Documentary

[CBStew]

I saw a documentary movie this afternoon that has yet to be commercially released.  It was shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and is called "Jews and Baseball:An American Love Story".  It is narrated by Dustin Hoffman and starts in the 19th Century and ends with Kevin Youklis.  Most of the movie is Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.   Somehow they got a lengthy interview with Koufax, who comes off as quite a mensch.  He gets in a pitch for The Player's Association and unions in general, provoking spontaneous applause in the Bay Area audience.  I gritted my teeth at the prospect of watching the 1945 Series, but mercifully they left that out of Greenberg's heroics.  They showed Drysdale getting shelled when he filled in for Koufax in the first game of theWorld Series that Koufax sat out for Yom Kippur.  He gave up 7 runs in 2 innings and when Alston came out to pull him from the game Drysdale said "I bet you wish that I was Jewish too."   They even showed Adam Greenberg.  I was probably the only one in the audience who had a clue as to who he was, but when they showed him getting beaned by the first pitch that he ever saw in the major leagues there was an audible gasp.  Marvin Miller, Bud Selig, Shawn Green, Ken Holtzman,  Ron Bloomberg,  Mike Epstein, Kevin Youklis all get featured prominently.    (No Jason Marquis or Sam Fuld)  They even have Denis Leary's "We got a Jewish first baseman?" commentary.   There were parts that made me tear up, like Greenberg's encouragement of Jackie Robinson and Robinson's response.  In all it was a far better way to spend my afternoon than to see the Cubs get swept by the Rockettes.

[Quality Start Machine]

I saw a documentary movie this afternoon that has yet to be commercially released.  It was shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and is called "Jews and Baseball:An American Love Story".  It is narrated by Dustin Hoffman and starts in the 19th Century and ends with Kevin Youklis.  Most of the movie is Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.   Somehow they got a lengthy interview with Koufax, who comes off as quite a mensch.  He gets in a pitch for The Player's Association and unions in general, provoking spontaneous applause in the Bay Area audience.  I gritted my teeth at the prospect of watching the 1945 Series, but mercifully they left that out of Greenberg's heroics.  They showed Drysdale getting shelled when he filled in for Koufax in the first game of theWorld Series that Koufax sat out for Yom Kippur.  He gave up 7 runs in 2 innings and when Alston came out to pull him from the game Drysdale said "I bet you wish that I was Jewish too."   They even showed Adam Greenberg.  I was probably the only one in the audience who had a clue as to who he was, but when they showed him getting beaned by the first pitch that he ever saw in the major leagues there was an audible gasp.  Marvin Miller, Bud Selig, Shawn Green, Ken Holtzman,  Ron Bloomberg,  Mike Epstein, Kevin Youklis all get featured prominently.    (No Jason Marquis or Sam Fuld)  They even have Denis Leary's "We got a Jewish first baseman?" commentary.   There were parts that made me tear up, like Greenberg's encouragement of Jackie Robinson and Robinson's response.  In all it was a far better way to spend my afternoon than to see the Cubs get swept by the Rockettes.

For those who haven't seen it, the Hank Greenberg documentary is also outstanding.

[CBStew]

The movie starts with a scene from "Airplane"  showing the airline hostess asking a passenger if she would like some reading material entitled "Great Moments In Jewish Sports History" and then giving the passenger a half sheet of note paper to read.