* Coming soon to a library near you

(If you live in the Washington, DC area.)
The Library of Congress will host a series of baseball films from Sept. 28-Oct. 2, as part of its “Baseball Americana Lunchtime Film Series” in the Pickford Theater of the Madison Building.

Monday, Sept. 28
In Search of History: The World Series Fixed! The Black Sox Scandal (1998)
Eight players on the 1919 Chicago White Sox were banished from the Major Leagues for conspiring to throw the World Series, despite their courtroom acquittal in 1920. This gripping account of gamblers, gangsters, ballplayers, and a stingy team owner chronicles the events that nearly destroyed the professional game.

Tuesday, Sept. 29
When It Was a Game (1991)
This acclaimed documentary from HBO offers an unusual perspective on the Major Leagues from 1934 to 1957, as seen through the color home movies shot by fans and players. Back then, said St. Louis star outfielder Enos Slaughter, “You even had to pay for your own sandwiches between doubleheaders.”

Wednesday, Sept. 30
There Was Always Sun Shining Some Place: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues (1983)
James Earl Jones narrates this compelling but rarely shown documentary, featuring archival footage of East-West Classics, winter ball in Mexico and Cuba, and latter-day interviews with stars Satchel Paige and Buck Leonard and team owner Effa Manley.

Thursday, Oct. 1
A League of Their Own (1987) and The Steve Allen Show (1956)
See the revelatory documentary that led to a feature film about the All- American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1955) and a place in Cooperstown for its players. Also on the bill are clips from the Oct. 7, 1956, broadcast of The Steve Allen Show, featuring appearances by Mickey Mantle, Mrs. Babe Ruth, and Abbott and Costello, delivering their classic “Who’s on First” routine.

Friday, Oct. 2
The Earl of Baltimore (2005)
The Orioles’ fiery manager Earl Weaver (1968-1982, 1985-1986) calmly
ruminates on his baseball philosophy and success as a major league skipper, his 97 game ejections, and his infamous run-ins with umpires. This interview with a former commissioner of Major League Baseball is part of the Fay Vincent Oral History Project, archived at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

* Pass the popcorn

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the fourth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Oct. 2-4.

Thirteen films, with themes ranging from women in baseball to a baseball league in Israel, will be screened as filmmakers compete for three awards given at the conclusion of the festival: Best Film; the Award for Baseball Excellence; and the Award for Film Making Excellence.

This year’s lineup includes:

On Friday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m.:
The Lost Son of Havana

After 46 years in exile, former major league baseball star Luis Tiant returns to Cuba, where he encounters unexpected demons and receives unexpected gifts from his family.

Signs of the Time

Where did baseball hand signals come from? In exploring this seemingly simple question, the feature-length documentary unveils stories of inspiration and controversy that transcend sports. Narrated by Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss, the film unravels the mystery surrounding baseball’s greatest innovation.

At Session 2, on Saturday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m.

Girls of Summer, A positive, respectful look at the WBL Sparks, the first all-girls baseball team to compete in a boy’s national tournament at the Cooperstown Dreams Park. Interspersed throughout the WBL Sparks’ story are historical segments telling the personal stories of the women who, since the mid 1850s, have played, coached, and umpired baseball.

Major Leagues? This story from Cuban filmmaker Ernesto Perez Zambrano tells the story of women taking the field and playing baseball in Cuba.

* Sugarball available for home theaters

Sugarball is coming to the small screen. DVD and Blue-Ray versions will be available on Sept. 1.

The critically-acclaimed feature film takes a realistic look at the peaks and valleys of a young Dominican pitching phenom as he leaves his home to embark on a dream life. The adjustments, triumphs, and setbacks make for compelling viewing as “Sugar” learns that success doesn’t always translate.

* Baseball theater

Channel surfing over the weekend. Found a few baseball flicks of varying quality.

Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige, a 1981 biopic starring Lou Gossett, Jr. as Paige, Cleavon Little as some annoying sidekick named “Rabbit,” and Clifton Davis as Cool Papa Bell. Came in on a scene where Paige is auditioning for a spot with Bill Veeck’s Cleveland Indians. Lots of close-ups of a determined ballplayer, mixed with long shots of the stand-in throwing strikes to an ersatz Lou Boudreau. Generally wooden performances, full of cliches and the obligatory homespun Paige quotations. One thing that struck me: Gossett’s glove was waaay too modern for the 1940s. Shame, shame, set dresser!

The other movie — The Final Season — was also a time-worn story or good vs. evil, earnest little vs. unfeeling, more powerful entity. In this case, it’s Norway High School, a small time institution that’s doomed to merge with a larger, more efficient “big city” school. Too bad, because their baseball team was one of the best, a dynasty, in fact. Based on a true story, it’s a combination of Field of Dreams meets The Rookie. Underdog triumphs in the wake of overwhelming odds. Yawn. Good cast, including Powers Booth, Sean (Rudy) Astin, Tom Arnold, Larry Miller as a stereotypical sports reporter, James Gammon (manager Lou Brown in the Major League franchise), and Dayton Callie (Charlie Utter from Deadwood), but, again, a cliche-lidden flic.

* “He’s not dead; he’s just resting….”

From the famous Monty Python “Parrot Sketch.”

Why do I bring this up? because Moneyball, the movie, may not be dead after all.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has quietly moved to salvage its troubled movie project “Moneyball” by hiring the prominent screenwriter Aaron Sorkin for a quick rewrite, while looking to add Scott Rudin, known for his turns on the Oscar circuit, to the film’s roster of producers.

It will be interesting to see how script revisions will differ from the draft I previously mentioned. Because that was drek.

* No wonder they canned Moneyball

Given the draft of the script.

I’ll watch anything about baseball. Cartoons, documentaries, lousy films (Jackie Robinson was a great ballplayer, but a poor actor). But this draft of the aborted Brad Pitt vehicle would sorely try my patience (Groucho Marx: “Don’t mind if I do. You must try mine sometime.”).

Moneyball, the non-fiction neo-classic by Michael Lewis about Billy Beane, former failed-ballplayer turned general manager of the Oakland Athletics, was a great book but I never understood how anyone could possibly believe it could be turned into a feature film, regardless of star power.

The movie version, again judging solely from the script, is such a cliched story: Beane is an iconoclast who bucks the system to turn his team around, making them a contender for the American League pennant. He has a nebishy sidekick (supposedly to have been played by Dmitri Martin, a hot-comedian-du-jour), a computer geek and advocate of statistical guru Bill James (another system bucker). Together they battle conventional wisdom spouted by crew-cut wearing veteran baseball scouts and develop a new and unorthodox way of evaluating ballplayers, which, according to said scouts will never work. Along the way they pick up a broken down player on whom everyone else has pretty much given up; if he was a drunk he could be the Dennis Hopper character in Hoosiers.

This is a combination of Bad News Bears and Major League. According to the draft – and I don’t know if this was the final one; there was lots of speculation about problems with the script — there are lots of overdone effects, including voice overs, freeze frames, and slow motions included to drive the point home.

* Movie Review: Sugar

From the K.C. Star, which gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Upshot:

…the movie achieves a rare sense of realism. Plus, since it refuses to follow a formula, we have no idea where the story is headed. It is rare when a film takes us in a direction we might not have been expecting.

The Baltimore Sun also liked it, leading with “Baseball flick knocks cliches out of the park.”

* Announcement: Remake of Damn Yankees? Damn!

Because you can frame the ticket stubs and put them on the bookshelf…Or simply the book, The Year the Yankees Lost First The Pennant, by Douglas Wallop, on which the musical was based.

So, a remake of Damn Yankees, starring Jim Carrey as the Devil and Jake Gyllenhaal as “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo?” Seems so. According to IMDB.com, it’s slated for a 2012 release.

I loved Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian, Picket Fences) in the role of the Devil, a.k.a., Mr. Appelgate. But Carrey? He has a tendancy to get a bit carried away (sorry). Gyllenhaal? I don’t know. And who can they get to play Lola? Think of the possibilities.

Of course, not everyone is on board with the idea.

* Movie Time

Another top ten list of baseball flicks, this one from the folks who bring you the VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever:

1. Bull Durham
2. Field of Dreams
3. The Natural
4. Pride of the Yankees
5. Major Leagues
6. The Bad News Bears (1979)
7. The Stratton Story
8. A League of Their Own
9. Eight Men Out
10. The Rookie

That’s Bull

With rumors of a sequel to Bull Durham running around, I thought I’d take this opportunity to vent about something that’s been bugging me for awhile.

I recently watched the movie for the umpteenth time  and one scene in particular always makes me scratch my head. It takes place in the night game in which Nuke adheres to Crash’s pitch selection (he’s also wearing Annie Savoy’s garter belt, but what the hey).

The catcher whips the ball around the horn following a pop up out and asks for the ball, making his way to the mound. What are you doing here, Nuke asks, I’m cruising. Davis tells him to hit the Bulls’ mascot with the next ball, which he does, with seeming relish. As Crash and Nuke titter over their conspiracy, the batter is flustered. Crash warns him about digging in and the batter swings and misses at the next pitch, which comes right down the middle, to strike out.

Read that again. I didn’t leave anything out.

First pitch waaaay outside for ball one.

Next pitch, a swinging strike, resulting in a two-pitch “K.”

As a student of the cinema, I know they can’t show every pitch or play, but come on. Costner starred in three baseball films and seems to be a real fan; you think he would have objected to the error.

And while I’m ranting: one would assume this was a home game and the action started in the op of the first. Nuke strikes out one and gets another batter on a pop-out to first: two outs, inning over. So if we progress right to the bottom of the first, is Crash batting in the lead-off spot when he hits his called shot? A mid-30s catcher leading off? Not saying it couldn’t happen; just seems odd.