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Top of the Tenth
“As a celebration of the magic of movies involving baseball, at least one scene from a different film will be posted each day for the next nine days…”
—From “Top of the First” March 28th
After a summer of baseball and hijinks, the pinnacle moment had arrived. Stealing your stepfather’s baseball, autographed by Babe Ruth, and hitting your first ever home run with it over the fence into the lair of The Beast is enough to stress out the most powerful superhero. Multiple attempts to retrieve the priceless souvenir were concocted, but ultimately each of them failed. Yet, there they all stood, nervously waiting in anticipation as one of their own was taking his last few breaths of reflection before daring to do the craziest thing any of them had ever seen. The curtain for the final scene of “The Battle with The Beast” was set to rise at any minute. For Benny, his mind was either as clear as a Carolina blue sky or as clouded as a kid unprepared to take a pop quiz in Chinese algebra.
Most can probably quote verbatim the inspirational words Babe Ruth/The Babe/The Great Bambino/The Sultan of Swat/The Colossus of Clout said to Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez in his dream the night before he was destined to take on The Beast.
“Remember kid, there’s heroes and there’s legends. Heroes get remembered but legends never die, follow your heart kid, and you’ll never go wrong.”
And don’t forget to lace up those PF Flyers nice and tight.
It just goes to show you never do quite know who lives next door…
Yesterday’s passing of famed film critic Roger Ebert coinciding with the final scene of “The Sandlot” above reveals the power and cultural significance of the “thumbs up.” Like Smalls and Benny, did Mr. Ebert give it “two thumbs up”?
The Sandlot (3 stars) — “These days too many children’s movies are infected by the virus of Winning, as if kids are nothing more than underage pro athletes, and the values of Vince Lombardi prevail: It’s not how you play the game, but whether you win or lose. This is a movie that breaks with that tradition, that allows its kids to be kids, that shows them in the insular world of imagination and dreaming that children create entirely apart from adult domains and values.”
—Roger Ebert
Top of the Seventh
“As a celebration of the magic of movies involving baseball, at least one scene from a different film will be posted each day for the next nine days…”
—From “Top of the First” March 28th
As noted earlier regarding the absence of a third inning, the bottom of the sixth has also turned out to be rather monotonous. Onward we continue to the top of the seventh.
There is an “it” factor with Kevin Costner. People are instantly drawn to him on the silver screen and are naturally curious about the characters he plays. Costner is convincing whether portraying an ex-Secret Service agent who was assigned to protect the President of the United States or a farmer in the cornfields of Iowa. Speaking of the latter, be sure to go see, “Man of Steel” on June 14th as Costner portrays Jonathan Kent. One of the first trailers released even featured a voice-over by Mr. Kent, in which he gives a few words of wisdom to his super son.
Click below and experience the pure power of the now famous, albeit perplexing, seven words that forever changed Ray Kinsella’s life. A “Field of Dreams” indeed!
James Earl Jones added his timber with a grand speech of his own.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 