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VH1 expanded its popular "wives" franchise in November with the new show “Baseball Wives” set in Scottsdale and revolving around the wives and girlfriends of professional baseball players. Erika Williams, wife of retired five-time all-star Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams, was one of wives cast in the new show, as well as one of the first to leave the program.

“Producers had come to me two years ago and what was described to me was that VH1 was looking to have a different audience,” Williams says. “They described this show as being the ‘Real Housewives’ meets the ‘[Lifestyles] of the Rich and Famous’ where they would highlight our charity and projects.”

Unfortunately for Williams, television audiences were in for a slightly different viewing experience. VH1 described the wives as: “No shrinking violets here, these ladies are fiercely protective of their turf and their men and if they have to bring on a little drama -- then so be it.”

“When you’re a baseball wife, you’re representing a larger group and it was an opportunity to show the behind the scenes of this crazy lifestyle,” Williams says. “Your husband is gone for a good portion of the season and you have to hold down the fort for your family; it really could have been a great show.”

Williams says at first, the premise was to follow these women and see how they take care of not only their families but what they’re all doing to give back to their community. That plotline quickly dwindled as she was put into dramatic and, at times, heated situations with other cast members that, she says, never happen in her real life.

“Obviously it’s a reality show, I knew that going in, but I was convinced at the last minute by producers that it would be something polar opposite of what it was,” Williams says. “I was really upset after the first night of filming; I was upset with how it portrayed wives.”

Williams says the baseball wives that she personally knows were nothing like their on screen counterparts. “All the baseball wives that I know are so charitable; they’re good wives and good mothers and, unfortunately, you only see them in some over dramatic situations.”

It was this creative difference that led to Williams’s decision to ultimately leave the show, but producers insisted that she did stay on through the first season.