Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Another top ten list of baseball flicks, this one from the folks who bring you the VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever: Bull Durham Field of Dreams The Natural Pride of the Yankees Major Leagues The Bad News Bears (1979) The Stratton Story A League of Their Own Eight Men Out The Rookie
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From the Hall of Fame: Three Movies Win Awards at Baseball Film Festival —Dreaming in Blue Takes Home Best Film– (COOPERSTOWN, NY) – The third annual Baseball Film Festival at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum concluded with the presentation of three awards determined by a panel of four judges on Sunday afternoon […]
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when it hosts a the third annual Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Sept. 19-21. The event kicks off with a salute to the 20th anniversary of the release of Bull Durham, featuring appearances at the Museum by the […]
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I was stunned when I read the news that the comedian/actor — he was the star of Mr. 3000 — had died at the age of 50. At the risk of sounding maudlin, the older I get, the more aware I am of those dying around me, especially when they’re younger than I. There are […]
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Fans of Monty Python will recognize John Cleese’s signature tagline. It applies here because an unlikely source from Great Britain offers a podcast review of Field of Dreams. One of my favorite (or favourite, in this case) podcasts is “Movies You Should See,” a weekly offering by a group of 30-something Brits who obviously enjoy […]
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Baseball Films in the Capra Tradition by Wes D. Gehring, McFarland, 2004 Gehring, a professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, combines th best of both worlds as he examines several baseball features, comparing them with the works of Frank Capra. For example, these baseball films mirror […]
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An article from the New England-based Seacoastonline.com reports that a film about Ari Alexenberg, a 45-year-old Boston man who played in the first (and perhaps only) season of the Israel Baseball League last year, is in the works. When Steve Sanger, of Portsmouth-based Sanger Communications, heard of Alexenberg’s story, he knew he had to meet […]
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In this corner, Kevin Costner. And in this corner, Kevin Costner. And the winnah, according to the Angels blog on the OC Register Web site, is ___.
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Remember The Bad News Bears (the original one, not the disaster with Billy Bob Thornton)? Of course you do, it was a “revolutionary” film in that it presented kids as kids, not some Disneyworld animatronic beings. Now how about, Hardball, starring Keanu Reeves as a gambling addict sentenced to coach an inner city little league […]
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MLB.com’s Doug Miller contributed this list of independent films that have baseball somewhere within its theme, if not the actual subject. Some are documentaries, others are features, several premiered at film festivals. Diminished Capacity (2008): Directed by Terry Kinney, the veteran actor and performer who garnered acclaim in his role as Tim McManus in the […]
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Has it really been 20 years? ESPNthemag.com has a five-part retrospective, featuring interviews with director Ron Shelton and actors Tim Robbins and Kevin Costner.
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Yes, Robin, there was hardball in the Holy Land last year, with the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League. Six teams played during the summer of ’07; three of which were led by former Major Leaguers Art Shamsky, Ken Holztman, and Ron Blomger, who led his team to the championship. Unfortunately, and for a […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
My article on the later biographies of Babe Ruth appears in
My article on the Mets’ 1969 postseason appears in
Profiles of several Jewish baseball figures appear in
That's Bull
November 14, 2008
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 […]
Tagged as: baseball movies, Bull Durham
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