I’m a big fan of the Out of the Park baseball series, and in fact there will be a review of the newest version some time in the next few days. However, if you are interested in both playing it and also supporting the Baseball Continuum, it is now for sale through a link on the Continuum as part of Out of the Park Developments’ affiliate program.
Keep an eye open in the next few days for a full review of the game.
As an off-topic video, here’s a video I found that combines two of my favorite things: the hilarious movie Anchorman and the cult video game classic Earthbound:
Pulling the curtain for a second, an admission:
I originally had this big plan where I would watch the now-20-year-old kid-baseball classic Rookie of the Year and figure out the statistics for it’s main character, Henry Rowengartner. But, alas, it was not to be: I inadvertently deleted it from my DVR, ruining my opportunity to bring the world such great baseball scholarship. One day, perhaps.
Still, some thoughts on Rookie of the Year:
Rookie of the Year was part of an early 90s mini-fad of baseball movies sparked by the late-80s success of Kevin Costner’s films and Major League. Other baseball movies from this time period include The Sandlot, A League of Their Own and Little Big League. I saw them on VHS when I was like five or six, possibly more times than was healthy. And, although in hindsight The Sandlot and A League of Their Own* were the best of the early 90s bunch, I think I watched Rookie of the Year and Little Big League more. It makes sense, come to think of it: They were wish-fulfillment tales. Who doesn’t wish to make it to the big leagues in some way? Heck, who doesn’t wish they could be doing it when they are still kids?
Anyway, for those of you who don’t know the story, Rookie of the Year is a semi-remake of an obscure movie called Roogie’s Bump. In the film, Henry Rowengartner, a baseball-loving boy in his early teens, suffers a strange injury that heals in such a way that his arm suddenly becomes able to throw MLB-level heat. The Cubs sign him, and, well, you can probably guess how the rest of the story goes.
While the film is unrealistic and pretty formulaic, it still is a fun watch, especially with John Candy as an announcer for the Cubs who opens up the movie with this ever-so-true line:
Opening Day at Wrigley, and oh what a sight! The diamond, the decorations, and the dread of yet another losing season.
Really, there isn’t much more that can be said, other than that as part of the Anniversary there have been a few articles about it.
For example, Yahoo!’s Mike Oz talked a bit to star Thomas Ian Nicholas (who has since gone on to star in the American Pie films) and director/supporting actor Daniel Stern about it. From it, I learned that, for example, John Candy was not originally involved with the film, but the studio liked the close-to-finished product enough that they let the producers hire John Candy to film a few scenes and voiceovers for the film.
Meanwhile, as a extra to Sports Illustrated‘s “Where Are They Now” issue, screenwriter Sam Harper revealed what happened to Henry after the film. Turns out that similar injuries led to him having brief careers in football and bowling.
So, if you see Rookie of the Year on cable in the coming days, feel free to think back to this post and those other articles. And also think how funky-buttloving (you’d get it if you saw the movie) awesome my look at Henry Rowengartner’s stats would have been.
*True story: I almost had a cameo in A League of Their Own as a redheaded toddler grandchild in the Cooperstown scenes at the end. But according to family legend, my parents didn’t want to drive all the way to Cooperstown for the shoot, especially since if I cried they’d probably just have some other 1-year-old do it and they’d have driven all the way to Cooperstown for nothing. And that, friends, is why Daniel J. Glickman doesn’t have an IMDB page noting his uncredited cameo in A League of Their Own.
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
When I was growing up, there was only one true cartoon Batman, and that was the Batman voiced by Kevin Conroy in a series of cartoons that started in the early nineties, ended in 2006, and then briefly revived for the occasional video game or DVD movie. The shows that featured Conroy- usually headed by a writer named Paul Dini and an artist named Bruce Timm- were and are masterpieces, regarded by many as the definitive Batman and not just great kids shows, but great shows period.
However, there was the slight problem that having a deep and rather mature Batman in the cartoons meant there wasn’t as much stuff for the very little kiddies, so in 2004, while the Conroy-Batman was in a Justice League cartoon, a new show was created, entitled simply The Batman. While it did have it’s moments (or so I hear, I think I only watched maybe four episodes of it in total), it was not dark, it was not deep, it was not mature and it just in general was an abomination, especially when compared to the Batman cartoons I’d grown up watching. It was created basically just to sell toys to little kids in the run-up to the release of Batman Begins (which, as we all know, was totally kid friendly, right?).
Still, there was one thing that The Batman gave us: a comic book in which Batman joins forces with Cal Ripken Jr. in order to stop the Penguin and hawk Big League Chew. Just as Bob Kane and Bill Finger intended.
(Go below the jump for more)
MentalFloss.com gives us a brief history of Wiffleball.
This past week on the Continuum…
This coming week:
Good night!
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
Last time on Bizarre Baseball Culture: I reviewed and overviewed 2007’s Triple-A Baseball Heroes. In it, some of Marvel’s most famous and/or at-the-time-in-a-movie superheroes had misadventures at the AAA All-Star Game before learning the greatness and beauty of Triple-A Baseball. Also, the Hulk sang “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.” If you haven’t read that, I suggest you do so.
And now, without further ado, it’s sequel, Triple-A Baseball Heroes #2.
The first “Superhero Day” giveaways around AAA must have been successful, because they did the same thing in 2008. Everything about the second issue of Triple-A Baseball Heroes was bigger. The scope was bigger, there were more alternate covers for certain cities, and instead of merely dealing with one event or city, the entirety of AAA baseball was at stake. It even had a cameo or two. You can even see the stakes raised in the standard cover (done by John Watson, who also did the cover for the 2007 edition). Where before it was but a standard “running towards the reader” scene, this one had conflict, as the Marvel heroes and AAA mascots surround Doctor Doom, Magneto, the Green Goblin and the Mole Man.
I have to think, by the way, that the mascot of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs would be in trouble against Magneto.
So, what about the story itself? Well, go below the jump for that.
Thanks partially to the efforts of Larry Granillo, the article about the 2007 Triple-A Baseball Heroes actually came to the attention of the comic’s writer, Chris Eliopoulos. His comment upon seeing it:
@wezen_ball @DanJGlickman Wow.
— chris eliopoulos (@ChrisEliopoulos) June 20, 2013
So, I asked him a few questions, and he was kind enough to answer what he could remember from 2007. For example, I asked how he ended up writing the piece in the first place:
@DanJGlickman @wezen_ball I also write stuff and had been for Marvel. They knew I liked baseball & this was a custom comic…
— chris eliopoulos (@ChrisEliopoulos) June 20, 2013
@DanJGlickman @wezen_ball …so there is a lot of back and forth with story and character that the clients want & you have to give it to them.
— chris eliopoulos (@ChrisEliopoulos) June 20, 2013
@DanJGlickman @wezen_ball They knew I would take it in stride. So, it was just my love of baseball and easiness to work with.
— chris eliopoulos (@ChrisEliopoulos) June 20, 2013
In other words, he did the comic because he loves baseball and was willing to work with the clients (in this case presumably AAA Baseball). And, well, most of the unusual and/or bizarre things in the comic can be chalked up because that’s what the clients wanted:
@DanJGlickman @wezen_ball A lot of the things you mentioned in the post are things the client may have asked for. Customer’s always right.
— chris eliopoulos (@ChrisEliopoulos) June 20, 2013
@DanJGlickman @wezen_ball It’s been a while, but I think they wanted certain characters or there were restrictions on certain ones.
— chris eliopoulos (@ChrisEliopoulos) June 20, 2013
Thanks to Chris Eliopoulos for tweeting with me quick yesterday. Appreciate it. Also, thanks to Larry Granillo for bringing it to his attention.
In Bizarre Baseball Culture, I take a look at some of the more unusual places where baseball has reared it’s head in pop culture and fiction.
I warned you. I told you it was coming. You could have gone away, but, no, you had to go and actually come here and read this installment of Bizarre Baseball Culture. This is a very special Bizarre Baseball Culture, as, for the first time, it’s something that I actually have in my very small personal collection of comic books. You see, in 2007, each Triple-A baseball team had a day celebrating superheroes, and as a giveaway, there was this comic:
And, as you can probably guess, I was at that game and got the giveaway. And so, it sat in a drawer for almost seven years, ignored. Until today. Yes, true believers, tremble and prepare yourself for the 2007 edition of Triple-A Baseball Heroes, featuring the superheroes of Marvel Comics.
Now, a few notes before we get going here:
Now, go below the jump for the rest of the post:
So I found this (among other things) in my drawer today….
Yes, coming soon from the Baseball Continuum by way of a 2007 promotional giveaway: Triple-A Baseball Heroes, guest-starring the Marvel superheroes.
If this isn’t Bizarre Baseball Culture, I’m not sure what is. Prepare yourself. For it is coming.
The Baseball Continuum 