FILMS THAT BABE RUTH
APPEARED IN
BASEBALL
FILMS……A VERY
MIXED BAG
PLAYS ABOUT BASEBALL
(part 1)
DAMN
YANKEES
ONE MORE
INNING
ARTICLE
FOR
BASEBALL
GURU
JANUARY:2014:ISSUE 129
BASEBALL
FILMS THAT ARE WORTH LOOKING
AT
BUT DON'T EXPECT MIRACLES
This month we'll
start looking at some of the better films dealing with baseball but by no
means are they to be considered to be the best. We'll save those for two
month's from now.
AMERICAN
PASTIME:2007:CAST/GARY COLE, AARON
YU, JON
GRIES, MASATASHI
NAKAMURA, JUDY
ONG
During WW2 Japanese families were forced to live in Relocation
Centers
(the
infamous EXECUTIVE ORDER
9006). The film deals with the Nomura family who while they were going through
this organized a baseball team that challenged
a local Minor League
team.
The film explores the different feelings on both teams and the
machinations of the local town. Many of the ballplayers on the American team
were bigoted against the Japanese as were the towns people as
well.
Wont give away the ending but the film pretty much explores what it
means to be an American during adverse
times.
BAD NEWS BEARS:1976:
CAST/ WALTER MATHAU, TATUM O'NEAL, VIC MURROW, BEN
PIAZZA:
The plot has been done over and over. A neer-do-well takes a bunch
of misfits (in this case it's a horrendous Little League team) and through
a various amount of simplistic plot changes molds them into a team good enough
to play in the championship game against their hated rivals the LL
Yankees.
Sounds Familiar? It is, but the performances
(especially
by
Mathau
and O'Neal are
first
rate,
the misfits are
for the most part fun
to watch, and it gives us a graphic,
scalding
picture
of competition in
our American
society.
As an aside the language is filled with profanity and not only by
the adults!
FEAR STRIKES OUT: 1957: CAST:
ANTHONY PERKINS, KARL
To start off it
should be mentioned that Jimmy Piersal disowned the film, claiming it was
a distortion of the
facts.
The particulars did deal with events that happened in Piersals life.
It dealt with his having an obsessive father who vicariously lived in his
sons image. His father in real life drove Piersal so fierely to become a
ballplayer that he ended up being hurt mentally and physically as
well.
When he finally made the Major Leagues his erratic behavior caused
problems on the field as well as in his personal life. The film does end
with the suggestion that he had resolved his problems and had learned to
cope with his behavior. To an extent that wasn't entirely true. Piersal felt
that the film depicted his struggles in a pedestrian manner and didn't really
capture the struggles he went through to
resolve them
Having mentioned all that the picture does show what some parents
put their children through to
meet the goals that they set up for them. The baseball scenes are quite graphic
and well done.
THE FAN: 1996: ROBERT
DENIRO, WESLEY SNIPES, JOHN LEGUIZAMO: Presents us with
a baseball plot that adds another element to the
storyline.
The best way to describe this is to call it a psychological thriller
using baseball as a fulcrum for it's plot.
A fan follows a ball player
he idolizes but when the player starts to struggle in the field and at bat,
the fan begins to harass him to do better. When the ballplayer does no better,
things take a turn for the worse. It becomes apparent that the fan is homicidal
and the player is in danger of his life. The movie
turns into a horror story while
dealing with our
The public seemed not to be ready to accept that kind of story when
it becomes part of the
It bombed in the
boxoffice.
IT
HAPPENS EVERY SPRING: 1949: RAY MILLAND, JEAN PETERS, PAUL
DOUGLAS:
A College professor and scientist is working on a chemical experiment
when a baseball crashes through a window and destroys the experiment. The
professor realizes that the ball that's covered with the chemicals repels
wood. He parlays that into a career with the
A charming and goofy comedy with a star performance by Paul Douglas
as a crusty and typical old timer ball
player.
Next month some additional better than average baseball
flicks.
HERB
ROGOFF
STATEMENT
ABOUT MY WORK:
For the last few years I've been working on a series of paintings
called:
MY
Some of the scenes I was part of while I was growing up, the others
I saw pictures or heard about.
All of the art depicts people and places that actually existed and
are pretty exact.
There are a few that are part of my ethnic
background.
All of them are areas I had been thinking of portraying for quite
awhile but working as a freelancer was never able to get
to.
As of now there are over 20 paintings …..and the list is
growing.
