Playing for Peanuts is a 10-episode documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 television series about minor league baseball

Minor league baseball

Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

. The ten episode series follows the South Georgia Peanuts of the independent South Coast League

South Coast League

The South Coast League of Professional Baseball , based in Conyers, Georgia, was a professional, independent baseball organization located in the Southeastern United States. It operated in cities not served by Major or Minor League Baseball teams and was not affiliated with either. It folded...

 during the 2007 season.

The series centered on former New York Mets star Wally Backman

Wally Backman

Walter Wayne Backman is a former Major League Baseball second baseman. He is best known for his time with the New York Mets from - and was a member of their 1986 World Series-winning team...

's managerial comeback, following a 3-day stint as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004. Backman had been fired by Arizona after past legal troubles surfaced.

Playing for Peanuts premiered on 9 regional sports networks on May 11, 2008. The show was received favorably by baseball fans and the sports media, but it was removed from TV by the producer John J. Fitzgerald after a dispute with SportsNet New York

SportsNet New York

SportsNet New York is a New York City-based regional sports cable network which airs in the New York metro area and all of New York state, and nationwide via satellite. It is owned jointly by the New York Mets, Time Warner Cable, and NBCUniversal...

 due to the network's refusal to promote the show. Fitzgerald maintained that the network refused to promote the show because it might be seen as an endorsement of Backman to a replace New York Mets manager Willie Randolph

Willie Randolph

Willie Larry Randolph is a former Major League Baseball second baseman and manager, most recently the third base coach for the Baltimore Orioles...

. SportsNet New York is owned by the Mets parent company Sterling Equities.

In November 2009, Backman was hired by the New York Mets

New York Mets

The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...

 to manage their Class A affiliate Brooklyn Cyclones

Brooklyn Cyclones

The Brooklyn Cyclones is a minor league baseball team in the Short-Season A classification New York - Penn League, affiliated with the New York Mets. The Cyclones play at MCU Park just off the Coney Island boardwalk in the New York City borough of Brooklyn....

. According to Baseball Digest

Baseball Digest

Baseball Digest is a baseball magazine resource, published in Evanston, Illinois by Lakeside Publishing Company. It is the oldest and longest-running baseball magazine in the United States....

, Backman had asked Fitzgerald for the cell phone number of Mets COO Jeff Wilpon

Jeff Wilpon

Jeffrey Scott Wilpon is the COO of the New York Mets baseball team and the executive vice-president of Sterling Equities. Jeff is the son of New York Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon. Jeff and other Wilpon family members invested with Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme that collapsed in 2008...

. After calling Wilpon, Backman reportedly impressed the team during a series of interviews, leading to his hiring.