As promised, here is the excerpt from Entertainment Weekly's spread on
"Clubhouse" from their Fall TV Issue...

I WOULDN'T SAY THAT I AM A baseball fan exactly," admits a shy,
soft-spoken Christopher Lloyd. He takes a deep breath. Maybe he should
have dodged the question. After three more seconds he caves in and
comes clean: "Okay, fine. Let's just say that as of late...I have had
no time to pay attention to it."

Great Scott! So then why has this quirky funnyman returned to the
small screen for this Wonder Years--meets-- Field of Dreams drama
centered on his not-so-favorite pastime? "I just felt like keeping my
fans on their toes," quips Lloyd. This should do it: Aside from the
occasional guest spot, Lloyd has been absent from broadcast series
television since his Emmy-winning role as Taxi's ex-hippie Rev. Jim
Ignatowski. Now the 66-year-old actor dives into his vast
character-acting repertoire to come up with curmudgeonly New York
Empires equipment manager Lou Russo, who begrudgingly becomes a father
figure to the show's teenage batboy star, Pete Young, played by Peter
Pan's Jeremy Sumpter. (Conveniently, Pete doesn't have a dad at home.)
"Lou's a throwback to the old days of baseball," explains executive
producer Daniel Cerone (Charmed). "He's gruff. He's eccentric. And
he'll be a constant presence and force in Pete's life."

Cerone modeled Pete on the experiences of real-life Yankee batboy
Matthew McGough, who back in the mid-'90s wrote dozens of letters to
the team until he got a job. (McGough's memoir, Batboy: True Life
Adventures Coming of Age With the New York Yankees, is due out opening
day 2005.) Cerone and his fellow producers, Aaron Spelling and Mel
Gibson (yes, Mel Gibson), made sure TV rookie Sumpter had plenty of
talent on the bench, in addition to Lloyd, to back him up. Clubhouse's
all-star lineup includes Mare Winningham (St. Elmo's Fire) as Pete's
overprotective single mom, Lynne; Kirsten Storms (Days of Our Lives)
as Betsy, Pete's troubled older sister; and Lois & Clark's Dean Cain
as Conrad Dean (confusing, we know), the Empires' captain and star
third baseman who is as much a nice guy as he is a dirty dog.
"Conrad's a character tailor-made for me," says the former Superman
and college-football star. "I understand what it's like to have kids
run up and ask you to sign a baseball. I understand what it's like to
be idolized. I just get that world."

Too bad that world and its juvenile jocks are itching to cause
problems for the naive, awkward teen holding their bats. In the pilot
alone, Pete is bullied by a fellow batboy, accused of steroid
possession, and taken to task by his anti-baseball mother. As the
season plays out, he'll be forced to deal with even harder-hitting
issues, including Conrad Dean's trade talks and the possibility of
Lou's forced retirement.

As if that weren't enough drama to jump-start puberty, there's a girl
around (Leah Pipes) to complicate matters. "He will experience the
firsts of any 16-year-old boy--first kiss, first paycheck, first
fight, first heartbreak," says Cerone. "The catch is that he only
really has the baseball stars to help him through it. And judging from
what happens, they don't always provide the best advice." At least
Pete will have a good excuse when he screws up: The pitcher made me do
it. --Karyn L. Barr