A walk with the Moonlight
Apr. 14th, 2009 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI'm gonna go out on a limb here and say Kevin Costner like baesball. He's been involved in three of the baseball movies of recent times, (For Love of the Game, Field of Dreams and Bull Durham).
Each of them, in their way, captures a quintessential aspect of the game. I've used Bull Durham to try and show people why I love the sport. I've taken them to, For Love of the Game to show them why an afternoon at the park isn't "fifteen minutes of action packed into three hours."
But what of the oddities and trivia in those movies. What of, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham. Field of Dreams isn't really about baseball. It's about not missing the chance to be close to people. It's about second chances, and it's full of real people (Shoeless Joe, Ty Cobb [whom the rest of the players leave in the cornfield, because, "none of us like him when he was alive"], and a bunch of others).
Moonlight, we are told, played on one game, and never got an at bat. He wanted t show the big league players what he was made of, but he wasn't kept, and went on to become a doctor.
It's true. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham was a minor league player, called up by the Giants (boo....), to play in 1905. He was a late inning sub, out to right field, in a game they were handily beating the Dodgers in (more boo...!). He played two innings, made no plays and was on deck when the last out was recorded, with the Giants beating the Bums, 10-0.
He was sent back down. A few years later he took the medical degree he'd been awarded the day before his only appearance on the Big League Grass, and went into practice,in Chisolm, Minn. dying in 1965, just as the movie tells us.
Yesterday was the Dodgers' home season opener. They pounded the Giants (Yay!) 11-1, with Orlando Hudson hitting for the cycle (the second cycle hit in Dodger Stadium, the first hit there by a Dodger, and the first to be hit by a Dodger in 39 years). It's springtime, and the leather's hitting the wood, the grass is green baseball fans are young again, full of hope (even if dim and unlikely) that they will see their teams cross the 162 games of the season to end up with the pennant.
Reminded of the greats, and; some of us, wisfully pondering the not quites.
Rest in Peace Moonlight, the game's still here.
Each of them, in their way, captures a quintessential aspect of the game. I've used Bull Durham to try and show people why I love the sport. I've taken them to, For Love of the Game to show them why an afternoon at the park isn't "fifteen minutes of action packed into three hours."
But what of the oddities and trivia in those movies. What of, Archibald "Moonlight" Graham. Field of Dreams isn't really about baseball. It's about not missing the chance to be close to people. It's about second chances, and it's full of real people (Shoeless Joe, Ty Cobb [whom the rest of the players leave in the cornfield, because, "none of us like him when he was alive"], and a bunch of others).
Moonlight, we are told, played on one game, and never got an at bat. He wanted t show the big league players what he was made of, but he wasn't kept, and went on to become a doctor.
It's true. Archibald "Moonlight" Graham was a minor league player, called up by the Giants (boo....), to play in 1905. He was a late inning sub, out to right field, in a game they were handily beating the Dodgers in (more boo...!). He played two innings, made no plays and was on deck when the last out was recorded, with the Giants beating the Bums, 10-0.
He was sent back down. A few years later he took the medical degree he'd been awarded the day before his only appearance on the Big League Grass, and went into practice,in Chisolm, Minn. dying in 1965, just as the movie tells us.
Yesterday was the Dodgers' home season opener. They pounded the Giants (Yay!) 11-1, with Orlando Hudson hitting for the cycle (the second cycle hit in Dodger Stadium, the first hit there by a Dodger, and the first to be hit by a Dodger in 39 years). It's springtime, and the leather's hitting the wood, the grass is green baseball fans are young again, full of hope (even if dim and unlikely) that they will see their teams cross the 162 games of the season to end up with the pennant.
Reminded of the greats, and; some of us, wisfully pondering the not quites.
Rest in Peace Moonlight, the game's still here.
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Date: 2009-04-20 05:57 am (UTC)The winning streak is up to 8 as of this afternoon (Sunday).
Linkmeister
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Date: 2009-04-20 06:03 am (UTC)The trick, of course, isn't the way the season starts, but how it ends. You win a third and you lose a third. It's what you do with the other third which matters.
I noticed you were a Dodgers fan. It has been mentioned with approbation at home.