Major League Baseball

Big Papi inks show deal with MTV

Published Nov. 11, 2013 12:00 a.m. ET

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MTV Networks and Major league Baseball announced a partnership Monday where the two companies will collaborate on a weekly 30-episode series that combines pop culture and baseball, according to The Associated Press. Big Papi will join Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen behind the scenes as executive producers of the series.

Tim Brosnan, MLB’s executive vice president for business, said MTV’s initial interest in snagging Ortiz to produce the series came from an MLB Fan Cave video that featured the Red Sox slugger walking around New York City asking Yankees fans for a hug.

The network was sold when it heard Ortiz, described as the musical director for the Red Sox clubhouse, was on board.

“That’s gold for us,” MTV president Stephen Friedman told The AP.

Ortiz has grown as a clubhouse leader over the last couple of seasons, and one of his biggest roles with the series will be getting other baseball players involved — a task that he doesn’t see as being too difficult.

“Players want to be musicians and musicians want to be players,” Ortiz said. “So it’s going to be pretty easy to get my friends in baseball to have fun on MTV.”

The series will start shooting in the spring of 2014 and will likely air on MTV2.

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