Literary birthday greetings: Ron LeFlore

The swift Tiger/Expo/White Sox outfielder turns 63 today.

The speedy Tiger presented an interesting story of getting that “one in a million” chance while in prison to try out for the Detroit team, which he turned into a book with Jim Hawkins with One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story. The two collaborated on Breakout: From Prison to the Big Leagues, but the timing seems odd, since the two titles were released so close together (Warner, Oct. 1978 and Harper, Feb. 1978, respectively). I’m not sure if these are, in fact, aren’t the same book.

LeFlore’s story was turned into a minor TV picture, starring LeVar (Kunta Kinte/ Geordi La Forge) Burton as the ballplayer in one of the most uninspiring performances since Tony Perkins portrayed Jim Piersall in Fear Strikes Out.

Several real life Tigers appeared in extended cameos including Norm Cash, Al Kaline, Bill Freehan, and the late Jim Northrup. Mickey Stanley serves as LeFlore’s unofficial instructor in the outfield. They had to have used a double for the action shots from behind, because I cannot imagine Burton as that athletic. The scenes where he’s in the batting cage, now that I can believe, except for the couple of shots where the batter really smacks the ball; back to the double for those. All in all pretty typical of the media of the era: poor dialogue, wooden performances, “Quinn Martin“-esque music. Groovy.

Added treat: Billy Martin (ha!) plays himself as the Tigers’ manager. Can’t imagine him ever being this polite and soft-spoken in real life, given all that’s been written about him. (But who’s that toad in the suit, who comes in around the 3:37 mark and again a bit later? He’s so stiff, he must be a real local reporter or Tigers employee.)

Tagged as: Billy Martin, Jim Northrup, Ron LeFlore