Tuesday, January 22, 2013

DJACKIE UNCHAINED:  Between the trailers for the upcoming 42 (doors slammed! epithets hurled! Harrison Ford, exerting effort?) and the recent deaths of Stan Musial and Earl Weaver, like some others I couldn't help but wonder: what real-life baseball stories should be the subject of movies? (Other than Moe Berg's.)

19 comments:

  1. lisased10:14 AM

    Cal Ripken, Jr.

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  2. Adam B.10:25 AM

    Only if it includes the Kevin Costner story.

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  3. The Yankee Wife Swap.

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  4. sconstant10:54 AM

    Is "42" different than "Movie 43"? Are these all movies about baseball? I thought they were about president. I'm so out of it.

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  5. Marsha10:55 AM

    Baseball epics are great, and I'll be among the first in line to see 42, but I like sports stories about the guy who didn't quite make it, about the comeback, about adversity whether overcome or not. So I want to see stories about these guys (though I suspect they'd be better as the basis for a fictional movie rather than a straight up biopic):

    Fred Merkle of the "Merkle boner": http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/372b4391http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/372b4391

    Adam Greenberg: Cubs player hit in the head in his first major league at-bat, never returned to the majors for real, got an at-bat with the Marlins in 2012 as a (very nice) publicity stunt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Greenberg_%28baseball%29

    Rick Ankiel: Cardinals pitcher who got the yips and spent several years retraining himself to be an outfielder to make it back to the majors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Ankiel

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  6. Satchel Paige. Get Charlie Kauffman to write it and it could be a great story about how myth can grow up around a guy.

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  7. Adam B.11:22 AM

    Ankiel would make a hell of a movie.

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  8. Marsha11:24 AM

    I can practically see it in my head - I loved the "Ankiel Watch" feature in SI, which absolutely needs to be part of the film.

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  9. The Pathetic Earthling11:39 AM

    Since I rush to the comments to say "Moe Berg" before I noticed that you've included it, I'll just say "Moe Berg" but, of course, you could frame a great narrative around the life of Connie Mack -- just as a way to march through the first half of the 20th century. I don't think there's any great Greek tragedy of his life -- he just got old and worn out, but you could include a lot of baseball in a movie like that.

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  10. victoria1:40 PM

    Dock Ellis.

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  11. Professor Jeff1:55 PM

    The original video of Ankiel's NLCS meltdown is amazing drama just by itself: http://www.amazinavenue.com/2012/1/30/2756687/lets-go-to-the-videotape-the-ankiel-meltdown

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  12. Marsha3:49 PM

    If you haven't read the SI story about Dickey and and Kayla Harrison, you absolutely must. Harrowing, but beautifully done. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1206584/index.htm

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  13. sconstant4:07 PM

    I thought they were both prequels to Billy Crystal's movie "61*"

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  14. Lurker David4:22 PM

    My (deceased) mother would have loved to see a Tony Conigliaro movie. She frequently talked about what happened to him.

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  15. kdbart5:28 PM

    Ed Delahanty. Hall of Fame player around the beginning of the 20th Century who either jumped or fell off the bridge spanning Niagara Falls after getting kicked off a train.

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  16. bill.6:03 PM

    (looks like this was lost when I made from the phone)...The Dock Ellis LSD no-hitter. But it's only about the 35 batters he faced. And each encounter is depicted by 35 different animators.

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  17. The exact opposite of how awful the trailer looks and if the movie is 80% about Robinson.

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  18. Marsha7:33 PM

    See, now I want a movie about Mike Veeck, the guy who reinvented minor league baseball. That could be a whole lot of fun.

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  19. Roy Campanella. The SECOND black dude in the majors. Dumb as a box of rocks, unusual for a catcher, and paralyzed in a car accident.

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