Kyle Schwarber crushed it.
Hours before the Phillies played the Braves at Citizens Bank Park on Aug. 28, Schwarber rehearsed his cameo for a scene in Wednesday night’s episode of ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” whose creator and star is Philadelphia native Quinta Brunson. The episode follows Brunson and her castmates attending a Phillies game as part of “Teachers Appreciation Night.”
Schwarber’s rehearsal went well. Now, he just needed to play well against Atlanta.
“I hope I don’t screw up tonight,” Schwarber joked.
But Schwarber hit four home runs against the Braves, becoming just the 21st player in baseball history to homer four times in a game. It made everything about the episode more Hollywood than anybody in Hollywood could have imagined.
“For it to be Kyle, for it to be Schwarbs, who homered four times, who was already such a big part of the episode, that was just wild and ecstatic,” said Chris Perfetti, who plays the character Jacob Hill. “It was surreal. We had the freedom to sort of react to the game, to just stay in character and be there. But I remember, it was after the third homer, I think, we all just stood up as ourselves, losing our minds that it was Kyle again.
“I remember just looking at Quinta and being like, ‘What is happening?’”
Long before that historic night, Major League Baseball had reached out to “Abbott Elementary” about its potential interest in shooting an episode at the ballpark with the Phillies.
It loved the idea.
“Do you think we could shoot it at a game?” the show asked.
Absolutely.
Both parties got to work.
“They’re pitching story and characters, we’re pitching how to make it baseball authentic,” said Nick Trotta, who is MLB’s vice president of global media programming and licensing. “But this was one of destiny. It was meant to be.”
It’s not uncommon to have scenes in TV shows and movies set at professional sporting events. Oftentimes, however, those scenes are not shot at the home ballpark, stadium or arena.
As a result, it looks and feels like it was shot at a random college outside Pasadena, Calif., which it probably was.
But everything in this episode was real. It was all shot in Philly at the Bank.
“Every time I see that happen on television, I cringe,” said "Abbott Elementary" executive producer and director Randall Einhorn. “We did it there. We filmed two days without anybody else there, and then we came back and filmed during the game. During the game is where we caught some real extra bonus energy. Seeing our cast feed off what’s happening on the field, seeing Kyle Schwarber hit four home runs ... oh my God, that was crazy. You can’t script that type of energy, and it really came across on the screen.”
The episode’s writer was on set, so when Schwarber hit his first homer, everybody could adjust and react accordingly.
“The baseball gods were smiling on us,” Trotta said. “After the second homer, I joked with the writer, ‘This has to be part of the episode, because he’s gonna hit a third one.’ And then he hits a third one and a fourth one. So while the show is completely fictional, Kyle Schwarber’s historic four-homer game is now part of Abbott’s cinematic universe.”
Einhorn made a point to be as authentic as possible throughout the episode, besides getting in-game footage of Schwarber homering and rounding the bases. Phillies public address announcer Dan Baker made the in-game announcements. Perfetti’s character references real Phillies programs, happenings and food offerings at the ballpark.
“I don’t think you can fake that place or that energy,” Einhorn said.
Einhorn wanted Schwarber to be real, too.
“The first thing Kyle said during rehearsals is, ‘Look, I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m not sure what to say,’” Einhorn said. “I said, ‘Anything Kyle Schwarber would say, Kyle Schwarber can say. Anything Kyle Schwarber would do, Kyle Schwarber can do. Just be Kyle Schwarber in the scene. Say what you want to say, think what you want to think and it’s going to be great.’ What I wanted most was authenticity from Kyle. And he was fantastic. That’s a smart dude who can hit a baseball.”
“I really enjoyed making my acting debut with such a great crew on a show that’s so Philly and hilarious," Schwarber said. "Quinta and the team definitely brought me some luck that night.”
Sure enough, Schwarber’s scene looks and feels natural.
“I thought he killed it,” Perfetti said. “After you give a performance like that in your chosen field, I’m sure he was riding high. But I appreciate him and the fact that he was able to come down from that game and be able to perform so well and be so generous with his time. I just couldn’t believe it. We’re going to have to find some way for him to come back."