According to a story posted by Deadline this morning, principal photography is complete on a documentary series about the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers.
The project — titled Just a Bit Outside: The Story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers — has some pretty hefty firepower behind it, including former CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl, and Cannonball Productions principals Sean Hanish and Paul Jaconi-Biery. Hanish will handle directing duties, while all three will serve as producers.
Based on the Deadline story, Hanish has the strongest direct connection to Harvey’s Wallbangers, having attended more than 60 games that season when he was just 14. “Being able to meet my boyhood idols and hear them open up about the highs and lows of that season, and their intimate connection to each other, and to Brewer fans, is the culmination of a boyhood dream that I’m thrilled to share with sports lovers everywhere,” he told Deadline.
For readers not big into baseball or not old enough to remember there was, in fact, a very long time where the Brewers were not very good that was preceded by a brief period where they were very, VERY good, the 1982 squad posted the best record in the league (95-67) and won the franchise’s only American League title thanks in part to Cecil Cooper.
Unfortunately, the team’s late-season habit of coming through in big games didn’t carry over to the World Series, which it lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Still, that collection of players was one of the most beloved in club history — so much so that the city threw them a parade anyway.
According to Deadline, the Brewers are active participants in the project, which will include interviews with Baseball Hall of Famers Robin Yount, Ted Simmons, Paul Molitor, Rollie Fingers, Bud Selig and Bob Uecker, as well as two-time American League home-run champ and associate producer Gorman Thomas, Cy Young Award-winner Pete Vukovich, five-time All-Star Cecil Cooper and other members of the team.
No word yet about a release date or the inevitable dramatized version that better star David Harbour as Pete Vukovich.
