased, boyhood friend of the older writer, an obscure baseball player who threw only one pitch in the major leagues nearly fifty years earlier then mysteriously dropped out of the game a month later. His life then descended into alcoholism and homelessness. But it soon becomes evident there’s a dark secret at the heart of the pitcher’s story –– one the older writer fiercely intends to protect.

Because the film is a character-driven story, it should appeal to anyone, whether they’re a baseball fan or not.

A production of Mill River Films, the movie was shot in and around Northampton, Mass. in the spring and summer of 2023. It stars John Haag playing the older sportswriter and Julian Findlay playing the younger one.

They are reprising roles they originated on stage in regional professional theater in New England. The play debuted at the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, Mass., in March 2020, and was called by one reviewer, “As crisp and tantalizing as a backdoor slider.” Another called the performances, “Terrific.”

Both the play and the film were written by Stan Freeman, a former newspaper reporter, who also produced and directed the film.

Haag, a veteran stage actor who has narrated more than 200 audio books, had a strong reaction to the story of The Pitch.

“The play is beautifully written,” he said. “When I first read it, I was astounded by how much I identified with the character. I guess I am getting older and I’m pretty much a curmudgeon like my character. Hopefully not entirely. But so much of this man’s background –– I’ll just say it’s close to the bone.”

Findlay, a graduate of Harvard who trained and performed over six seasons at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., was also immediately drawn to the story.

“What I especially liked when I first read The Pitch is that the story felt very Shakespearean. It had the same kind of high stakes as a Shakespeare play. And it had the same kind of mystery that you find in many of Shakespeare plays,” he said.

Freeman spent nearly three decades as a newspaper reporter before turning to playwriting and filmmaking. His articles appeared in more than 40 newspapers.

This is the first feature film he directed. However, he produced and directed several award-winning short films previously.

“We shot this film in a very unconventional way. Since almost all the actors were based in Western Massachusetts and travel was not an issue, we shot, on average, one scene a week over seven months,” Freeman said.

“But we never seemed to work more than two hours at a time when we did shoot,” he said. “One reason was because I nearly always shot with multiple cameras, generally three at a time. So we weren’t having to constantly break down and set up to shoot the same scene from different angles.”

“Most film shoots have long shooting days, coming one after another, so everyone – cast and crew – can easily burn out and nerves can quickly fray. But because of the leisurely pace we shot The Pitch, everyone on our set seemed to be relaxed, well-prepared and ready to go,” Freeman said. “Making this film was actually a very enjoyable experience.”