End Game

This blog continues its path, sharing the inside details of the follow up to the award-winning documentary, "Boys of Summer". For more details, to watch the film or contribute to the sequel, please click here.

As we enter week eight of my dad's therapy under the skilled eyes and hands of Dr. DeMartino, here is the latest:

* Dad has lost 17 pounds (eating gluten-free and sugar free).
* Dad is a bit straighter, though this process is very much in play right now as the weeks leading up to this point were about getting his body healthy to receive this stage of the treatment.
* Dad would like more energy - he still feels tired.
* Several tests, including blood and urine, with definitive markers and scientific numbers will be taken in the next couple of weeks.

To that end, we are near the end of this phase. We don't have an exact out date for dad, but a good guess would be the end of July. My mom will be returning tomorrow and will be staying for a few weeks. There appear to be a few doctors in the bay with similar modalities to Dr. DeMartino who dad can continue his therapy with.

We need to make our way to Los Angeles in the next couple of weeks for a few things:
*Interview Dr. George Gonzalez, inventor of Quantum Neurology (one of Dr. DeMartino's highest recommendations for us).
*Interview Rob Belushi, a good friend and former instructor of mine at Second City about the value of comedy in health/life.
*Take dad to a gym that specializes in Parkinsonians boxing. I want to challenge my dad to keep fighting hard for his health and life - boxing is a great metaphor for that.
*See the coast. Get in the water. The ocean heals.

Who knows? Maybe we can even take in a game at Dodger or Angel Stadium.

Our story (go to about one minute in to see our mention) played on the local Las Vegas NBC affiliate last week in celebration of our ten year anniversary. The reporter, Amber Dixon, liked it enough to follow up last night with a few questions.

Or maybe she just liked Giuseppe that much - he's quite the charmer. He says he wants to be a reporter. She'll be cutting a longer piece that should make its way to air on Sunday night - I'll post it here when it's up.

So what happens after dad is done with treatment? Are we done? I hope not. We still need to get to the six new ballparks built since 2004 plus return to the Field of Dreams. If you'd like to help us get there, please visit our site to donate. Thank you. 

Happy 10-year Anniversary to us

This blog continues its path, sharing the inside details of the follow up to the award-winning documentary, "Boys of Summer". For more details, to watch the film or contribute to the sequel, please click here.

Ten years ago, my dad and me began an amazing journey to visit all 30 Major League Baseball parks over the course of a wild, stressful and hellaciously fun two month road trip. We began in Las Vegas, where I lived then and still live now (though the digs have improved considerably). We visited our one and only AAA park at Cashman Field, home of the 51's (who were the Dodgers affiliate then, before they became the Blue Jays and are now the Mets). They still have Cosmo and they're still at Cashman.

Tonight we head to Cashman to mark this event with another game. We'll be hanging out with our friends at Zappos before the game, because my lovely wife is awesome enough to work there. We're also going to be interviewed by the local NBC TV affiliate about our story. I'll post the clip here as soon as it goes up. But for those who can't wait, watch the 10/11 o'clock newscasts. If they like the story enough, they'll tease it out to tomorrow, too.

Annamaria was looking at some of the video from ten years ago and was shocked at how different my dad looks. Truth is, ten years does a number on all of us. I can't suppose wiser, but I can say older with authority. How to measure love? Time, effort, desire, emotion -- have fun with it. I can't define it. I can point toward it and say for sure that I loved that time with my dad, not because it was "all good" -- it wasn't. But we were both all in. We were in tight quarters. We had tight deadlines. We had a definite plan, a very finite budget and means enough to make it happen. We made it happen. I love that. I'm proud of that.

Ten years ago, as we sat in Cashman field, I asked my dad what he thought about baseball. He said, "This is a night for it - perfect night for it. Hot, dry summer night - very comfortable. A beer in my stomach, and a sub sandwich there with it. Not bad. All I need is four aces and a couple hundred dollars on a poker table. But that ain't gonna happen." Just then, the crack of the bat called us all to attention. A home run for the home team.

I look forward to throwing the ball back and forth with my dad a few times tonight. Catch defined much of who we were on that trip. Even when there weren't words, we were still communicating -- sometimes even better. 

Dan & Robert talk

Today Dad and I spent some time in front of the camera together, something we did a lot of in the first documentary, but haven't done much of so far. Part of this has been because I've been one-man-banding this act and really focussing on shooting dad's process. Part of that is very freeing and interesting, especially since I am far more camera/image focus than I was in the past. The other side, though, that is missing, is the connection between us, literally, on screen. To that end, I offer today's video.

We talked about a number of things - golf and giving it up, which may sound antithetical against our process of trying to get my dad back to it, but if you watch the video you'll get it. We also talked about the things we take for granted, like walking and the value of said simple things. And, of course, we talked a little A's baseball - which is quite enjoyable right now with the boys tearing up the league!

We also had a very interesting meeting with Zen Master, Thomas Pastor. He's one of the teachers at the Zen Center of Las Vegas. Dad's going to begin to learn how to meditate. There are many studies, especially in the last couple of years, that point to the specific scientifically provable benefits for the brain by meditating. Almost nothing could make more sense for my dad to engage in and we're excited to start the process. 

Lastly, we talked about Giuseppe's graduation from preschool. While it might sound like a silly idea to have a graduation from preschool, if you know his medical history, which included a rough start at birth, and understand he's been there at UNLV's preschool for three years now, you'll know this is a great thing to celebrate. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

As always, we appreciate your comments and hope you'll take a look at our book, Simple Stuff, which is still a free download for the next two days. 

On the road...again

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

 
Traveling back to the Bay Area is cathartic, scary and soul-enriching all at once. This weekend my family took its longest road-trip to date, from Las Vegas to Walnut Creek, CA and did brilliantly.

It's honestly hard to quantify all that we packed into this weekend+, but I'll list a few things that are resonating in my tired head as I ponder sleeping in the bed in the room I grew up in for one more night -- for now.

*Arriving at 1am and being greeted by my very tired but grateful parents.
*Spending the day in San Francisco on our first day here. My son eating clam chowder out of a sourdough bread bowl, as he'd only imagined was possible. Visiting Baker Beach, holding hands with my wife as we looked at the Golden Gate and felt the sand between our toes. Watching our son play in the sand and say, "I really like the beach".
*Shooting the new poster for the Boys of Summer sequel. I'll post more on this later as I need some votes and opinions as to which should be the photo to go with.
*Watching an A's game with my good friend Jonathan Okanes at a local dive bar. The A's won in dramatic, walk-off fashion and Coco Crisp got a pie in the face from Josh Reddick (Pie-derman!).
*Having lunch at an old favorite restaurant in Concord and hearing our son declare that Concord, as a whole, was a boring city.
*Daring a downpour to get to an A's game. Fighting for credentials, a good parking spot and eventually our way into the stadium and down onto the field as the rain stopped and we prepared for a brilliant night. Listening to the boos explode from the crowd about a half hour after the game was supposed to start when the PA announcer declared the game was cancelled due to poor field conditions.
*Seeing a group of great friends and some of their kids at a local park.
*Visiting with my dear Aunt, Uncle and Cousin for precious few minutes in my parents backyard.
*Attending a Hall of Fame dinner for the 1987 Ygnacio Valley basketball team I was a part of -- a team that shocked the world and somehow played for the state championship.
*Lying on the couch with my wife, watching some familiar reruns of Modern Family and feeling time slip away from this beautiful experience.

Baseball is a vehicle. It's part of what brought us here. I'm pulling at the metaphor as it's not all that brought us here, but it was enough to ensure the "necessity" of the trip -- in other words, the motivation that got us to go from idea to execution. That bridge is not to be underestimated. How many ideas, some we swear to be remarkable, never make it past the gatekeepers in our mind or the conversations of fancy with friends, co-workers and loved ones?

Baseball is a vehicle. I don't know where we're headed with this year's venture. We have three days left in our kickstarter and have raised only $200 of the $10,000 we need. It's not likely we're going to raise what we need to make that go - I get that. But I won't quit. I'm scared. I'm disappointed. I'm frustrated. But I'm a long way from quitting. I don't know how to quit. I don't want to. As I told my dad tonight at the Hall of Fame dinner, "We'll make it by hook or crook". Whatever it takes.

Opening Day - Hope

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

For those who love the game, the excitement of a new baseball season is remarkable. It coincides, not coincidentally, with the rebirth that is spring. Temperatures warm, thoughts of summer abound and hope is renewed. Why does hope matter? Life is lost without it. Life without hope is mechanical, thoughtless drudgery. What one hopes for is entirely subjective; a day of good health, a winning lottery ticket, a call from a loved one, a base hit or a strike out. Maybe all of those things. Spring and baseball bring them forth for those who worship at the diamond. We hope.

Today we're gearing up for our road trip north to the Bay Area. We leave on Wednesday for Walnut Creek, the city where I grew up. I'm always renewed when I return. We will stay with my parents in the house where I grew up. I'll see many friends, now with families of their own, who I grew up with. A good friend's wife just gave birth to their first child. As parents in our 40's, this is at least somewhat remarkable. New life is new hope. We hope.

I will return to the spot where I shot the cover for "Boys of Summer". It's my favorite picture I've ever taken. It's one of the few times I've had something become, in reality, so clearly and accurately what I saw in my head. Dad and I will, once again, play catch. In between us, in addition to the ball, will be my son and daughter. This is second base - a hopeful base inasmuch as we've advanced. Still a long way from home, but better here than on the bench. We hope.

"Boys of Summer" is evolving. The tagline/metaphor for the project is: "Baseball is a vehicle". We will ride this beast wherever she roams. Just last week we solidified a relationship with our local APDA (American Parkinson's Disease Association) chapter. We have ongoing work with Superior Health Solutions (which is offering a progressive treatment pro-bono for my father) and the New York Stem Cell Foundation (which has taken my dad on as a volunteer to grow stem cells from his skin - we just have to make it back there). We hope baseball will be our vehicle - taking us back there for the games, giving us the opportunity to participate in an exciting study. We hope. 

I also received notification that I was wait-listed for Duke's MFA Documentary program. While this isn't the jump up and down moment I was hoping for, a la acceptance, it does give me hope. Duke's Neurology department does a great deal of work with the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Boys of Summer has a relationship with MJFF, as well. This would be a great opportunity to bring parties together via the medium of documentary in a way that serves all. We hope. 

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

The ask.

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

 
The ask. This is the time in a fundraiser when many, including myself at times, turn the channel, click the off button or scurry off to do some laundry. It’s uncomfortable asking for money and it’s uncomfortable being asked. You’ve been warned.

And so I’m asking – boldly, brazenly and openly for your financial support of the documentary sequel to Boys of Summer. The original film proved our intent and worth. In the last ten years the story has grown in many ways, as my dad explains briefly in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwAzpE4Qq9g).

We are less than two weeks away from the end of our campaign. We achieved the first leg of the trip during Spring Training in Phoenix earlier this month. My dad has been granted free treatment at an interesting and progressive health center in Las Vegas called Superior Health Solutions. He’s also been accepted to have a biopsy of his skin cells grown and developed by the New York Stem Cell Foundation. Both agencies have given me open access to document the process as part of the new film.

I’ve kept our costs as low as I can, accounting for flights, lodging, ground transportation and food in our travels to the six baseball parks that have been built since 2004 and a return to the Field of Dreams. This film is an important case study that demonstrates how one man has dealt with his disease, his life and his family against the backdrop of America's past time. He is an inspiration. Watching him you will laugh, think and cry; what more could you ask for?

Please donate and share this link (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robertcochrane/boys-of-summer-second-base-reboot) with others so they might do the same.

Thank you,


Robert Cochrane
Director, Producer “Boys of Summer”

Baseball - my first love

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, begins principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

Legendary sports announcer Jack Buck wrote a great poem about the eternal nature of baseball called “365”. It’s worth clicking on the link for a quick, great read before reading on here.

It’s been a long time since I’ve loved baseball the way Jack suggests he does in this poem. There have been moments – flashes when the game meant everything. I was a “superfan” in the 80’s when baseball represented freedom to me and my friend Jonathan Okanes. That wasn’t just about my beloved A’s being a great team, which they became in the late ‘80’s and early 90’s. No, I watched with every bit of passion those middling teams of the mid-80’s who were led by guys like Dave Kingman, Curt Young and Jay Howell.

How could I love such a bunch of average champs? They were mine. And I saw them at a place that felt like home and freedom all at once. My adopted family of misfit fans lived in left center, back when there were actually bleachers in an Oakland Coliseum that favored an ivy-filled patch over the monstrosity that is Mt. Davis. I listened to Bill King and Lon Simmons call baseball games covertly in my high school classes via a transistor radio with an early, makeshift ear bud run up a long-sleeved shirt.

They were mine. It was young love. The truth of the relationship mattered little to me. The visceral feeling was everything. They were the only of my teams I was a fan of that I actually lived in the same town. The Broncos and Sonics were deeply beloved, but in an age before the Internet, that meant at a deeper distance than most today could likely understand. I grew up with the A’s at my fingertips.

So when I listened on opening day, claiming the pennant for the green and gold, it was tangible. Summers were glorious in the Bay, hot enough to do all of the wonderful things summer-heat implores us to do, but not so hot as to be too miserable not to do it. And sure, the game gave way in fall, to football. My visceral was caught up with my personal insomuch as having played and been deeply impacted by football and basketball, where I left my playing days of baseball behind me in the 7^th grade.

It took a spell longer than Christmastime to get the summer magic back. But when it came back, yes, hot dogs for dinner with nachos for my graduation party and we were all amazed by small hits – some as small and insignificant as one by Carney Lansford that drove in Bruce Bochte for an A’s win that was inconsequential and completely forgettable, most likely, to everyone except me and my pal Jon. We can still do Lon Simmons’ call today – but don’t ask us unless you want to see us laugh and be left, yourself, staring at us wondering why we’re laughing so hard.

The A’s were mine. And it was love. It still is today.

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, begins principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

Boys of Summer - Rounding Second Base

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

We begin principal photography next week in Phoenix during Spring Training. My wife, two young kids and both of my parents will be joining me. I say joining me because the initial drive to go on the trip came from being invited to speak at the Nine Baseball Conference. I'm honored to be around this group of great academics, baseball fans and fellow filmmakers. I plan on interviewing several people from the conference for the new film.

Beyond the conference, I have a press pass for the A's/Royals match-up on Friday, Mar. 14. It will be fun bumping around the clubhouse and scrounging for interviews for the new film. We'll also be speaking with Dr. Holly Shill, who we interviewed for the original documentary.

It's exciting and a bit scary to be taking this project on again. It was so immersive and, for the goal at hand, necessarily so. This film is going to be quite different. My dad is much more a case study this time and we have some exciting medical professionals helping us out. He's also in quite a different place with the disease. I'm in a massively different place of my life. To place these films side by side, I think, will be a very powerful marker of the passage of time.

The rebooted kickstarter page should be up within a day or two. We're putting together a local fundraiser here in Las Vegas, as well. This go-round, originally proposed as another 30-stadium trek around the country, has been changed dramatically to be fair to my dad - that type of schedule simply wasn't going to be fair to his health. We will go to the six parks built since 2004. Those are: New York Yankees, New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins. We will visit the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA once again, too as it was the heart of why we went.

There are a number of specific details to come in the next couple of days. I look forward to sharing them with you. For now, I'll hope that you're all awakening to the spring, a new day in baseball and new hope; 'tis the season for such eternal musings.

The life we live with after

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

I watched "The Natural" once again this morning and was reminded why it's one of my favorite movies -- not just baseball movies, but all movies. It's a throwback. It's classic. It is beautifully metaphorical - and for fans of the book, no, I'm not arguing the movie is better. I think they're both brilliant. It takes a deft eye and ear to take a beloved book like Allan Malamud's and do it justice on the big screen. It means purposely leaving out things the medium of film doesn't do well (e.g. internal dialogue) and highlighting the things it does (e.g. visual metaphor).

Redford is at the top of his game. And for those who only see him now or haven't visited his work in a long time, it's worth remembering how great he was. He is simple, quiet and deeply powerful. He's athletic, but not in a way that calls attention to itself. Modern presentations of male athletes usually involve a man taking off his shirt and a cutaway to a woman's eyes growing large. The Natural is far more than skin deep. Good and evil are at play. So is the love of a father and a son through their vehicle: baseball. The onus of great natural talent, what it is to have it, be glorified then nearly killed for it.

Which brings me to one of my favorite exchanges between Redford and Glenn Close in a script littered with spectacularly sharp dialogue:

Iris Gaines: You know, I believe we have two lives.

Roy Hobbs: How... what do you mean?

Iris Gaines: The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.

This can speak to anyone who has experienced adversity. In the scope of Boys of Summer, it certainly speaks to the number of people I've met with Parkinson's. For me, too, there's the life before my parents got sick and the life since. I've gone from assuming my health to putting it at the forefront of my consciousness and my work. Boys of Summer opened an avenue of advocacy with my talent, my gift for story telling through the visual medium, that I continue to work. I'm far from a Natural. But I do have great passion and persistence.

In The Natural's DVD extras, there is a documentary featuring Cal Ripken Jr.. He was clearly a man with a gift and a deep love for his father who coached both Cal and his brother Billy to MLB careers, along with many others. Cal speaks about the tragedy of the talent that is wasted by those who don't put in the work and the glass ceiling that blocks those without the great talent, but scores of passion and persistence. One of the reasons I'm pursuing the sequel to Boys of Summer is to shatter that ceiling that currently resides above me. That and return to graduate school for my MFA in filmmaking in the fall of 2014, expanding my network and squarely pushing me into the marketplace where I believe I need to be - not just for me, but for my family, too.

Another great moment in The Natural between Roy (Redford) and Iris (Close) speaks to another important theme of Boys of Summer. Roy has just seen Iris, his childhood love, for the first time in 15 years. He is at her apartment. He discovers a baseball glove - her son's baseball glove.

Iris Gaines: It's my son's. He means the world to me. He's a great kid.

Roy Hobbs: I'll bet he is. I'd like to meet him.

Iris Gaines: He's coming pretty soon.

Roy Hobbs: Is he with his father? 

Iris Gaines: No. His father lives in New York. But, I'm thinking he needs his father; he's at that age. He needs him.

Roy Hobbs: Sure. A father makes all the difference.

That last line is true in more ways and words than I know how to put together. I know what my father has meant and continues to mean to me. He is strength, dignity and love. He is kind, compassionate and very thoughtful. He works hard but goes about it without anyone noticing. He does it because he believes it's the right thing to do. And yes, for those who remember the old Quaker Oats ads, Wilford Brimley is in the Natural, too. I do my best to be that kind of dad to my two kids every day. 

I'll address this at length in another blog, but I want to make one thing clear: this proposed follow up to Boys of Summer isn't a call for someone else to foot the bill for a family vacation. Anyone who would propose that is simply ignorant of the film, the process of making a film, the potential impact of a film, my history and ability as a filmmaker and my personal commitment to make a difference in the lives of people who participate in and watch the film. 

One final quote:

Roy Hobbs: My life didn't turn out the way I expected.

Another example of the universality of the themes in the film. I don't know anyone whose life has turned out the way they expected. That doesn't mean the people I know are particularly sad or happy. It does mean that for all we like to control or pretend we're in control of, we're really not. There are moments - far too few precious moments - where we can dramatically change the direction we are headed if we are brave enough to go up to the plate and swing the bat. Here's to hoping we knock the cover off with the sequel to Boys of Summer...and that you'll help us get to the plate. 

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

What is baseball?

What is baseball?

After watching (or, more accurately, re-waching) four baseball films and meditating on the sport through the lens of our proposed follow up documentary, something simple came to me: baseball is a vehicle, not the end game. Where it takes us is much more important that what it does. It serves as a support system, a spine of sorts, that allows us to fill in the details around. The four “baseball films” and their true intent seem to bear that truth out. 

The Final Season – It’s about saving a small town in Iowa

Eight Men Out – It’s about corruption

Field of Dreams – It’s about healing and fulfilling a dream

The Natural – It’s about redemption

It’s the same with Boys of Summer. Though it leans heavily upon baseball, it’s not about baseball. It’s about relationships – fathers and sons, fans and teams, indivduals and their bodies which are doing strange things.  

Baseball is a great sport. At the same time, it’s a bit of a dumb animal. It can’t, by itself, do anything. It can be played in a way that can move people to terrific heroics on one hand and murder on the other. In that sense, again, it is a conduit, a mirror and a vehicle.

Where do you want it to take you?

For players, it may be fame, fortune, the thrill of feeling what their bodies are capable of. For owners, it may be money, ancillary properties and the ability to build and maintain a public trust.

For fans it’s the thrill of taking part in a lucid, voyeuristic dream – one that makes the impossible seem possible. The slowness at which the game is played fuels that serenity. The daily grind itches at one’s soul, not allowing it to leave until it is scratched…only to itch again the next day.

I want baseball to take us all on the road - both literally and figuratively. I want to share this journey with those I’ve met before and those we’ll meet anew. I want to talk about dreams and fears, life and death. I want the latest and greatest minds on PD to share what has changed ten years later and where hope lies today. I want to experience the greatness of the people of America, the adventure of the road and a game of catch with my dad and my son at once. I want to help build a new generation and allow people’s stories to be heard by all.

Baseball is a vehicle. It sits by the side of the road, ready to take us wherever our dreams allow. It doesn’t ask for much beyond daily attention. While that may sound like a lot, the return is infinite.

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

Eight Men Out

We're up, we're live and ready to hit the road in the summer of 2014. I hope you'll take a look at our kickstarter page and share it with anyone you think might be interested. Film research review #2:

Eight Men Out (1988)

Director: John Sayles

Cast: John Cusack, Christopher Lloyd, John Mahoney, Charlie Sheen

Eight Men Out is an strangely romantic movie about the periphery of baseball much more than the game itself. Often beautifully shot, with detailed sets and wardrobe that make one feel like he is looking in on a fine piece of art, it is a spectacle. At the same time, there is a great deal of unevenness that makes it a hard film to really sink into. The performances of the actors are, by and large, very solid. None of them have enough time on screen to make a deep impression on the audience, though John Cusack probably comes the closest with his portrayal of Buck Weaver. The actual play of the game on screen, which is often a hallmark of how “realistic” a sports movie is believed to be, is pretty shoddy. The actors were likely chosen for their ability to act, first, which is understandable – but still puts the audience in the rather uncomfortable position to have to accept what is being fed to them, even if it doesn’t add up. For example, David Strathairn, as Eddie Cicotte, is throwing what look 40 mile per hour meatballs that I’m supposed to believe are unhiytable pitches enough to allow him to win 29 games in a season. It’s the sports filmmakers burden – how real do the sequences have to be? I would argue as real as possible, particularly if it’s supposed to be showing the best of an era, which the “Black Sox” were repeatedly said to be.

The obvious point through all of this is that Eight Men Out is not about baseball so much as the scandal of this particular team. It’s about corruption. It’s about power. It’s about authority and who ultimately holds it. Cusack’s soap box moment with the neighborhood kids near the end of the film where he talks about the beauty of the game and how he still feels it as a kid is one of the stronger moments in the film for baseball purists. What he says speaks to the simplicity of the game, the part of it most fans (or at least this one) wishes could be the focus. That’s not to knock this film’s subject matter as it was very important and, in some ways, strengthens the importance of baseball in America’s history. History, in fact, is probably the biggest thing baseball has going for it against the other major sports. So even when the history isn’t perceived as positive, it’s still an opportunity for the game to be seen for what we wish it were and it sometimes still is.

Kickstart Boys Of Summer - Second Base

The Boys of Summer - Second Base, sequel to the award-winning first documentary, began principal photography on March 13, 2014. We need your help. Please visit our kickstarter page and share it with your friends and family.

This also opens up a new phase of research for me. I start each morning with 60-90 minutes on a spin bike. I know what you're thinking: "boring!" Me too. Until I hooked up a little DVD player to the front of the bike and started watching movies as I sweat. It's a great way to make time fly and I literally experience the film differently because of the heightened state of my body during the work out. More on that in other blogs. For today, I bring my first review of what will be exclusively baseball movies over the next few months.

The Final Season

Release date: 2007

Starring: Sean Astin, Powers Boothe, Rachael Leigh Cook

Sometimes a review goes outside in, like a great slider. That’s how this movie works. If you get past the obvious plot devices early on, what starts to emerge are the things that work in many sports movies: overcoming long odds, discovering one’s self, redemption. All those elements are here. And while they may not be put together in the most artful form, the payoff is still resonant and meaningful. There is something about Iowa and baseball and it is captured well here. Perhaps “The Field of Dreams” got there and planted the seed first or most deeply. Perhaps it’s because the state, itself, represents the heartland, kindness and “American values” in so many ways. Maybe it’s corn, farmland and the base of our economy and trade these commodities give us. All these elements provide grounding for what many Americans would like this country to be seen as. Others would argue that this depiction isn’t “the truth” of what America is. I tend to agree with the doubters – but only in so far as a literal depiction is valuable. The problem with “the truth” is it’s subjective. So the minute one person offers it, the next set of eyes is going to change the parameters. Art, and narrative filmmaking as an art, has a great way of getting beyond the literal truth to depict something bigger, more resonant and metaphorical.

While The Final Season doesn’t offer “the truth” about baseball, America or the events it is based on, it offers a certain, specific truth that worked for me. I cared about the outcome. I felt for their triumphs and losses. I was happy they won. And that’s no more a spoiler than telling you the Titanic sunk.