It’s Friday morning as I write this, and for some reason, the boys are home, the first day of a four-day weekend. Such as it is, we had a movie night last night, and it was my turn* to pick out the film. As I’m impatiently awaiting the start of baseball, in any shape or form, I chose A League of Their Own, one of the best** baseball movies.
*We choose movies in order of birth, and my wife is the oldest of the group. She picked last time and chose The Mighty Ducks, which I hadn’t watched in years. It wasn’t bad! Except the part about Gordon Bombay landing a DWI in the first few scenes, and the opening scene where the coach belittles young Gordon for hitting the post. Stupid Gordon!
**My two favorite baseball movies are A League of Their Own and Major League. I also enjoy Field of Dreams and The Sandlot, but I have a hard time picking out a fifth favorite baseball movie. Probably the Albert Brooks and Brendan Fraser vehicle, The Scout, where Fraser’s character, at the end, strikes out the fearsome slugger…Ozzie Smith???
Watching a baseball movie is just one of the ways I’m gearing up for the baseball season, in particular, watching the Royals. I’m sure I’ll watch plenty of the World Baseball Classic, which begins in early March.
While the WBC isn’t that far away, it feels like it is. Closer is the start of college baseball. My beloved, woeful Missouri Tigers, who finished last season 16-39 (3-27 in conference play), begin their season the night I’m writing this piece as they take on Mount St. Mary’s in a neutral-site game down in Florida.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I took our sons to their first-ever Mizzou basketball game. During one of the first-half timeouts, the baseball team came out to throw t-shirts to the crowd. The next time out, head baseball coach Kerrick Jackson took the court to address the crowd. No one booed Jackson, but no one cheered him, either. I could tell that not a lot of the fans cared that much, or knew that much, about the baseball team.
Lady Behind Me: Is the baseball team any good?
Man Behind Me: [laughs]
Still, baseball is baseball. If you love it, you love it in all its shapes and sizes, from the SEC to the minors to the Majors to a film about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAPBL, thank you very much).
My sons really enjoyed A League of Their Own. The littler one asked if we could watch it again as soon as the credits rolled. My wife didn’t recognize Madonna. The older son and I engaged in a conversation that has surrounded the movie since it was released in 1992 – did Kit Hinson knock the ball out of Dottie’s hand, or did Dottie purposefully let it go?
It also warmed my heart when Tom Hanks first entered the picture—over thirty minutes in!—and the boys recognized him from the only other movie in which they’ve seen him (excluding the Toy Story movies, of course): The ‘Burbs.
The on-field action in League, if you will, is pretty good. Sure, there’s a scene or two where the batter clearly hits the ball to the right side of the field, and Rosie O’Donnell’s Doris, playing third, makes a play to her right. Whatever. The play has me gearing up to go.
With the Royals, there’s also the draft to consider. They moved up in the lottery and landed the #6 pick in the draft, which should enable them to land a premium player. Because of that draft position, I’m keeping an eye on the college baseball season as a whole (not just Mizzou, which is probably good for my sanity) as well as how certain prep players perform this spring.
Reading Baseball America is great for that coverage, and The Athletic seems to be upping its coverage of the college game, too. I’m sure there are other, possibly better (i.e., cheaper) sites for this sort of coverage, but these are the two on which I’m leaning.
Then we have the Royals’ own farm system, which is getting stronger. Keith Law at The Athletic is great for prospect coverage, as is Baseball America, but MLB Pipeline, which is the only free site of the group, also provides strong work. All of them are helpful for keeping an eye on Royals prospects climbing the ladder toward the Majors or determining who the front office might dangle* in a trade to upgrade the 40-man.
*I’ll have another column on this soon.
Lastly, I’m reading a bunch of baseball books, to which I’ll be devoting an entire column in the coming days. It seems that there are more books about baseball than any other sport, even football. When I’m roaming the stacks at the local library, it’s clear that baseball—at least, the history of baseball—is thriving.
All of this is to say, I can’t wait to watch some baseball. Starting with Mizzou tonight, I should be watching or listening to baseball games from now until the end of October. I’ll be at Opening Day at the K for the first time in my life. I have finally convinced my youngest join a baseball team, too.
There’s nothing better.
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone: baseball has returned.