How ‘A Man on the Inside’ Pulled Off Its Baseball Scene (and What Had to Get Cut)

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As a baseball enthusiast myself, I must say that the seventh episode of Netflix’s A Man on the Inside, titled “From Russian Hill With Love,” was an absolute home run for me! The way they incorporated baseball into the narrative, especially with Calbert’s character, resonated deeply with my love for the sport.

[This story contains some spoilers for Netflix‘s A Man on the Inside, and specifically episode seven, “From Russian Hill With Love.”]

In a casual, easy-to-understand manner, one could say that the creators of the Netflix series, “A Man on the Inside,” labeled the seventh episode as their version of “The Ferris Bueller Episode.

Charles (Ted Danson), the widower who’s gone undercover inside a San Francisco retirement community to help a private investigator, and his new friend Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson) ditch an outing at a local mall to see the city’s sights. Via Calbert’s access to his son’s company car and “the magic of television,” as creator Mike Schur put it, the two friends take a boat tour past Alcatraz, view the Golden Gate Bridge, chat in a redwood forest, take in a view of the Palace of Fine Arts and watch a Giants game at Oracle Park, where they have a heartfelt conversation about their fraught relationships with their adult kids.

It’s a touching scene, and also a big one for Schur, a huge baseball fan who has written about the game (at the late, great Fire Joe Morgan website) and co-hosts a podcast with sportswriter Joe Posnanski that is (often) about baseball.

For Schur, baseball held a significant role. He viewed Calbert as a baseball enthusiast from the beginning, noting their shared passion. He expressed that Stephen wasn’t just a fan of sports like football or basketball; instead, he was a baseball aficionado. This impression stemmed from Stephen’s tranquil demeanor and thoughtful nature, qualities that suggested a deep love for the sport. As they developed the character, these traits became more evident, solidifying Schur’s belief that this was the perfect choice.

Initially, the writers planned for the scene to unfold during a Golden State Warriors game when Calbert was supposed to be portrayed. However, once Stephen joined the cast, I found myself thinking, “he’s not your typical NBA star.” Nevertheless, the NBA did find its way into the show through Margaret Avery’s character, Florence, who is a die-hard Warriors fan.

With Major League Baseball’s assistance, Danson, Henderson, and their team, known as “The Man on the Inside,” captured the scene at Oracle Park in May. They primarily recorded the dialogue before the park opened for that day’s Giants versus Cincinnati Reds game, utilizing approximately 200 background actors in the right-field stands. Later, they re-shot parts of the footage to integrate these actors amidst the actual 37,000 spectators attending the game.

In the scene where they strolled along the concourse and settled down, it was still the first inning’s bottom. Suddenly, a player from the Giants blasted a grand slam, causing an uproar. Schur recounted that they watched this unfold, jumping with joy and applauding. We kept urging the cameraman to focus on the game action. The runner was clearly seen circling the bases, and it was awe-inspiring.

The issue was that nothing matched the mood set in the previously shot scene.

Immediately after it concluded, Schur remarked, “Wow, we can’t utilize any of that.” It wouldn’t be appropriate to depict the crowd in a frenzy one moment, then switch to them having a calm, reflective conversation about their children without any indication of what transpired earlier.

Apart from another challenge, the team encountered an unusual one according to Schur: “It turned out to be Hello Kitty bucket hat night, so the crowd was adorned with these hats. We had to maneuver around them as best we could while shooting. However, I’m a huge fan of baseball stadiums; I find them incredibly serene and breathtakingly beautiful. It was a joy for us to be able to shoot in a genuine stadium during an actual game.

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2024-12-01 20:24