The Chicago Cubs are taking a swing at something far outside the usual game-day playbook: a scripted romantic comedy series built for social media.
The club announced Monday that it will release a 17-part mini-series on its TikTok account. Variety was first to report the project, noting that the Cubs’ creative team worked with Cubs Productions and another local production service to make the short-form series.
The title is “Nine Inning to Love,” and the premise is as classic rom-com as it gets. Two Cubs fans meet in the bleachers and spend the course of a game falling for each other. Variety published the official synopsis, which centers on Ava, played by Veronica Garrubbo, and David, played by Sid Kutikkad.
“Ava (Veronica Garrubbo), an aspiring romance writer in a slump, and David (Sid Kutikkad), a sweet but love-shy seatmate who does not believe romance is real, over the course of one Cubs game. After an accidental bleacher meet-cute leaves them stuck together for the game, Ava makes David a promise: before the final out, she will help him find a summer fling inside Wrigley Field. But as Ava turns the ballpark into a rom-com training ground, complete with swings and misses, a makeover, a returning ex and a ninth-inning chase, she starts to realize the story she has been trying to write may be happening right in front of her.”
The Cubs also released a trailer, and the setup leans hard into the team’s branding: plenty of Cubs gear, plenty of Wrigley Field, and plenty of reasons to think the whole thing is meant to stop a scroll fast. The full run will be spread across 17 posts on TikTok, though the length of each episode hasn’t been made clear.
It’s a pretty unconventional move, but it lands at a time when romantic sports stories have been having a moment. The source material points to projects like Heat Rivalry and Hallmark’s recent NFL Christmas movies as part of that trend.
And the Cubs may not be alone in Chicago for long. Another local team is set to get the Hallmark treatment soon, with the Bears’ rom-com story scheduled to arrive in October.
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