GaryMrMets
10-10-2003, 02:09 AM
http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/phi/news/phi_press_release.jsp?ymd=20031006&content_id=566210&vkey=pr_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi
10/06/2003 2:10 PM ET
Start dates announced for new sports reality show that will give 'Average Joes' a shot at making the pros
Philadelphia, PA - It's the movie "The Rookie" meets American Idol. Meridian Pictures-MMG, a company with a long and successful track record of producing feature films and network television shows, in a strategic alignment with the Philadelphia Phillies, will be taping new sports reality television series entitled Extreme Dreams which will follow twenty baseball hopefuls in their quest for a contract to play with the Philadelphia Phillies. The first of the national open tryouts for the show will be held October 19 at Lackawanna County Stadium, in Moosic, Pennsylvania, home of the Phillies' AAA ball club, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. The premise of the show is to canvass the country through a national search to find twenty guys who have the talent, but for whatever reasons, never got the opportunity to play pro ball, and then through a seven-week competition and elimination process give one of them a shot at making the big leagues.
The show isn't looking for "has-beens", their talent pool will be drawn from guys who fall into the category of "never was...but could have."
"For anyone that watched the movie 'The Rookie,' here's a reality based TV show that will give you the same feeling of rooting for the underdog that you got, and loved, while watching the movie," states Rick Muntean, General Manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. "For every guy that ever dreamed of playing pro sports, it will be 'the' show to watch and a huge, huge once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the individual participants."
The Phillies scouting staff will be assisting in the Extreme Dreams tryout camps around the country on a limited basis. Gene Schall, area Scouting Supervisor for the Phillies will be at the first of tryouts on October 19th. Regional tryouts for the show will be held in ten locations around the country, including dates in Las Vegas, St. Louis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Texas, Minnesota, South Carolina and the Phillies winter home - the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Florida.
Because of the expected numbers of people wanting to try out, prospective entrants are encouraged to go the show's website at www.extremedreams.tv and sign up for a pre-registration number for the regional tryout they would like to attend. Explained the show's creator, MMG president Tony DeRosa-Grund, "We wanted to make it as simple and efficient as possible for guys to participate. It's absolutely free to try out and it's first come, first serve for spots in the tryout line. Someone comes to the site and fills out a form about what positions they play, where they are from, what levels of ball they have played - and then the system assigns them the next available spot in the tryout line for their region. All they have to do then is show up with their photo id; glove and a printout of their registration and release forms and take their reserved spot in line." Cautioned DeRosa-Grund, "Logistically we can only evaluate about 1200 participants in any one region, so once the pre-registrations in an area reach that number we have to stop taking entries."
The producers will take twenty players, two for each positions (including DH) - enough to make two full ten man teams, from the national tryouts around the country. The basic eligibility requirements are you must be over 18, never been signed to a professional baseball contract - at any level of competition and you can never have been paid to play organized ball.
The actual tryouts will be based on the programs the Phillies use in their own tryout camps. Already, a number of potential "major leaguers" have already found the website and registered. According to DeRosa-Grund, "These guys are all 'Average Joes' in their regular lives, we have truck drivers, insurance salesmen, teachers - real everyday guys from all walks of life, but the one thing that they do have in common is they all have exceptional baseball talent. We have a 40-year-old pediatrician, a pitcher, trying out who purportedly throws in the low 90's. I've got a former UNLV player, sidelined in his younger days by an injury that now catches in a year round adult league ...eight innings a game, then doubles as a relief pitcher and closes in the late innings. We fully expect to find the next Jim Morris," a reference to the 35-year-old high school science teacher whose life story became the movie "The Rookie."
Hopeful entrants will have to not only demonstrate their baseball prowess but also their overall physical condition which will have to get the approval of the Extreme Dreams fitness and training guru Jim Brown, also known affectionately as the "Terminator." Brown, a world class power lifter who has personally trained a number of the Phillies AAA players who have gone on to play in the majors, is described as the combination of a drill sergeant and the reincarnation of a torturer from the Inquisition. Tough does not begin to describe Brown. Participants who make it through the tryout process and get selected for the show will have to watch out for Brown. If he feels a competitor isn't giving 110%, Brown has the right to put the contestant on the "disabled list" - which effectively stops them from advancing to subsequent rounds. Said Brown, "This is really reality television -there are no second takes here. When these guys come to Scranton they are in my house! I know from firsthand experience what it will take for them to be successful in the pros. If they can't work at full throttle all the time, 24/7 for whatever reason - they don't deserve the shot. Plain and simple."
If getting past Brown weren't enough, tryout participants will have to face the ProBatter pitching system as a true and consistent means of measuring hitting ability. This system, used by a number of MLB teams, is a true-to-life baseball pitching simulator. The ProBatter permits a hitter to observe the life-size image of an actual pitcher winding up and delivering a pitch which is thrown through its video screen, by a computer-controlled pitching module that can throw curves, sliders and fastballs as well as a range of pitches at speeds up to 100 MPH!
The twenty finalists ultimately selected will be taken back to Scranton, PA, home of the Phillies' AAA team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. They will all be housed together, and over a seven-week period Extreme Dreams' cameras will follow them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week as they are put through an exhaustive training and competition process, with a lot of twists and turns, all overseen by a three man judging panel made up of legendary retired major league players. The identity of these judges will be announced at a press conference slated for early December.
Along with the judges, the home viewers will also be empowered in the show's weekly and final selection process. By phone and internet voting the viewing public will have their votes count for 50% of the final point tallies in selecting the ultimate winner.
In the second week of the series, through votes coming from the viewing audience and the judges, the twenty players will be divided into 'A' and 'B' teams. Over the next three weeks the competitors will jockey to make, or stay on, the 'A' team because in the fifth week, the entire 'B' team will be eliminated from the competition.
In the sixth week of the show, the final competition segment of the series, the 'A' team will play an exhibition game against a "dream team" made up entirely of recently retired major league players. This game will be the final arbiter where the judges and the viewers get their chance to send one finalist to Citizens Bank Park, where prior to a Phillies home game, our Extreme Dreams winner will get their private, closed, one-on-one tryout with the Phillies.
Said DeRosa-Grund, "There will be an extraordinary amount of drama and emotion coming into play. You have twenty highly competitive guys, housed together, each leaving their families and jobs - basically putting their lives on hold for seven weeks for this chance to make the pros. Now factor in the pressure of the competition, living and training together, all vying for that one single slot - that once in a lifetime chance to make a big league baseball team. If that weren't enough, combine all of this with the stress on these guys of what is going on back at home while they are gone and you have a highly charged environment. That is brutal, stark reality, and it makes for great television."
Meridian Pictures parent company, MMG, is currently in active discussions with a number of retired coaches and players to participate as judges. Additionally, they are having conversations with a number of recently retired major league players to play against the Extreme Dreams "A" team. The discussions are being facilitated by both the Phillies and prominent sports management entity CSMG, which represents talent such as Randy Johnson and Donovan McNabb. Bob Gutkowski, CSMG's Vice-Chairman, is spearheading his company's involvement in the project. Mr. Gutkowski is the former President of Madison Square Garden and in that position was responsible for the operations of the New York Knickerbockers basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team, which won the 1994 Stanley Cup. MMG is also in "active discussions" with two broadcast networks and three major cable channels to carry the show.
MMG is not only limiting Extreme Dreams to baseball. According to DeRosa-Grund, "The first season will also include two additional, separate, seven-episode series on professional basketball and stock car racing. Pro football and hockey are on the schedule to join the aforementioned sports in season two.
About MMG & Tony DeRosa-Grund:
MultiModal Media Group (MMG) is a feature film, network television and music production company with a long and successful track record in the business. Meridian Pictures is the live action film and television division of the company. Toonwerks Studios is responsible for its animated fare.
The concept for the Extreme Dreams series was conceived by MMG founder Tony DeRosa-Grund, who has produced and been the executive-in-charge of numerous film and television productions including the Universal Pictures/MGM's "Josie and the Pussycats" movie.
Under his tenure as the former, and founding, President and CEO of Archie Comics film and television division, he helped shepherd the comic company's Sabrina the Teenage Witch series from ABC to the WB where it just ended its seven-year network primetime run. Said DeRosa-Grund, "For a long time we wanted to do a reality show; however, only if we could do one that was all at once smart, intelligent, we wanted to put the real back into reality television. Basically, we came up with the concept of taking the premise of the true story behind the movie 'The Rookie' and making a reality series that was all at once exciting, dramatic and compelling. We wanted to put the real back into reality television and this show does exactly that."
For media inquiries, please contact Tony DeRosa-Grund at (570) 839-8000 ext. 11 or via e-mail at tonydg@multimodalmedia.com.
10/06/2003 2:10 PM ET
Start dates announced for new sports reality show that will give 'Average Joes' a shot at making the pros
Philadelphia, PA - It's the movie "The Rookie" meets American Idol. Meridian Pictures-MMG, a company with a long and successful track record of producing feature films and network television shows, in a strategic alignment with the Philadelphia Phillies, will be taping new sports reality television series entitled Extreme Dreams which will follow twenty baseball hopefuls in their quest for a contract to play with the Philadelphia Phillies. The first of the national open tryouts for the show will be held October 19 at Lackawanna County Stadium, in Moosic, Pennsylvania, home of the Phillies' AAA ball club, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. The premise of the show is to canvass the country through a national search to find twenty guys who have the talent, but for whatever reasons, never got the opportunity to play pro ball, and then through a seven-week competition and elimination process give one of them a shot at making the big leagues.
The show isn't looking for "has-beens", their talent pool will be drawn from guys who fall into the category of "never was...but could have."
"For anyone that watched the movie 'The Rookie,' here's a reality based TV show that will give you the same feeling of rooting for the underdog that you got, and loved, while watching the movie," states Rick Muntean, General Manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. "For every guy that ever dreamed of playing pro sports, it will be 'the' show to watch and a huge, huge once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the individual participants."
The Phillies scouting staff will be assisting in the Extreme Dreams tryout camps around the country on a limited basis. Gene Schall, area Scouting Supervisor for the Phillies will be at the first of tryouts on October 19th. Regional tryouts for the show will be held in ten locations around the country, including dates in Las Vegas, St. Louis, Seattle, Los Angeles, Texas, Minnesota, South Carolina and the Phillies winter home - the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Florida.
Because of the expected numbers of people wanting to try out, prospective entrants are encouraged to go the show's website at www.extremedreams.tv and sign up for a pre-registration number for the regional tryout they would like to attend. Explained the show's creator, MMG president Tony DeRosa-Grund, "We wanted to make it as simple and efficient as possible for guys to participate. It's absolutely free to try out and it's first come, first serve for spots in the tryout line. Someone comes to the site and fills out a form about what positions they play, where they are from, what levels of ball they have played - and then the system assigns them the next available spot in the tryout line for their region. All they have to do then is show up with their photo id; glove and a printout of their registration and release forms and take their reserved spot in line." Cautioned DeRosa-Grund, "Logistically we can only evaluate about 1200 participants in any one region, so once the pre-registrations in an area reach that number we have to stop taking entries."
The producers will take twenty players, two for each positions (including DH) - enough to make two full ten man teams, from the national tryouts around the country. The basic eligibility requirements are you must be over 18, never been signed to a professional baseball contract - at any level of competition and you can never have been paid to play organized ball.
The actual tryouts will be based on the programs the Phillies use in their own tryout camps. Already, a number of potential "major leaguers" have already found the website and registered. According to DeRosa-Grund, "These guys are all 'Average Joes' in their regular lives, we have truck drivers, insurance salesmen, teachers - real everyday guys from all walks of life, but the one thing that they do have in common is they all have exceptional baseball talent. We have a 40-year-old pediatrician, a pitcher, trying out who purportedly throws in the low 90's. I've got a former UNLV player, sidelined in his younger days by an injury that now catches in a year round adult league ...eight innings a game, then doubles as a relief pitcher and closes in the late innings. We fully expect to find the next Jim Morris," a reference to the 35-year-old high school science teacher whose life story became the movie "The Rookie."
Hopeful entrants will have to not only demonstrate their baseball prowess but also their overall physical condition which will have to get the approval of the Extreme Dreams fitness and training guru Jim Brown, also known affectionately as the "Terminator." Brown, a world class power lifter who has personally trained a number of the Phillies AAA players who have gone on to play in the majors, is described as the combination of a drill sergeant and the reincarnation of a torturer from the Inquisition. Tough does not begin to describe Brown. Participants who make it through the tryout process and get selected for the show will have to watch out for Brown. If he feels a competitor isn't giving 110%, Brown has the right to put the contestant on the "disabled list" - which effectively stops them from advancing to subsequent rounds. Said Brown, "This is really reality television -there are no second takes here. When these guys come to Scranton they are in my house! I know from firsthand experience what it will take for them to be successful in the pros. If they can't work at full throttle all the time, 24/7 for whatever reason - they don't deserve the shot. Plain and simple."
If getting past Brown weren't enough, tryout participants will have to face the ProBatter pitching system as a true and consistent means of measuring hitting ability. This system, used by a number of MLB teams, is a true-to-life baseball pitching simulator. The ProBatter permits a hitter to observe the life-size image of an actual pitcher winding up and delivering a pitch which is thrown through its video screen, by a computer-controlled pitching module that can throw curves, sliders and fastballs as well as a range of pitches at speeds up to 100 MPH!
The twenty finalists ultimately selected will be taken back to Scranton, PA, home of the Phillies' AAA team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. They will all be housed together, and over a seven-week period Extreme Dreams' cameras will follow them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week as they are put through an exhaustive training and competition process, with a lot of twists and turns, all overseen by a three man judging panel made up of legendary retired major league players. The identity of these judges will be announced at a press conference slated for early December.
Along with the judges, the home viewers will also be empowered in the show's weekly and final selection process. By phone and internet voting the viewing public will have their votes count for 50% of the final point tallies in selecting the ultimate winner.
In the second week of the series, through votes coming from the viewing audience and the judges, the twenty players will be divided into 'A' and 'B' teams. Over the next three weeks the competitors will jockey to make, or stay on, the 'A' team because in the fifth week, the entire 'B' team will be eliminated from the competition.
In the sixth week of the show, the final competition segment of the series, the 'A' team will play an exhibition game against a "dream team" made up entirely of recently retired major league players. This game will be the final arbiter where the judges and the viewers get their chance to send one finalist to Citizens Bank Park, where prior to a Phillies home game, our Extreme Dreams winner will get their private, closed, one-on-one tryout with the Phillies.
Said DeRosa-Grund, "There will be an extraordinary amount of drama and emotion coming into play. You have twenty highly competitive guys, housed together, each leaving their families and jobs - basically putting their lives on hold for seven weeks for this chance to make the pros. Now factor in the pressure of the competition, living and training together, all vying for that one single slot - that once in a lifetime chance to make a big league baseball team. If that weren't enough, combine all of this with the stress on these guys of what is going on back at home while they are gone and you have a highly charged environment. That is brutal, stark reality, and it makes for great television."
Meridian Pictures parent company, MMG, is currently in active discussions with a number of retired coaches and players to participate as judges. Additionally, they are having conversations with a number of recently retired major league players to play against the Extreme Dreams "A" team. The discussions are being facilitated by both the Phillies and prominent sports management entity CSMG, which represents talent such as Randy Johnson and Donovan McNabb. Bob Gutkowski, CSMG's Vice-Chairman, is spearheading his company's involvement in the project. Mr. Gutkowski is the former President of Madison Square Garden and in that position was responsible for the operations of the New York Knickerbockers basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team, which won the 1994 Stanley Cup. MMG is also in "active discussions" with two broadcast networks and three major cable channels to carry the show.
MMG is not only limiting Extreme Dreams to baseball. According to DeRosa-Grund, "The first season will also include two additional, separate, seven-episode series on professional basketball and stock car racing. Pro football and hockey are on the schedule to join the aforementioned sports in season two.
About MMG & Tony DeRosa-Grund:
MultiModal Media Group (MMG) is a feature film, network television and music production company with a long and successful track record in the business. Meridian Pictures is the live action film and television division of the company. Toonwerks Studios is responsible for its animated fare.
The concept for the Extreme Dreams series was conceived by MMG founder Tony DeRosa-Grund, who has produced and been the executive-in-charge of numerous film and television productions including the Universal Pictures/MGM's "Josie and the Pussycats" movie.
Under his tenure as the former, and founding, President and CEO of Archie Comics film and television division, he helped shepherd the comic company's Sabrina the Teenage Witch series from ABC to the WB where it just ended its seven-year network primetime run. Said DeRosa-Grund, "For a long time we wanted to do a reality show; however, only if we could do one that was all at once smart, intelligent, we wanted to put the real back into reality television. Basically, we came up with the concept of taking the premise of the true story behind the movie 'The Rookie' and making a reality series that was all at once exciting, dramatic and compelling. We wanted to put the real back into reality television and this show does exactly that."
For media inquiries, please contact Tony DeRosa-Grund at (570) 839-8000 ext. 11 or via e-mail at tonydg@multimodalmedia.com.