Description: Another of the buddy cop shows using the formula of an old cop with an unorthodox young cop. Created by Robert Palm, Hardball is the story of Charlie Battles, a 45-year-old by-the-book cop who's told he must soon take a desk job or face a forced retirement. Charlie doesn't feel his age, he can still play hardball with the youngest of them. Given a temporary reprieve, Charlie is gets a new partner, Joe "Kaz" Kaczierowski, whose 25 years old, has long hair, rides a monster Harley and wears his badge on a T-shirt. Charlie thinks he won't have a problem keeping up with Kaz, they would often challenge each other to physical contests for their decision making process. Halfway through the series run, NBC put the show on hiatus and the show went through a retooling. During the 9 Dec 94 broadcast of an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, there was an audio and video clip of Hardball used during a scene in a bar. The episode that was used is unknown, but it featured Charlie saying something to Kaz about "screwing around with this radio", then a car chase is shown. Why the Homicide:... production team decided to use a clip from this series is unknown. First air date: September 21, 1989 Last air date: June 29, 1990 Original air time: Friday 9:00:00 pm (Eastern)