ASHEVILLE--Andie MacDowell stays pretty busy and doesn't get out to McCormick Field ballpark as much as she would like.

But the actress based here loves baseball and spent some time at the park this summer with filmmaker Rod Murphy shooting the documentary "Before the First Pitch." The seven-minute short, which details the backstage action leading up to an Asheville Tourists game, will be shown on the scoreboard at McCormick Field. The first showing is just before Sunday's game, and MacDowell will be there to see it.

"Baseball is such a fascinating sport," said MacDowell, who has been in Texas lately, where she's co-starring in her first TV series, "Lone Star," which airs this fall on Fox. She's also co-starring with Dennis Quaid in the movie remake of "Footloose," which will shoot this fall in Atlanta.

MacDowell does not appear in "Before the First Pitch," but she and Murphy bounced around ideas, and she helped shoot some of the scenes. "This was his idea," she said. "We wanted to keep it simple. It's really inspiring when you see all the people who work out there. It gives you that feeling of excitement and anticipation of the game."

"Before the First Pitch" provides some views that even the savviest fans never get to see, including uniforms being tossed in the wash, Tourists manager Joe Mikulik filling out a lineup card and an umpire rubbing mud on baseballs (they're given a light covering of the stuff to remove the sheen and gloss).

"It's a day in the life of a baseball park, everything that goes on before a game, the vendors, the grounds crew, the whole culture," Murphy said. The film was shot over a weeklong stretch at the park, he said. It will also be shown during the Richochet Film Festival, Sept. 17-19 at the Carolina Asheville cinema, he said.

MacDowell, star of such films as "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Green Card," "Groundhog Day" and "Michael," has wanted to get involved in production. A few years back, she met Murphy, and the two became friends. "We have a shared love of film," MacDowell said.

"She's got a good eye," Murphy said. "And she has immeasurable experience. She's been around a lot of (movie) productions. And she just knows how to deal with people."

MacDowell and Murphy have plans for another documentary about the Miss Gay Latina transgender beauty pageant in Asheville."It has the potential to be a beautiful story," MacDowell."I think people will be surprised."

Meanwhile, she's settling in for her TV role as an unpredictable art appraiser in "Lone Star," the story of a scheming Texas con man who has two lives and families in different parts of Texas. She's signed for 13 weeks of the series but is uncertain how often she will appear. Of her role, MacDowell said, "There's the opportunity there for a very interesting character."

See the seven minute short by clicking below.

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