Folks who watch or attend a baseball game usually only look at the pitcher, ball and batter. It is much more complex game and even more so when half the fans are looking at their I pods.
I happened to watch a movie this afternoon called The Rookie. It tells the story of Jim Morris starring Dennis Quaid, a high school teacher from Texas circa 1990. As a lad his life dream was to be a pitcher in the Major Leagues. As is the case with many young men of athletic ability he had a series of injuries and operations and his quest came to a halt.
Morris took a teaching/coaching job at a rather desolate high school in Texas. He promised his high school team that if they got their act together and won their district championship he'd attend a major league scout camp. Morris thought he only threw about 86 mph but, in reality, after his surgeries and at the age of 36, he was firing the horse hide at 98 mph.. For those of you not familiar with that kind of velocity it's akin to me running the 100 meter dash in five seconds flat. As it turns out he was signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and had a couple of years in the big leagues. His story is one of legends. The movie showed him striking out a ball player in his very first appearance. I've seen this film more times than I've eaten sharp cheddar cheese but each time he fans the Devils player, Royce Clayton, I get chills.
Now comes the sappy part. I don't care about the context of any baseball movie. I know there is going to be a scene somewhere in the script when I lose it. Wait a minute. William Bendix in The Babe Ruth Story; it has the impact of chewing a piece of used Black Jack chewing gum. that movie was a laughathon but since it was filmed in 1948 I'll give it a pass.
In the Field of Dreams when Costner asked his dad "if he wanted a catch" I had tears in my eyes. Who wouldn't? Dads and sons can relate to this.
Costner also starred in a great film titled: For Love of the Game. It was a flashback film of his early baseball life with the Detroit Tigers sandwiched between his quest for a perfect game against the Yankees in the last game of his career. My eyes welled when he was gearing up to throw his final pitch. When the final out came I had chills even though I watched this epic a dozen times. I like Costner in sports films. He has that persona.
In the film The Natural with Robert Redford my spine tingles when he sees his bat, hewn from oak from his Nebraska farmyard as a lad, shattered as he hits a foul pitch. He then hits a fastball with a bat given to him by Bobby the batboy he helped him make. The next pitch from the opposing pitcher, also a Nebraska farm boy is smashed into the outfield lights securing a pennant victory for the team. Does it get any better than that? Never.
I have to believe the greatest quote ever in describing baseball was uttered by James Earle Jones at the end of the movie, The Field of Dreams. Costner's character, Ray Kinsella, was conflicted as to whether he should sell his farm or keep it for his ghostly players. Jones character gave this line:
The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come. ... Field of Dreams” | |
And the people did come. I took my children to the Field of Dreams nestled in the cornfields of eastern Iowa. We had a grand day. The kids ran the bases. We played catch and conversed with others who fulfilled their dreams. My children, with a little help from dad, came to understand a greater appreciation of the game and what this country cherishes most.
Who would not love baseball. It's Americana at it's best.
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