Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Get your game on, go play
My thoughts about the All-Star Game, and Fox's coverage thereof...
- Perhaps you should not, during your pregame show that is tightly timed and controlled to the second, go live on the air and ask Ernie Harwell a question about Al Kaline, because he will of course give a long-winded answer, thus causing Jeanne Zelasko to have to cut him off and look like a jerk doing it. (I almost wrote "big jerk," but I don't want some pro-pregnancy group complaining about my choice of words to describe a woman who is, uh, with child.)
- British national anthem? I know "My Country 'Tis of Thee" when I hear it! The amount of patriotic songs played before and during baseball games is growing out of control.
- Hey, I thought Scooter was dead! Too bad every kid who cares already knows what a change-up is because they're faithfully rendered in video games these days, probably with better camera angles than Fox has available.
- Hey, it's the descendant of the glowing blue hockey puck, this time showing the path of the ball to the plate.
- For a second, I thought they said Jim Bouton was the general manager of the Nationals, but it's actually someone named Jim Bowden. Too bad; Jim Bouton might reach Ed Hart-ian levels of general manager-ness.
- I should have realized the game was going to be sponsored by Chevrolet and gotten an apple Home Run Pie at the supermarket on Sunday, but no, all I had was lemon. It was slightly better than the vanilla pie I ate Sunday, but not much. I think I'm going to stick to Hostess fruit pies for my future fruit pie needs; they also do a good job of distracting comic-book villains, as I understand it.
- Joe Buck: You can tell a lot about Dontrelle Willis by the way he wears his hat.
Me (singing): The way he wears his hat, the way he sings off-key...
Tim McCarver (starts babbling about how if Gershwin were alive today, he might have written that song about Dontrelle Willis)
Oh, my God, I'm starting to think like Tim McCarver -- well, sort of, since I had the sense to just start singing the damn song, instead of talking incoherently about it. - Those red-white-and-blue bases that were used at Tiger Stadium for the 1971 All-Star Game look pretty cool and retro, like ABA basketballs. All we get in the 21st century is "Spider-Man" advertising.
- Doesn't Fox realize "Bad News Bears" is not a 20th Century Fox movie? I guess they'll take anyone's money. And I guess no actual Fox stars wanted to go to Detroit, just noted crazy person Billy Bob Thornton.
- No Danys Baez in the game? Poor Devil Rays. Guess I'll have to take advantage of DirecTV's post-All-Star-Game preview of MLB Extra Innings to watch, say, the Devil Rays-Blue Jays game on Friday. The TiVo is already set.
- Is the National League ever going to win the All-Star Game again? I know, one might have expressed similar sentiments about the American League in, say, 1981.
Labels: al kaline, all-star game, bad news bears, danys baez, ernie harwell, jeanne zelasko, joe buck, Scooter, tim mccarver, tv
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Bud, Mickey's, Schlitz, Coors, PBR, High Life, Red Stripe
The headline is the brands of beer that alcoholic former minor-league pitcher Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) drinks in The Bad News Bears. Or at least, those are the ones I saw and remembered. It's entirely possible that he drank more varieties, because he's constantly drinking beer.
Luke, Sandy, Sarah, Stacey, and I watched The Bad News Bears Friday night, after I had read a couple of recommendations of it online from baseball fans who loved it as a baseball movie. And they were right. I had seen it when I was about three, but unlike another movie I saw when I was three, it didn't leave very clear memories.
I feel like I shouldn't say much about the details of the movie, because I think everyone who regularly reads this blog--all, what, eight of you?--would greatly enjoy it and should hie thee to the nearest video emporium, take its dusty box to the counter, and enjoy it in the company of a friendly six-pack. It's funny, and it's surprising, and it's not hokey, and it's utterly impossible to imagine being made in anything close to the same way today. (Don't mention the remake. Unless Bill Murray's got the Walter Matthau role, it's going to suck.) I tend to be suspicious of aesthetic or artistic creeds--stifling little things, aren't they--but if you were to pin me down, make me choose a style or tendency in movies (and, to some extent, in books), I'd pick works of art that mostly show--without making a pretense of being truly real--people going about their business in the world. A lot of my favorite films--Yi-Yi, Maborosi, George Washington--are a bit that way. And that's what's most surprising to me about The Bad News Bears: it's a sports movie and a kid movie, and it fits more or less into the sports and kid movie patterns, but it has a rhythm and sensibility of its own that hew much more closely to real life than anyone would have expected.
And it loves baseball. The baseball scenes are great. The swearing is great. And the talk about baseball is great, and funny. Rent it while you wait for Sunday night's game.
Toby: Unbelievable, Levi. This movie has been playing on HBO the last month and I have watched it about 10 or 15 times. Like you, I hadn't seen it since I was a kid and, like you, I appreciate it so much more now than I could have then.
I think one of the things that's so great about it is that everyone can identify with one (or more) of the Bears. At age 10, I had Timmy Lupus' ability and Albert Ogilvie's personality wrapped up in Mike Engleberg's body. My best friend, Troy Nelson, was Kelly Leak to a "T."
I would peg you for identifying with Ogilvie.
Plus, is there any better ending line for a baseball movie than "Just wait 'til next year..." (uttered by Lupus)
I'm also very hesitant to watch the remake (which will star Billy Bob Thornton and Greg Kinear) when it comes out...
I just downloaded the prelude to Bizet's Carmen from iTunes (the theme used in the movie). This is a scary coincidence, Levi.
thatbob: So, any more thoughts about coaching a Little League team of your own? I understand there's an opening at Cabrini-Green ever since Keanu had to go fight demons.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180734/
Luke, Sandy, Sarah, Stacey, and I watched The Bad News Bears Friday night, after I had read a couple of recommendations of it online from baseball fans who loved it as a baseball movie. And they were right. I had seen it when I was about three, but unlike another movie I saw when I was three, it didn't leave very clear memories.
I feel like I shouldn't say much about the details of the movie, because I think everyone who regularly reads this blog--all, what, eight of you?--would greatly enjoy it and should hie thee to the nearest video emporium, take its dusty box to the counter, and enjoy it in the company of a friendly six-pack. It's funny, and it's surprising, and it's not hokey, and it's utterly impossible to imagine being made in anything close to the same way today. (Don't mention the remake. Unless Bill Murray's got the Walter Matthau role, it's going to suck.) I tend to be suspicious of aesthetic or artistic creeds--stifling little things, aren't they--but if you were to pin me down, make me choose a style or tendency in movies (and, to some extent, in books), I'd pick works of art that mostly show--without making a pretense of being truly real--people going about their business in the world. A lot of my favorite films--Yi-Yi, Maborosi, George Washington--are a bit that way. And that's what's most surprising to me about The Bad News Bears: it's a sports movie and a kid movie, and it fits more or less into the sports and kid movie patterns, but it has a rhythm and sensibility of its own that hew much more closely to real life than anyone would have expected.
And it loves baseball. The baseball scenes are great. The swearing is great. And the talk about baseball is great, and funny. Rent it while you wait for Sunday night's game.
Original comments...
Toby: Unbelievable, Levi. This movie has been playing on HBO the last month and I have watched it about 10 or 15 times. Like you, I hadn't seen it since I was a kid and, like you, I appreciate it so much more now than I could have then.
I think one of the things that's so great about it is that everyone can identify with one (or more) of the Bears. At age 10, I had Timmy Lupus' ability and Albert Ogilvie's personality wrapped up in Mike Engleberg's body. My best friend, Troy Nelson, was Kelly Leak to a "T."
I would peg you for identifying with Ogilvie.
Plus, is there any better ending line for a baseball movie than "Just wait 'til next year..." (uttered by Lupus)
I'm also very hesitant to watch the remake (which will star Billy Bob Thornton and Greg Kinear) when it comes out...
I just downloaded the prelude to Bizet's Carmen from iTunes (the theme used in the movie). This is a scary coincidence, Levi.
thatbob: So, any more thoughts about coaching a Little League team of your own? I understand there's an opening at Cabrini-Green ever since Keanu had to go fight demons.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180734/
Labels: bad news bears, beer
