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So, to recap the idea: you start the film at 7:30 sharp, on whatever devices you use, and we make comments as we go along. (A “smart” TV can easily access YouTube; my regular TV is hooked up to a Playstation that can access YouTube. Here’s the YouTube link we’ll be using to watch it.)
This 1987 made-for-TV movie has been described in multiple books about sports films, and by this Bleacher Report post by Joseph Jones, as “the best baseball movie you never saw.” Jones says “the script is based on the short,
but wonderful, baseball novel by the veteran journalist and Hank Williams biographer Paul Hemphill.” It’s about a struggling independent minor-league team in Florida in the late 1950s.
It stars William Peterson (from To Live and Die in L.A.), Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Dermot Mulroney (About Schmidt), and Larry Riley (A Soldier’s Story). Screenplay by Michael Norell (an actor on Emergency!) and directed by Martin Davidson (The Lords of Flatbush).
Here is a fairly recent interview of Davidson by writer R. Emmet Sweeney. Davidson grew up in Flatbush, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, and became a huge baseball fan when the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson. Basically, Davidson remembers what a good time he had with most of the cast (he’s still friends with Virginia Madsen). A former college baseball player himself, Davidson wanted to improve on some of the lousy baseball scenes we generally see in movies; he had William Peterson prove he could play a little by going to a batting cage. The only member of the cast who really couldn’t play at all was Mulroney; they used a stunt double when they could.
And here’s a fun 2015 Tampa Bay Times article where Petersen and Madsen talk about how much they enjoyed making this. Funny thing; Petersen had been offered the Tom Berenger role in Platoon, but didn’t want to do the six (unpaid) weeks of simulated basic training that the director demanded. So Petersen remembers, “I said, no, I’ll be at a hotel in Tampa, making a movie with Virginia Madsen. You and Berenger can all go over to the jungle and have a great time. I’m going to be in Tampa, playing baseball.”
Amusingly, while Virginia Madsen remembers filmmaker Ron Shelton attending a screening and taking notes (suggesting he copied some of this movie in Bull Durham), Shelton said “The only thing I take to screenings is a hip flask.” (He’d written the script for Bull Durham years before this film came out; but he was considering casting one of the actors from this movie.)
Both the Joseph Jones article and the Wiki page say this was never released on DVD. Here’s a copy for sale at a site called “Frank’s Elvis Items.” Yet it’s probably a bootleg copy of low quality. No video company has released a legit one. Which is dumb! You can print DVDs fairly cheap. You could put this as a double-feature DVD with HBO’s other baseball movie, 61* (directed by Billy Crystal). You’d recoup the cost of production just by library sales alone.
So we’ll have to watch it on YouTube. The video quality’s pretty shoddy, but we managed to live through that last week. Here’s your YouTube link. Start the show at 7:30 Central!
Here’s the upcoming schedule:
November 21: Angels in the Outfield (1951)
A mean, cussy manager learns to be nicer, with the help of some divine intervention and a very-lovely Janet Leigh. This is free on Internet Archive. Spanish subtitles you can’t turn off, but they won’t hurt you.
November 28: Bull Durham (1987)
About a experienced catcher and experienced groupie who teach a young pitcher a thing or two. Written/directed by Ron Shelton, no relation to Twins manager Derek Shelton… but Ron DID play on a team with Derek’s dad. It’s available on Bezos Prime, but also on free streamers Plex, Pluto, Roku, and Tubi (with commercials, probably how I’ll watch it). It’s on the free library streamer Kanopy, and on library DVD.
December 5: A League of Their Own (1992)
If we keep this going, I wanna mix in a “somewhat based on true story” movie every now and then. (It’s Hollywood, you know they never make it strictly factual.) Oddly, I’ve never seen this one. (Because Madonna’s in it, is probably why.) Free on Pluto.
December 12: Major League (1989)
Yes, Charlie Sheen is a jackass, and Wesley Snipes had some stupid ideas about paying taxes. But Rene Russo is cool. Plus Bob Uecker! A team’s crummy owner wants them to lose, and the players fight back by winning. I wish! Free on Pluto.
I’ve got some good ideas for future ones if we do this more, and all movie suggestions are absolutely welcome & wanted!
But, until then, pop your popcorn, and let’s start the show at 7:30!
