Baseball-based TV series shooting in St. Petersburg

Late on a recent weekday afternoon, a St. Pete Beach police vehicle was cruising slowly southward on the white sand, on patrol, when the officer inside noticed three young men casually tossing a football back and forth. Not far away, two others were playing catch with a baseball. Several more stood nearby, watching the activity under the stifling sun.

The officer pulled his car up close and rolled down the window, and everyone said hello. After a moment or two of small talk, a woman appeared, introduced herself, and politely explained that they were shooting a scene for a TV series. The young men playing ball were actors, and 50 yards away there was a camera – she pointed and the camera operator waved. The woman told the officer he was welcome to stay and watch, but could he please move his vehicle out of range?

Once the car was relocated, the young men resumed their rehearsed beach play. Through his windshield, the officer watched for a while, and when the director shouted “Cut,” he drove off.

Candice T. Cain, the woman on the beach, is the writer, producer and director of Heavy Hitters, which has been shooting in St. Petersburg since early September. From New York, where production began, Cain brought a crew of 23, along with 19 clean-cut young actors.

They’re actors who happen to be athletes, too. Heavy Hitters is a baseball drama, following a group of hopefuls through the various stages of their professional careers. While the first season, already in the can, is all about their experiences in the pre-draft combine, Season 2 brings them to Florida for Draft Camp.

Although many in her cast (they’re all in their 20s) had little to no acting experience, Cain, who’s made more than 25 films and series, knew she could work with them. What was absolutely crucial, she explained, was that they could actually play baseball. She’s a a former athlete who passionately loves baseball, and a stickler for authenticity.

New York Yankees utility player Oswaldo Cabrera with writer, producer and director Candice T. Cain. Instagram photo.

“I love working with athletes,” she said. “Because they’re the most coachable. And the levels that these guys play, they’re coachable. And I can tell them what to do, and they will do it. They listen to me and they respect me and they follow me.

“Last season, a lot of them called me Coach. Some of them called me Captain. There was one time I said ‘Take a knee,’ and they all dropped to one knee while I talked to them.”

Early scenes for Season 2 were completed in New York before the company decamped for Florida, with several pro players making guest appearances, including Seth McClung. Pat Pacillo is in Season 1; Nelson Figueroa appears as himself in both seasons. “And Oswaldo Cabrera, who’s currently on the Yankees, came in,” Cain said. “He doesn’t have any experience acting in a show, and not only that, English is his second language. So you work with it.

“I’ve worked with a lot of actors. And working with actors is different than working with athletes. Because no matter how hard you try, you cannot hurt an athlete’s feelings.”

Ted Rodliff was a lefty D1 pitcher at New York’s Stony Brook University. In Heavy Hitters, he plays center fielder Scott Flanagan.

“For this show to be successful, the authenticity of it is so important,” he said. “The speed of the play, the speed of the pitch, the speed of the bat – all things that if you’re a true baseball fan, you’ll see. It’s the little intricacies of it.”

Rodliff had zero prior acting experience. “For me, it’s very fun to come into this world, and get to experience this whole process. The first couple days of Season 1, I was a deer in the headlights – don’t look at the camera, don’t look at the camera. Coming back for Season 2, I feel already more comfortable.”

The company has already shot scenes at Hotel Zamora, Oliver Field, Outcast Brewing, Sky Beach Resort and other locations.

There’s camaraderie amongst the actor/athletes. “We were in Long Island for two months, so I got to live with a lot of these guys,” explained Philadelphia’s Andrew Larkin, whose onscreen character is pitcher Brendan Crane. “We were rooming together, we were on set together for two months – so from the off-set experience, we created a family. We created a brotherhood.”

Which is exactly what Cain wanted, and expected, to happen. “I don’t want it to come across like I have power over these guys,” she insisted, “because I don’t. These guys are here because they want to be here. They want to push their careers. And they’re working together as a team. That’s what makes this show so unique. We all work together like a team.”

Like a team – like a family – they go out to dinner together, they spend non-filmmaking hours together, “really creating a foundation outside of the work,” Larkin said, “so that once we got into the work, we felt free and safe to really be able to express and honor these scenes.”

Cain was very clear, from the start, about what she wanted to accomplish. “It’s very disappointing to me that there is not a show for baseball. Every show that comes in for baseball has it at the periphery, not in the epicenter.”

Executive producer Pamela Steenland is paying the bills for Heavy Hitters, which is produced under a “SAG micro budget agreement” through the Screen Actors Guild.

Corin Nemec, from the 1990s sitcom Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, has joined the cast this season as the president of baseball operations for the Miami Marlins. Also making appearances are name actors including Ted King and Christopher Atkins, as well as former City Councilmember Robert Blackmon.

Talks are underway with several distribution and streaming services, Cain reports. Her hope is to have Season 1 available the day after Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.

The company will take a break in early October, then return to St. Pete at the end of the month to polish off Season 2.

From Rockland, New York, Mark Keegan is having the time of his life. His childhood dream, he explained, was to replace Derek Jeter as the Yankees’ star shortstop. “I played through all the years, from T-Ball through varsity high school ball,” said the enthusiastic actor, who appears as catcher Ryan Stevens. “I ended on a real high note my senior year.

“But for college, I decided to turn in another direction. I always did love film and TV – so that was my second calling. I packed up the cleats.”

Keegan started by getting work as an extra on TV shows, then going to auditions. He appeared in a couple of student films. “Acting has been my most favorite thing to do, in my life,” he explained. “And I did not expect that at all.”

He landed a part in Cain’s TV movie The Wedding Belle. She was already prepping Heavy Hitters.

Keegan remembers: “She was like, ‘Do you play baseball?’ I said, ‘literally my whole life.’

“She said ‘Did you ever play catcher?’ I was like, ‘I got my gear in the car right now.’ I was ready to go.”