"The Express": The Ernie Davis story

Actually, as Starman said, "Eight Men Out" -- the film -- was one of the MOST historically accurate of all the great sports movies. ... Problem is, it's relying on a book that fudged its facts to tell a good story.

But the attention to detail and the character development was superb. Truly a great movie, despite the flaws in Asinof's story.

Plus, they had Joe Jackson batting lefty and that counts for a lot. ... (Of course, they had Weaver batting righty when he was a switch-hitter by then, but who's keeping score?)

 

Nobody. Unless you count you.

 

Also had Dickie Kerr as a righty ...

 

Good catch. Also had Kerr claiming to see a Kid Gleason no-hitter with his grandfather -- except when Gleason stopped pitching regularly, Kerr was a year old. What a busher.

 

Yeah, I knew there was a problem with that anecdote, but couldn't remember when it was.

Doesn't Eddie Collins hit righty in the movie, too?

 

You may be right. I think Collins did.

I think in the DVD featurette Sayles says he tried to get the batting and throwing correct, but ... umm ... he had to sacrifice historical accuracy for athletic believability. And only Sweeney and Sheen had any real athleticism.

 

Good catch, my bad. I always pronounce his name wrong, and thus spell it wrong.

 

They played in Indianapolis! That's not right! One of my best friends dad's was the third base coach for the White Sox in the movie (RIP, he got a sweet team jacket out of the deal and they played Eight Men Out in the reception after his January funeral), that's not right! The dude from Better Off Dead is a skier, not a baseball player, that's not right!

Fuck you and your inaccurate movie, John Sayles!

 

I remember seeing an interview with Sweeney (who played JuCo ball, but wasn't a natural lefty-hitter), where he said he asked Sayles if they could do like in "Pride of the Yankees" and have him wear a backward-stitched uniform, run to third base, etc., and then "flip" the film.

And Sayles said something like, "no, we don't have the budget for that. You've got to learn to hit lefty."

And I think Sweeney did a believable job.

 

Seriously? I'm jealous.

 

It was between my sophomore and junior year in high school when my friends' dad (his name was Jim Holland) was cast as the third base coach. He had retired a year or so before from the Army, so he had the time to do it.

Even though he's in maybe four shots and had no lines (and was uncredited), he had to make casting call every day for at least a month. It was long days and hard work.

He got to know Cusack, Sweeney, etc., and said they were cool to be around, especially Sweeney because he knew his baseball. He was extremely proud of his 1919 White Sox team jacket he got after shooting was over, which was all leather if memory serves.

The premier was in Indy and, obviously, it was a big deal for him and his family. Can't remember if I went or not, but I remember seeing it very shortly after it was released. I have to admit, I was never into the story on first viewing, I was just hunting for glimpses of my buddy's dad.

At the time, we thought it was cool, as cool as a dad could be to jaded teens anyway, but I know I didn't have a grasp on either a) the subject matter, even though back then I was big into baseball history; or b) how good of a movie-maker Sayles was/is.

If I could sit down with him now, I'd have a million questions, especially since that movie is a character actors' Hall Of Fame, as most Sayles movies are.

One of the coolest things was that he was next to Joe Jackson in the team shot they show frequently in the film.

 

I thought I knew a little about baseball...how little i didn't know