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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Saturday, August 04, 2012
Produced by Bill Simmons which reminds me of the joke my buddy House made during the season finale of “Melrose Place” that likened the 1997 ALDS to the Andrew Shue/Courtney Thorne-Smith love storyline.
Broke (Billy Corben)
Broke explores the roads to fortune in American sports and eventually, the many detours to bankruptcy. Bernie Kosar, Andre Rison and Cliff Floyd are among the athletes who talk openly about the challenges of managing their money in an era when big contracts don’t necessarily support bigger lifestyles. Sucked into bad investments, stalked by freeloaders and saddled with medical problems, many pro athletes get shocked by harsh economic realities after years of living the high life. A story of the dark side of success, Broke is an allegory for the financial woes haunting economies and individuals all over the world….
You Don’t Know Bo (Michael Bonfiglio)
Bo Jackson hit 500 ft. home runs, ran over linebackers, and—for a small window—he was the best athlete we had ever seen. You Don’t Know Bo is a close look at the man and marketing campaign that shaped his legacy. Even without winning a Super Bowl or World Series, Bo redefined the role of the athlete in the pop cultural conversation. More than 20 years later, myths and legends still surround Bo Jackson, and his impossible feats still capture our collective imagination.
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1. Gamingboy Posted: August 04, 2012 at 08:41 PM (#4200654)"Once Brothers" - Vlade Divac and the late Drazen Petrovic - should have been released in theaters. You don't need to know anything about basketball to be moved to tears by that 30/30 story.
Usually the better you know the real story, the more you grimace when someone comes along and tries and fails to explain it. Not this time.
none of the films announced in this article seem like they will be in the same league as the two escobars or once brothers, or from an entertainment pov, pony excess or winning time.
judging by the synopses in the article, i'll probably be most interested in "broke" and "you don't know bo". "there's no place like home" sounds terrible. "9.79" and "ghosts of ole miss" oculd be good, and i'm not really familiar with the events described in "benji", but that one sounds interesting, as well.
That one and broke look to be the only ones I'd be interested in watching.
Bo was certainly big but if you're going to credit any individual, surely it's Jordan (and Spike Lee).
Bo was certainly big but if you're going to credit any individual, surely it's Jordan (and Spike Lee).
I guess it depends what you mean by "loved"--it was unintentionally but brutally honest in depicting what a loathsome, despicable program that school had
Pork-face Satan (Jimmy Johnson) was his own despicable self
Yeah, it was last year, I believe. It probably is available on Netflix. I know ESPN is adding those to Netflix.
I think this is accurate, and I think the "unintentionally" here is part of what put me off the documentary. Here's my impression of "The U:"
"Miami was bad for a long time. Then they hired Howard Schnellenberger, and he recruited good players. The good players were good, and the team was good. They also did a lot of things that annoyed a lot of people. THE U! THE U! THE U!"
There was little attempt at explaining the team's success beyond airing a lot of interviews where players just said, "We were really good." As I said, I found it pretty uninsightful.
I found the documentary's treatment of the players' shenanigans somewhat troublesome. Look, I don't care if a bunch of 18-22-year-old kids in the 80's and early 90's danced around after big plays or pulled out fake six shooters and fired them or ran all the way down the tunnel after a TD. Who cares? I mean, I'm white, but I'm not that white.
But I was awfully put off by the way the Miami alums talked about that Cotton Bowl victory over Texas, specifically the UT player one of them knocked unconscious. There was a lot of guffawing and light-hearted banter about how awesome it was that they knocked a kid unconscious, and it was totally cool, because Texas said mean things about Miami before the game. It's one thing for a bunch of college football players to say things like that, but it's another thing altogether when those kids are in their late 30's and early 40's and the event is 20 years in the past.
All of which would be fine, as it's a documentary and the players said what they said. But there's little evidence in the documentary that the people behind the camera find any of this objectionable. Certainly giving over the last minute or two of the film to a dozen alums so they can make the U hand signal and say "The U" doesn't seem to indicate that the director thought there was much wrong with what Miami did.
"June 17, 1994", "The Two Escobars", "The Pony Express", and the Divac/Petrovich one were all riveting stuff.
The Gretzky Trade and the Terry Fox one were too close to my heart for me to judge properly.
Funny enough, I never got a chance to see the baseball ones entirely (Jordan on the bus, Roto, 2004 Red Sox, Steinbrenner).
I bought the DVD set for my dad a year ago. I don't think he's watched them yet. I might swipe it from him when I visit next time...
Edit: Oh, and the Reggie Miller/Knicks started off well, but didn't hold me interest enough for me to really recommend it.
not the directors fault, of course....
I'm sure Dayn has read it, but if you haven't read Willie Morris' "The Courting of Marcus Dupree," you're missing out.
excellent book--one of many by Willie--his short time as editor of Harper's (~1967-71) was the absolute height of that magazine
thirded. I was a teenager when I read this and thought it was great then.
i thought the miller doc was hilarious, and i felt the best part about it was that the emotions of the subjects came right through the television. i could feel reggie miller's enthusiasm, and john starks's seething hatred of it, and spike lee's utterly dismissive contempt for miller.
the biggest issue i had with that film was that it completely ignored the fact that neither team won anything of consequence during that era. it was a great little side story, but it didn't present itself as a side story.
it was still one of my favorites though.
I recommend it. The job they did in recreating what happened, including some really fascinating behind-the-scenes footage of what happened to Bartman still at the game, but after the play, is terrific.
Bill Simmons, weirdly, seems to be kind of an excellent curator of sports writing and filmmaking. Grantland has hired a whole bunch of good writers, and a huge percentage of the best sportswriting of the last year was written on Grantland. 30 for 30 likewise. I'm sick of his just-us-bros-here sportswriting voice, but I've got to give him credit for this stuff.
Just watched "The Band That Wouldn't Die" last night. The band director looked really familiar and it kept bugging me til I realized he is also in the doc "Becoming Elmo" about the puppeteer behind Elmo on Sesame Street (Kevin Clash) that I watched a few weeks ago - he's the guy at the Baltimore TV station that gives Kevin his first break.
Marcus Dupree (Best that Never Was), Once Brothers (Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac) and The Two Escobars are by far the best.
The baseball ones have been by far my least favorites. Jordan Rides the Bus interminably boring, the fantasy baseball one was terrible because they tried to make it funny, Four Days in October was okay, but the material has been covered so much. I haven't seen the Bartman or Steinbrenner ones -they're in my Netflix queue though.
agreed with uccf that the zapruder type film of the wrigley stands following the incident is great.
the guy who was right there with bartman in going for the ball is ridiculously amusing in the very casual way he admits he did the same thing and that he immediately disavowed doing anything when at the game and fingered bartman.
I'd watch a good doc about the early Bill James days or the death of the Expos.
I'm still going to disagree. I thought that the first part of the film did a very good job of documenting why Schnellenberger was able to turn the program around. They mentioned his focus on recruiting in the state of Florida up through the Tampa-Daytona corridor (which they referred to as "the state of Miami") and especially within the city of Miami. They shared stories of his willingness to go into the ethnic neighborhoods and his pitch to the local kids of basically turning the Hurricanes into an all-Miami All-Star team. And they mentioned the significance of having the parents and high school fans turn out for the college games as a way to boost attendance and fan intensity. It seemed very clear to me why Schnellenberger was able to turn things around, even if later coaches got away from that blueprint.
I agree with this one. The Jordan one was okay, if I little boring. The roto one was fun, though not as good as the other humorous doc about the USFL. But I found the Red Sox and Steinbrenner films to be unwatchable. I couldn't finish either one. Way too much fawning over the subjects. And in the case of the Red Sox, I didn't feel I was learning anything I hadn't known when I watched the games the first time around.
Otherwise I loved the first batch of 30 For 30 films, particularly June 17, 1994 and The Two Escobars.
I will say that I hate basketball but the Reggie Miller one was in my opinion the best of the bunch. You really felt like you were in it as it happened.
I'd LOVE to see the death of the Expos, especially a "where are they now" follow-up at the end.
(Like Brad Wilkerson being the last man to wear an official Montreal Expos jersey in competitive action, on the Japan tour in the off-season.)
I'd also like to see an outsider come into Toronto and do a doc about the unbreakable Toronto Maple Leaf fan support. I don't think anyone can really understand how crazy it is that such an unsuccessful franchise (40+ years without a title, 7 years without the playoffs, and only 9 seasons with more than 50% wins in the past 50) can still pull huge attendance/TV/merchandise numbers. Other legendary teams (Canadiens, Yankees, Red Sox) had down periods, but not the Leafs.
How about a "odd nation sport" collection, like the Israeli ice hockey team, the Canadian cricket team, and the British baseball league?
As one of the most famous moments in televised sports history, I was surprised at how flat that doc seemed to be. I agree that Magic talking about Magic really took away from any critical look at him and those around him.
They kinda did when Reggie ends with "now if only we'd won in the Conference Finals." I think my wife busted out laughing at that point. But that was probably the most entertaining of the non-heart-tugging docs.
The Two Escobars is just stunning , it's one the best documentaries, I've ever seen in any genre.
One that hasn't been mentioned which I loved was the Matt Hoffman one - I had to look up while I was watching it , to make sure he wasn't dead - really great stuff.
The OJ Simpson one is freakishly well edited and great - the Reggie Miller one rounds out my favourite 3.
Game 6 of the 2011 World Series also deserves its own documentary, but might need to marinate for a few more years.
That would be more like 8 for 30 wouldn't it?
in all seriousness. the two escobars was awesome. also really liked the one about marcus dupree and the one about terry fox.
i'm glad they are on neflix, now i can go see the vlade divac one.
Also in the substance abuse genre, the Marinovich project was very entertaining as well. The story is familiar, but the ending was not at all what I expected.
Can see it on my shelf from where I stand. Great book by a great writer.
I thought the 2004 Red Sox installment was almost completely ruined by having Bill Simmons smirking in a bar for so much of it. Took away from the narrative and reminded me why I can't stand his shtick.
The U-Miami one was enjoyable, but they played fast'loose with the facts. I remember them talking about a Catholics vs. Convicts game and they complained about a bad ref call that cost them a TD, and how they barely lost that game and all. Made it seem like that call cost them. I was curious because I remember that game but don't remember that play -- turns out that a few plays after the bad ref call Miami scored a TD anyway, so they still got a TD on that drive. Didn't cost them the game - but that's not how it seemed in the video.
Imagine if Red Sox fans/zealots/crazy drugged-out gamblers were as unforgiving of Bill Buckner.
Scary.
#16 is right though. On one hand it was very appropriate that they spent as much time on the '91 Cotton Bowl vs UT as they did, as it was the nadir of the 'U' in terms of total jackassery. From the opening kick off you could tell the Canes wanted to draw blood and out gain the Horns in penalty yards, they just missed 205 yds gained-202 penalty yards. They For some very strange reason, I still have the broadcast on videotape. The most memorable piece isn't a bit of taunting or cheap shots, but Jim Nantz and Pat Haden talking about Randall Hill and how he dreamed of running with cheetahs and being pulled over by the police for speeding (presumably on foot), this was around the time in the game when Hill ran all the way up the tunnel and started firing his guns.
re:#54, yeah, the Cleveland Gary fumble. It wasn't a fumble, he was down and ND did recover, but ND turned it over a few plays later and the Canes scored and were still gonna go for two anyways.
They also made it seem like the team was lousy and never got good players til Kosar's class, but I was thinking "didn't Jim Kelly go to Miami????"
A 30-for-30 on the NHL's seemingly-failed move southward, and its impact on the old and new host cities, could be compelling.
Any Cubs fans in here?
I saw it and can't really remember much of it. Pretty blah.
I saw Catching Hell last night and even though its not officially a "30 for 30" I'd put it in the top five if it was. Really entertaining. The interview with the minister on origin of the word "scapegoat" and the examination of the film to see if Alou would have caught it and if others interfered were excellent.
I would say the Leafs have had three distinct periods when they were quite good, each about a generation apart -- the Sittler Leafs (late 70s), the Gilmour Leafs (early 90s), and the Sundin Leafs (early 00s) -- were all minor contenders and forged a new generation of Leafs fans. People like to talk as if they've been constantly bad for 45 years, but that hasn't been the case.
I wish they had the guts to do a 30-30 on the Tim Donaghy scandal and related NBA ref issues.
What also struck me about the "Muhammad and Larry" footage was how gleefully the sports media bought in to the Ali hype and succumbed to his wishful thinking despite the clear evidence to the contrary on display right in front of them. I think the boxing and sports media at the time willed themselves to believe Ali had one more legendary comeback in him, but never gave Larry Holmes even a shred of the credit he deserved; in retrospect, with Larry Holmes almost universally considered a top-10 all-time heavyweight champion (and I'll gladly argue for top-5) and the signs of Ali's neurological demise so well-chronicled, I'd like to believe some of the covering media are quietly ashamed of their role in his horror.
There was an actual scandal? The whole thing seemed to go away pretty quickly.
IIRC, Donaghy promised that his soon-to-be-"disappeared" book was going to discuss specifics regarding how the league office pressured officials to protect certain high-value players and outcomes. That's what I most want to hear more about - I think the American public is ready for a full review of Michael Jordan and the extent to which his performance was overtly aided and assisted by league officials at every level.
Yeah, I thought they'd spend more time on that for the "Jordan Rides the Bus" episode but they glossed over it pretty swiftly. "Jordan was the biggest star in the league, Stern was begging him to reconsider," was about as in-depth as the treatment of the issue got.
Yes, there have been three different 2-year periods where everything suddenly clicked...and they still didn't make the cup finals.
Here is a list of the teams that haven't been to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1967, and the year they came into existence:
Columbus Blue Jackets (2001)
Minnesota Wild (2001)
Nashville Predators (1999)
Phoenix Coyotes (1980)
San Jose Sharks (1992)
Toronto Maple Leafs (1918)
Winnipeg Jets (2000)
That's it. Every other team has at least had a chance to play for the Cup in the last 45 years.
Considering Toronto's financial advantage over almost every other team in the league, this would be like if the Yankees didn't make it to the World Series for the next 20 years.
Yes, please.
it's pretty pathetic on how their programming endlessly shill every minor nba event. espn didn't seem to acknowledge the baseball season until the all star game.
Bo Knows was huge in the late 80s (88/89) and that was 1-2 years prior to the Jordan/Spike/Nike commercials. Jordan eventually became a force bigger than Bo (especially after Bo was injured and dropped out of the limelight).
I REALLY need to introduce you to some Cubs fans.
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