If You Film It, They Will Come
INDIANAPOLIS -- And the most popular baseball movie with the Indians is . . .
INDIANAPOLIS -- And the most popular baseball movie with the Indians is . . .
Well, let's call it a split decision. It seems a good time to ask, with the 25th anniversary celebration of The Sandlot set for July 14 at Victory Field
Memory a little vague on The Sandlot? Four words: You're killin' me Smalls.
Is it coming back now? In any case, here are some votes for favorite baseball movie from the clubhouse and staff.
Joey Stevenson, director of field operations: "Field of Dreams. I just remember watching that with my dad, and the movie is about him and his father. (The ending) can make any grown man cry. When I was a kid, we went to the Field of Dreams and me and my dad played catch out there. He'll text me every time it's on and I'll text him when I see it on TV. Even though we're three hours apart, sometimes we're watching it together."
Radio broadcaster Howard Kellman: "I loved Pride of the Yankees. Bull Durham was great, so was Field of Dreams and Major League. That's the top four. I laughed the most at Major League. You can say it's that one because of Bob Uecker."
Manager Brian Esposito: "Bull Durham kind of resonates with myself and my career. In probably my sixth or seventh year in pro baseball, that was my job -- to be the catcher that was supposed to help develop young pitchers to have major league careers. In that movie, that's all Crash Davis was about. If they ever make a movie about my career, just change the timeline a little bit and some of the cars in the movie . . . even some of the fields were exactly the same. The last game that he played when he broke the home run record was in Asheville, North Carolina. I've had many at-bats in Asheville, North Carolina, I was lucky enough to manage against the Asheville Tourists."
CEO Bruce Schumacher: "I guess one is a little bit biased because I was involved in helping them make it, which was Eight Men Out at Bush Stadium. To have them come in at the end of our season and set the ballpark up to look like Comiskey Park, shoot all those scenes and then turn around and try to make it look like the Reds' ballpark was fun. I'm actually in it for 15 seconds as a sportswriter of all things. Another one I really like is one with Kevin Costner called For Love of the Game. That one is really well done, and the way they used Vin Scully to narrate is remarkable. That might be my favorite. Just to be entertained and watch a baseball movie, that's probably it."
Cal Burleson, senior vice president: "Bang the Drum Slowly. As I'm recalling, it was one of DeNiro's first really big roles (as a dying big league catcher). When I saw him on the screen, I wasn't thinking about who he was, I was just thinking about the character that he played. It had a bit of the grinding day-to-day challenges of playing baseball."
Pitching coach Stan Kyles, "I loved The Sandlot. It reminds me of my buddies back when I played. There were about five or six of us who ran around and that's all we did. That's probably why most of us love it. We see that movie and it just brings back those memories and hanging around with your buddies playing sports. There was always the weak link, but even our weakest link was a guy who knew about the game. We didn't have anybody like Smalls."
Through a translator,
Aren't they all?