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Archive for category Movies

“Mets Yearbook” A Treat For All Baseball Fans

Aug 5

Posted by Jerry Milani in Movies, New York Mets, Sports on TV | 5 Comments

A few weeks back I stumbled upon a Mets Yearbook film on SNY.  It was from the late 70s, chronicling one mediocre-or-worse Mets squad, but with an optimism and hopefulness that the coming year would be better.

I immediately went to the search function on my DVR and programmed in dates and times for future airings of other years’ films.

I don’t remember these in their original run — and though I’m more a Mets hater than fan, I just love these films.  The 1963 film has great footage of the last breaths of the Polo Grounds, and ‘64 touted the opening of the marvelous Shea Stadium, universally hailed as the great modern multi-purpose park.

The films are a treasure trove of footage, from stars like Seaver and Mays all the way to “the next big things” like Mike Vail, Steve Henderson and John Milner.

Opening Day always got a disproportionate amount of screen time devoted to it, probably because even in their worst years, the Mets managed to win their lid-lifter.  Events like Banner Day, Helmet Day and Old Timer’s Day — yes, the Mets had them then, and there were even Yankees (gasp!) invited

The films were always forward-looking, even though they recounted the title year — so guys who didn’t figure in the 1979 plans were nowhere to be found in the ‘78 video.

I particularly enjoyed a featurette in one of the shows on Dave Kingman, trying to humanize the famously surly slugger, showing him talking to camp kids in addition to his prodigious homers.

It’s not really fair to have BaseballReference.com open, clicking on players as they are mentioned in the series, but it certainly is fun to look back 40+ years in some cases and see what happened to those guys.

If the Yankees did such a video series, I’ve seen only a ‘77 season recap and a WPIX feature called “It Don’t Come Easy” reviewing 1978.  I think films of those mediocre and poor CBS Yanks teams would be great as well, and I hope that if YES Network has those somewhere, and rights to use them, that they’d consider putting them on.

But that might be a bit to ask for the Undefeated Yankees Classics network.

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My Kinda Manager

Jul 20

Posted by Jerry Milani in Movies, R.I.P. | 10 Comments

Yesterday’s death of James Gammon, best known — to me, at least — as Lou Brown, the crusty manager of the Indians in the 1989 film Major League, made me think first of the funny lines he had, from “You may run like Hayes, but you hit like shit,” to “Get in front of the damn ball, don’t give me this “olé” bullshit.”

Old Lou (turns out he wasn’t so old after all, as Gammon was just 49 when the movie was released) was just what you would want in a manager.  Firm and direct, demanding the best from his players. And clearly not taking any bullshit.  But compassionate as well, as we saw when he had to explain to Ricky Vaughn why he was being passed over for the final start of the season.

So Brown was a great movie manager.  But was he the best?  Here are some of my favorites, and my pick for the one I’d want to manage my fictional team.

Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), A League of Their Own
Dugan clearly had no interest in the position coaching “a bunch of girls” but gradually grew into the job.  Of course, he delivered maybe the most famous managerial line in movie history, asserting that their is “no crying in baseball…” But as an ex-Big Leaguer, when motivated, he knew his stuff and helped lead the Rockford Peaches to the championship game.

Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau), The Bad News Bears
Also a reluctant skipper forced into a situation he neither wanted nor was ready for, Buttermaker was worn down by his troops and, in the end, did the right thing.  His biggest strategical decision — having Kelly Leak catch everything he could — turned out to be a morale-killing disaster, but he later redeemed himself in the eyes of the team and his pitcher-daughter.

Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley), The Natural
Pop wanted to manage his team, moribund as it was, he just didn’t want his new, old right fielder.  Another in the line of cranky movie skippers, he was a less prominent but still important character in the movie.

Uchiyama (Ken Takakura), Mr. Baseball
I’ve always thought that Mr. Baseball is very underrated as a baseball movie.  Maybe people are scared off by the Japanese theme, but Tom Selleck can really swing the bat, and Uchiyama as both his hold-the-line, hold-your-tongue manager and father of Jack Elliot’s love interest sets a great tone of conflict that drives the film.  Uchiyama is so set in his ways and dedicated to the old ways, but they eventually find common ground.

Dutch Schnell (Vincent Gardenia), Bang the Drum Slowly
This is such a hauntingly sad movie and so focused on the Henry Wiggen-Bruce Pearson relationship that the Dutch Schnell character’s drive to find answers, to meddle even, goes overlooked.  But Gardenia nails it, and injects much-needed humor into the proceedings.

Len Sickles (William Frawley), Rhubarb
William Frawley played in a few baseball films of the 1940s and early ’50s, before his more popular role as Fred Mertz in “I Love Lucy.”  He was well-suited for all of them, and in a farce of a movie gets to play the straight guy again, not unlike Fred and his other baseball roles.

Those are my favorites.  As to the one I’d want to lead my team, I think I’d go with Brown, especially If my squad had a cast of characters as disparate as his rags-to-riches Tribe.

I’d hope he’d turn and say, “My kinda team, Charlie, my kinda team.”

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“Give Me Hamm on 5, Hold the Mayo”

Mar 25

Posted by Jerry Milani in Minnesota Twins, Movies, St. Louis Cardinals | 1 Comment

This post is an excuse to (a) remember Peter Graves, a great, great actor whose comedic work later in his career was even better because of all the serious roles he had played, and (b) use one of my favorite lines from Airplane in a cheesy, semi-connected headline.  Graves was born in Minneapolis, which provides another tenuous thread to make this post work.

The news, however, is that the Twins and the Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic have formed a partnership to improve health in the region.

The clinic will serve as sponsor of the exhibition series between the Twins and Cardinals, opening the new Target Field on April 2-3.  In addition, Mayo will conduct on-site health screenings and educational events throughout the season.

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A look at Old, Old Yankee Stadium

Jan 26

Posted by Jerry Milani in Logos, Movies, New York Yankees | No Comments

Alex Bleith over at BronxBanterBlog has a link to video from a 1928 Buster Keaton Movie, The Cameraman, which has a great look all around the then-five-year old Yankee Stadium.  Keaton’s trip around the bases is great because the wide shot gives a nice panorama of the Stadium in its very early days.

The thing that strikes me the most is how utterly massive the place looks.  The outfield fence looks a mile away, and even the distance from home plate to the backstop is huge.

And check out the subway car running above the batters’ eye in dead center field.  Great stuff.

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‘Cobb Field’ a Good Last Look at an old Ballpark

Jan 18

Posted by Jerry Milani in Movies | No Comments

I watched the documentary ‘Cobb Field: A Day at the Ballpark“ today on MLB Network. The theme of “if these walls could talk” is made even more literal, as the narrator is the “voice” of the park.  It’s a cutesy way to make the field the star, and for the most part I’d say it works.

I love old ballparks, and didn’t know anything about the old stadium in Billings, Montana, named not for the first Cobb you think of in baseball circles, Ty, but for Robert H. Cobb, whose name has mostly endured from his namesake salad.  But Cobb was also a baseball maven, owning the famed Hollywood Stars PCL team and hobnobbing with movie stars of the mid-20th century.

Cobb Field gives a quick history of the park and some of the great players who made their way through Billings over the years.  Interviews with Jim Kaat, who played for Missoula when the Pioneer League was classified “C” and Gary Redus, who hit a whopping .462 in his only season in Billings in 1978 on the way to the Reds and behind-the-scenes looks at the clubhouse, press box and other antiquated areas help make the connection with the past.

The documentary also notes that the field was a throwback in every way — eschewing the many on-field gimmicks and promotions and loud, obtrusive music that are universal throughout the minors today. Cobb Field was demolished in 2007 to make way for a modern park on the same site, which from the condition of Cobb, which opened in 1948, looked necessary, nostalgia buffs and longtime Billings fans’ wishes notwithstanding.

Sounds like a place I would have like to have visited.

While Cobb Field talks to the players, coaches and attendants working at the field at the time of the filming and updates their respective statuses at the end, the filmmakers understand that the stadium is the star, and treat it appropriately.

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Luis, Luis

Dec 29

Posted by Jerry Milani in Boston Red Sox, History, Movies, New York Yankees | No Comments

I really only got to see Luis Tiant pitch near the end of his career… a little bit when he was with Boston in the late 70’s and his two semi-serviceable years with the Yankees in ‘79 and ‘80.  I knew a little about his story, that he was born in Cuba and had been one of the top pitchers before reviving his career with the Sox (after being traded or released by three teams, I later learned).  And I vaguely remember the hot dog commercial he made when he came to New York, in which he declared “It’s good to be with a winner” in his exaggerated Spanish accent.  He seemed like a fun, cheery guy off the mound and a determined pitcher on it.

But I didn’t know much else until watching Lost Son of Havana, the excellent documentary which made the film festival circuit this year and was featured across some of the ESPN networks, including Deportes.  It’s well worth a look, available on Netflix, or you can get it online here.

If you are so inclined, check out my interview with the film’s director and writer, Jonathan Hock, on BaseballDigest.com.

What I like so much about the film is how much it humanizes Tiant.  We think of players as spots on a roster or numbers on a page or athletes performing on the field.  The movie captures the sense of loss that Tiant felt not being able to see his parents for more than a decade while he made a run at the Majors in the 60’s and early 70’s, then the near-diplomatic miracle it took to get them to the U.S. to see him pitch in Boston in 1975.

The hook is his return to Havana more than 40 years after he left, to see his remaining family.  It’s compelling stuff, a must-see for Sox fans and pretty much all fans of the human race.

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