It’s my all-time pet peeve. Why aren’t there any black players coming out of the cornfield?

Isn't the whole "dead players coming back to life to play in Ray Kinsella's field" basically a figment of his imagination? If so, if Ray was your typical white guy growing up Iowa, he'd probably never even heard of the Negro Leagues growing up. I mean, it's not like the Des Moines papers were running Homestead Grays boxscores or something...

Were there black players coming out of the cornfield or discussed in the book? I don't remember any.

In W.P. Kinsella's novel, of course, the "Terence Mann" character is actually J.D. Salinger himself. The film goes a step in the direction of acknowledging African-Americans by replacing Salinger with an invented black character. A tiny step, perhaps, as the FA suggests, but ...

In both book and film, the Black Sox take the field against spectral opponents, but I forget the details of who they are in the film, I seem to remember they're just generic or something - of course including Mann, Ray's dad, and Moonlight Graham in some mix or other. In the book, the Black Sox play the 1908 Chicago Cubs, with Eddie Scissons pitching, a big dynamic that was too complicated for the film to include, I think. So there is some reason in the novel for everyone on the field to be white, and it has to do with Scissons as a central character. In fact Eddie Scissons is the most important character in the novel except for Ray himself, but the filmmakers, with a choice between Scissons and the similar Graham, chose to focus on Graham. Arguably it was a good choice because the character is simpler and Burt Lancaster was wonderful as him ...

Is/was the real J.D. Salinger a baseball fan?

Is/was the real J.D. Salinger a baseball fan?

Yes. He also wrote a fairly famous book about a kid playing baseball.

Edit - He is also still alive, as far as I know.

right but he might not still be a fan

He was a fan, but the take and rake approach soured him.

"right but he might not still be a fan"

Well, no one knows now what color shoes the man wears now, so that's a tough one. Based on his writing (there are baseball references in 'Nine Stories' too), I think it's fair to say he liked the game.

For that matter, there could be Cuban players and Japanese players and...

It's not necessarily a figment of Ray's imagination, either. It's a fantasy novel.

None of the players were Japanese or women, and the movie didn't support gay marriage. May god have mercy on the filmmakers' souls.

I think it would be kind of awesome and hilarious if the highly-aniticipated posthumous J. D. Salinger novel is entirely about baseball.


None of the players were Japanese or women, and the movie didn't support gay marriage. May god have mercy on the filmmakers' souls.

Such a sheer lack of understanding - and the application of that lack of understanding to histrionic hyperbole - is truly boring.

The problem, I think, is none of the famous Negro Leaguers were contemporaries of the Black Sox or the '08 Cubs. Aren't they mostly from the '30s and '40s? Bell, Gibson, Paige, etc.

Joe D and Ted Williams aren't there either.

I haven't read the book, but I'm trying to remember if the young Moonlight Graham mentions any post-Jackie Robinson players when he's gawking at the field for the first time and reciting names during the movie. I seem to recall Gil Hodges' name being mentioned. Am I right and were there any others?

J.D. Salinger is so elusive that I wouldn't be surprised if he died 3 years ago and we still haven't found out about it.

Can't blame this one on Ty Cobb. He wasn't allowed to play there either.

Gil Hodges was named. Mel Ott was another post-Black Sox player.

I think there's a lot of evidence that at least some of the Black Sox were haunted by the idea of suiting up in the majors again. My minute knowledge of them doesn't include anything to indicate that they were haunted by segregation. That says nothing about them; that's just life.

Can't blame this one on Ty Cobb. He wasn't allowed to play there either.

^So true. So true.

This is an incredibly stupid thing to be upset about.

Gil Hodges was named. Mel Ott was another post-Black Sox player.

The Hodges one really sticks out. It took me the 15th time watching it to realize how out-of-place that one was.

This is an incredibly stupid thing to be upset about.

Who's upset? This guy notes it as a pet peeve. Are your pet peeves any more justifiable or important?

Doesn't really strike me as a big deal at all, actually, but neither does him bringing it up.

Such a sheer lack of understanding - and the application of that lack of understanding to histrionic hyperbole - is truly boring.

Your pomposity is much more boring.

The problem, I think, is none of the famous Negro Leaguers were contemporaries of the Black Sox or the '08 Cubs. Aren't they mostly from the '30s and '40s? Bell, Gibson, Paige, etc.

Two big names from around 1919 were Pop Lloyd and Oscar Charleston. Putting them on the field with the 1919 ChiSox would have overshadowed the rest of the story - but it would be a cool story. It has been tried in the novel Shadowball (without the ghosts and a black JD Salinger).

Your pomposity is much more boring.

Would it be pompous to point out that this was a baseball movie, so it makes sense to look at it through baseball terms, and then to ask what possible insight is gained by bringing up gay marriage? I mean, I know it's a joke, but at least bring up Mike Lum or the House of David or something.

I think it would be kind of awesome and hilarious if the highly-aniticipated posthumous J. D. Salinger novel is entirely about baseball.

He wrote Moneyball!

The problem, I think, is none of the famous Negro Leaguers were contemporaries of the Black Sox or the '08 Cubs. Aren't they mostly from the '30s and '40s? Bell, Gibson, Paige, etc.

Joe D and Ted Williams aren't there either.

That would have been extra creepy, since they were both alive at the time the film was released.

He wrote Moneyball!

J.D. Salinger is Billy Beane? Makes sense. Salinger had a high on-base percentage during The War.

I'm busy watching the market meltdown, but I just want to throw in that I was disappointed when I first saw Field of Dreams--though I loved the movie at the time--that Negro Leaguers weren't on the field. Of course, when I was a kid I was creating strat-o-matic cards for Cool Papa Bell and Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige so I was unusual in that way. The Negro Leagues just fascinated me.

I think it would be kind of awesome and hilarious if the highly-aniticipated posthumous J. D. Salinger novel is entirely about baseball.

A period piece in which Holden Caulfield gets out of the mental hospital in 1972, makes the majors and becomes the "Catcher for Gary Rye(rson)".

You know, at the risk of sounding excessively maudlin, I never appreciated "Field of Dreams" until after my Dad died.

Shoeless Joe is one of those books that makes a better movie then book. The book reads like a movie script.

4 players were mentioned in the movie, Smokey Joe Wood, Gil Hodges, and Mel Ott. Ty Cobb was the one Joe told to stick it.

The movie takes place in 1988 while the book takes place from 1977 to 1979 (a few months before Munson dies). The book's Graham's bio is correct while the movie moves Graham's death up to 1972 and has him playing for the NY Giants in 1922 instead of 1905.

The book makes an error when Kinsella has Scisson's yelling out to look at Mordecai's jersey number, which of course he didn't have one.

The movie has two guys in Cardinals unifrom and I believe a Browns uniform. There is also three A's player that are probably Simmons and Foxx, and possibly Collins. The Cardinal is probably Hornsby and maybe Medwick/Bottomley, and the Brownie is probably Sisler. The movie also has a catcher as one of the 8 black sox members, Swede Risberg I believe. There is also a Yank besides Ray's dad, it might be Pennock since I think he is a pitcher. The Reds player I am guessing would be Roush.