August 11, 2021 • 37 mins
Phil Alden Robinson’s Field of Dreams is a love letter to Baseball. Now, Baseball has returned the favor with a love letter to the movie in the form of the Field of Dreams Game. This week, The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees will play the first Major League Baseball game in the state of Iowa, on the site where the movie was filmed 33 years ago. Mike and Lance prepare for that game with a look at the original movie. They discuss their relationship to the film growing up, and what it means to them now. They also look at how the upcoming game will pay tribute to the movie.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Welcome to the Nerd Poltyam, Hello, and welcome to Training Montage, the
show on the Nerd Party where wetalk about sports movies. I'm Mike,
(00:28):
and today we're going to be talkingabout Field of Dreams. Now, I
know that baseball is pretty pretty bigon your list of sports, right it's
number one for me. Yeah,yeah, and you know, I mean,
(00:49):
it's it's an exciting time for baseballright now. We've got, you
know, the second half of theseason going on in the major leagues.
Both of our teams are in forplace, which is exciting. It is
exciting headed towards a postseason matchup potentially, we'll see how that goes. Yeah,
the trade deadline just passed, whichit was crazy insane. Who did
(01:12):
Houston get? We are big pickupwas Grave Grave Men from the from the
Mariners relief pitcher. Okay, wellthat's good because we needed we needed bullpen
help. Yeah, yeah, thesocks, I mean, their bullpen was
pretty strong, but now it's substantiallystronger. They picked up the Cubs set
(01:34):
up man, and then the nextday they picked up Craig Kimbrell, who's
probably the best reliever in the game. Yep, So now the Socks have
Kimbrell and Hendricks, two of thebest closers. Yeah, on one team.
Yeah, so yeah, after theeighth inning, good good luck,
(01:56):
you know. I mean that's true, not to men and Kopek and everything
beforehand. They now have all ofthe setup men and all of the closers
from Chicago. Basically, yeah,they basically have decided to make every game
a five inning game. Yeah,that's cool, that's cool. Didn't work
out yesterday, which was weird.They lost twelve to eleven, but you
(02:19):
know, that's baseball. Yeah,someone hit Seby Zavala, the first player
in history, I think, tohit his first three home runs all in
one game. Yeah, one ofwhich was a Grand Slam and they still
lost. Yeah, go figure.But they also got Caesar Hernandez from Cleveland,
(02:39):
which is important because Cleveland is theteam that's chasing them. So Cleveland,
see, they're not chasing anything.They're not chasing anything. So I
guess that means the Socks are prettysecure in their position. Yeah, congrats
on winning the Central Division. Yeah, thanks, I mean, Houston,
they're not not too bad either,right now, that's that is correct.
(03:01):
We have the best offensive baseball oneof the best defenses in baseball, some
of the best starting pitching in baseball. Yea awful relief pitching, which is
why we had to go out andget some at the trading deadline. Well,
we'll see how this all plays out. And then in addition to all
of this, you've also got baseballgoing on right now in the Olympics for
(03:23):
the first time in thirteen years.And yeah, that's kind of exciting.
They have a lot of former Majorleaguers playing and stuff like that. Team
USA has won their first two gamesand now they're in the knockout round and
we'll see how that all plays out. So lots and lots of baseball.
Yeah, and there's going to beanother event which ties directly into this week's
(03:46):
movie, which is a Field ofDreams game next week. But before we
get into that, let's talk aboutField of Dreams. So this movie came
out in nineteen eighty nine. Whendid you first see it? Um,
that's a good question. I thinkthis is like a movie that we rented
(04:11):
and watched. Yeah, I thinkwhen I was you know what, five
or six or so. Okay,I believe that's the first time I saw
it. Okay, And uh,yeah. I mean for me, it's
the same deal. Although it wasprobably right after it came out on home
video. Um, so I wouldhave been like nine or ten years old
(04:31):
and everyone was talking. I mean, this thing got nominated for Best Picture.
It actually did deservedly. So okay, um, we'll get it.
We'll get into that. Um.This was right when I was getting super
into baseball, right, Okay,So the idea of like a baseball movie
(04:51):
was pretty amazing to me. Andif you would ask me when I was,
you know, ten years old,what's your favorite MOVI movie of all
time? I would say Field orDreams No Doubt, which had just come
out. You know, as asI got older, my opinion may have
changed slightly, but we'll get intothat. So Yes. Starring Kevin Costner,
(05:15):
Written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, this is a movie about a
guy who has a voice telling himto build a baseball field in the middle
of his cornfield in Iowa, andhe does, and then, most notably,
I guess, shoeless Joe Jackson andthe players from the nineteen nineteen Black
(05:41):
Sox scandal come back and play baseball. Yeah. So, in addition to
being this movie being you know aboutCostner and his journey. It's also a
a White Sox like history lessons slashappreciate these people in this team type of
piece, you know what I mean? Yeah, which, as a Sox
(06:05):
fan, like, what is yourtake on all of that? Well,
I mean that's the other thing aboutit, right, Like not only was
this a movie about baseball, butit was a movie about the White Sox
And certainly like this was like myhistory lesson for what happened in nineteen nineteen.
And for those people who don't know, White Sox were really good in
(06:27):
the nineteen teens, that they wonthe World Series in nineteen seventeen and they
were dominating and in nineteen nineteen,I think people say that team was actually
better. But in the World Seriesthey lost, and the reason why they
lost was because eight players on theteam through the game, they took money
(06:49):
to throw the series and after pressurefrom Chicago organized crime. Yeah yeah,
I think they actually deal with this. Uh this story in um was that
Martin Scorsese HBO show, UM eightMen Out No U Boardwalk Empire. Oh
(07:11):
that's right, Boardwalk. I forgotabout that show. I forgot he was
even involved in that. Yeah,yeah, so so that I mean that
it's it's a big deal, right, And you know, because of that,
all of these players, including shoelessJoe Jackson, who was considered to
be one of the best ever,they were all kicked out of baseball for
life. Yes, and you knowthere's a lot of um, you know,
(07:35):
lurking variables there. You know,the fact that oh, well,
as they say in the in themovie, like he may have you know,
taken money, but he did notseem to shoot the game. Yeah,
he was playing you know, fullforce or whatever. Like you look
at his stats in the series,and you know he was not pulling his
(07:58):
punches or anything like that. Butalso, you know, the reason why
they took money is because the youknow, just like most teams at the
time, the ownership was basically cheatingthem out of first salary, yeah,
wherever wherever they could. So theywere doing this in order to make ends
meet. So yeah, you know, kind of hard to blame them for
(08:20):
that. No, It's it isinteresting though that like even you know,
I tell this the students all thetime. The cool thing about history is
that people back then acted just likewe did. Their circumstances were different,
um, and in this case,like you have, you have the players
doing something to get their money,right, which is why you hear a
(08:41):
lot of times today's you know gameswith athletes of every sport, they're just
like, hey, get your money, you know, like they're like,
you know, we don't blame theplayers were taking their check right, because
they're they're often you know, screwedby ownership or the powers that be all
the time. Right. And thisis another example of that. Um.
(09:01):
And in addition to how you saidthat, there's like a there's you know,
some wrinkles in the in the cheatingscandal. I like how you said
that. I wish the people wouldunderstand that in more modern circumstances. Um.
But it's okay. Though, it'sokay. Maybe we'll get a movie
made about us at some point,and you know, we'll have you know,
Josel two Bay coming out in thecornfield and or something, or like
(09:24):
an oil. Well like if theymake it in Texas, maybe that'll happen.
Maybe I wouldn't hold my breath,but maybe of course I wouldn't because
we're because we're public. Got tome, number one, nobody's worse than
us. We're the scorge of theEarth. I mean, you know,
I a as someone who who doesn'treally care. You know, it's pretty
bad. I mean you look atlike that Danny Farquhar video and everything,
(09:45):
and it's like that's pretty bad.You know. Yeah, yeah, I
mean it's it's pretty bad. Butyou know there there are other things that
are bad as well, Like,you know, I don't know roll this,
Chapman, I don't know. Youknow, Nazi's on the Nazis on
the A's, you got the Dodgersand their scandals. You got you know,
players you know, dying over overopioids in Major League Baseball. But
no, let's concentrate on the Astros. Also, let's also not forget pictures
(10:09):
have been cheating four years and wejust talked and started to talk about it
now. But we're the worst peopleever. Okay, well yeah, no,
I will definitely agree with you there. You know, we're all just
Chapman is terrible. You know,Trevor Bauer is terrible. Um, you
know, much worse than anything thatthe Astros did. So you know,
I I totally agree with you onthat one. Yeah, but you know,
(10:33):
they still cheated, so you know, yeah, I'm not saying they
didn't. That's the thing. I'mnot saying that they didn't, but you
know, you need to you needto be fair well you know, I
mean, I mean that's the thingwith sports fans which I don't understand.
I mean, yeah, and maybemaybe it's it's has something to do with
whatever the a track, but youknow, well it's it's tribalism, right
(10:56):
and in a lot of its basistyou know, form a lot has a
lot to do with it. Andit's one of those things where like fans
are really forgiving of people who aregood at playing yes, which is weird
to me. I mean because likeif I was, I mean, like
when when when you know, TrevorBauer was a free agent and the White
(11:20):
Sox were actively pursuing him, Iwas like, I that is the last
thing that I want, right,because then you're there and you're it's like,
Okay, I want my team towin, and yet I don't want
this guy who's for those people whodon't know, currently on administrative leave for
(11:41):
um, administrative leave, I meanthat's what it's called, right, currently
on administrative leave for you know,um. I guess uh, I guess
it would be like spousable abuse.I'm not exactly sure the details. Yeah.
So yeah, I mean, whywhy would you want to root for
(12:03):
someone like that? I would muchrather take someone who's not as good at
pitching, but it's not morally corrupt. Yeah, yeah, so whatever,
Maybe that's just me. I don'tknow. Yeah, but regardless, Um,
the nineteen nineteen Black Socks, Yeah, yeah, and it was and
it was like a big thing atthis particular point in time, I think,
(12:26):
just because of the way that thatthese things happen for whatever reason,
you know, you get you know, Armageddon and Deep and Packed it at
the same time, you know,Dante's Peak and Volcano and back in eighty
eight eighty nine, within the spanof eight months, you had Eight Men
Out and Field of Dreams, bothmovies which dealt with this scandal. Yeah.
(12:46):
I was going to ask you aboutthat because like, why was it
why? What was what was sospecial about nineteen like the late eighties that
made people start thinking about like theWhite Sox scandal, like because at that
point, it's you know, it'sit's a long time, so like what
was going on that people is like, you know what, people need to
know this story and people need toget you know, we need to we
need to know about these characters andand and they're involved in what really happened.
(13:09):
I'm wondering if it's just coincidence,right, I mean you think at
some point it had to be okay, But as a kid, you're kind
of confused. You're like, oh, there's these two things whatever, you
know. And you know, obviouslylike Eight Men Out is the much more
sort of adult story. I mean, it's still rated PG. You know,
it's not like it's you know,but that is like a drama which
(13:33):
deals with you know, really kindof like the politics behind this scandal,
whereas Field of Dreams is like afantasy, right, like a yeah,
there's nothing wrong with it, butit's a you know, this kind of
like very um schmaltzy whatever about youknow, the the glory of baseball or
(14:00):
whatever you want to it's a veryromantic yape story. Yeah, in that
regard. So that's the one thatyou're going to show to kids or whatever,
you know, And and you know, it's the type of thing where
it's like, okay, especially asa White Sox fan, Like you're saying,
like and you watch Field of Dreamsand you're like, this is amazing,
and then you hear like, oh, there's another one, Eight Men
(14:20):
Out, and then I like,I remember watching that movie as a kid
thinking like this is great, youknow, I can't wait to see this
thing, and putting it on andjust being like, this is the most
boring thing I've ever seen in mylife, you know. But as I
got older and I watch these moviesas an adult. Now I see Eight
(14:41):
Men Out and I'm like, thisis fascinating. And I watch Field of
Dreams and I have a slightly differentopinion of it. So let me ask
you, what is your opinion ofField of Dreams. I love this movie.
Yeah, ok, yeah, Ithink you know, it's I think
it's the right amount of fantasy,it's the right amount of romanticism, and
(15:03):
it is just it has all theelements of the feel good in it,
you know what I mean? Andyou know this, you know what's basically
you know, this is just inwithin Kevin Costner's run of baseball movies.
How many did this, dude?Do? Six? I mean it was
the last. So there was BullDurham first, right, yeah, and
there's this, and then there's ForLove of the Game, and then the
(15:24):
one that I think is kind oflike borderline or whatever. But there was
that movie where he played like aretired baseball player. Okay, I forget
the name of it. Um hewas like a radio host or something like
that. Okay, yeah, soI would say there's four, this is
four, Okay, this is numbertwo? Got it? Yeah? Yeah,
(15:45):
but you but it's funny, likewe associate Costner with with baseball movies
among other things that he's done.Right, Um, you could definitely point
to like, oh yeah, likethe dude's a baseball man. Yeah for
sure, for sure. Um yeah. I mean it's weird, like every
time I watched this movie, andI've seen it an unusual number of times
for whatever reason, like I havelike a different sort of opinion about it
(16:08):
each time. But there was agood stretch like between when I was a
kid and when I was adult whereI didn't see it, you know,
like maybe like ten years, andthen when it came time to revisit it,
you know, probably because I'm like, oh, Baseball, I love
this movie. You know, thiswas my favorite movie as a kid,
and I watched I'm just like,this is the cheesiest crap I've ever seen
(16:32):
in my life. You know,like I just I can't stand it.
And you know, I watched ita couple of years ago and I was
like, that wasn't too bad,And now watching it today, I was
really curious what my reaction would be. And my reaction was basically like,
it's not the worst thing in theworld, but it's dumb and it doesn't
make any sense. Now, thereare there are some things that don't make
(16:56):
sense in here that like that whenI was watching also like is that really
how that would have gone down?Like like when, for example, when
Shula's Joe meets Terrence Man, likehe was just so calm about it and
he was just you know, like, hey, you want to come with
us? Like that is probably themost unrealistic thing that happened in this movie.
(17:18):
Yeah, that has ghosts coming outof a cornfield to play baseball,
Right, we have Shula's Joe Jacksonfrom nineteen nineteen sing a black man and
being like, hey, you wantto come hang out with us? Yeah,
that would not have happened. That'sthe most realistic thing that happened in
this movie. Yeah, I know, Like I was like watching it through
like today's eyes, you know,and everything, I'm like well, where
(17:40):
are all the players from from thenegro leagues? Right, yeah, not
even mentioned. But at the sametime they're like, oh, we wanted
more players, so we invited them. So it's like, oh, yeah,
I guess those guys probably wouldn't beinvited anyway, right yeah, so
you know, but yeah, theydon't even mention that at all, which
is which is weird. Um ohno, it's not weird. No,
(18:02):
I guess it's not weird. Itjust is what it is. Yes,
yes, unfortunate okay, yeah,um yeah I did laugh at that when
I was When I was watching,it was like this is like that took
me out of the movie for yeah, yeah, like yeah, just come
on, let's come. It's like, are you kidding me? Yeah?
(18:22):
And then like I did think itwas funny how he mentioned how like ty
Cobb wanted to play but it's likewe didn't like him when he was alive,
so he told him to scram Andthat was like the most Rayliota ray
Leota was in this movie. Ithought that was hilarious. Helped himself.
It's because it was basically it wasbasically like his good Fellas laugh. That's
what that was. Yeah. Therest of the time, you don't even
(18:45):
like remember that this is Ray Yoda, you know, and until until that
part, oh, which I thoughtit was funny, but like that,
I did appreciate the dig at tyCobb because that guy was a deplorable human
being. Yes, yes he was. Yeah is good. Um, yeah,
I don't know, like the wholething. I mean, look,
(19:06):
it's a stretch to begin with.Anytime you do this stuff, right,
Like, I know, there's somepeople who would just go with it,
and it's like, yeah, youknow, it's it's it's the it's the
magic of it all, you know. And anytime anyone says like it's the
magic of it all, I'm justlike, oh God. Like whenever I'm
watching Harry Potter and they're just likeyelling things at each other and then like
(19:26):
pointing their wands or whatever, I'mjust like, well, see, I
say, I think that's different becausewhen in those types of movies, and
I'm not just necessarily defending Harry Potterwould let me just say that for the
record, Um, it's like theirown rules are kind of weird anyway,
and so it's like, well,they just they all just know magic,
and it's like my guess, andso I just I guess. But but
(19:49):
the rules in that movie, inthose movies are also weird, and I
don't get them either. So andthat's the thing, right, And I
feel like the reason why you don'tget them is because they're just making it
up for whatever or they need inthis particular moment. That's the trouble with
magic in in like magic in movies, not like movie magic, right as
as the term that we all know, but like the use of magic in
(20:10):
movies, like as like a asa as a day says makana type of
thing, right, Like, that'sthe problem because we don't we don't.
They're the rules are too hard todefine. Um And sometimes if you define
them, that's cool, but likehere there there is no definition of them
outside of the players can't come acrossthe line. Yeah, and only Ray
(20:32):
and his family can see them.And and and then Homeboy at the end
like sees him when when doctor Graham, when Doctor Graham shows up. Yes,
And that's the thing that it's likeit's a stretch to begin with,
like some guys like I heard avoice in my field and now I'm gonna
build this thing, you know,And and his wife is so supportive and
(20:53):
says like, I think you needto do this, and then he does
it, and I'm just like,okay, well I'm already I'm not feeling
this thing. Well here's the thing, Like she's like, you know,
the award for most supportive spouse inthe history of spouses. Yeah. But
they established in the opening monologue ofthis movie in the in the in the
(21:15):
very beginning that in the exposition thatthey were people from the sixties, right,
So of course she's down with it. She's super chill. Yeah,
I guess so, I guess so. And then you know, okay,
so then he keeps on getting allthese other messages or whatever, and he's
like, I gotta do this thing. And at one point, I mean,
it's all over the place, like, oh, they're talking about this
(21:38):
guy, Terrence Mann. I figuredit out. I need to, you
know, talk to this guy.Oh what doesn't that seem a little coincidental?
Yeah it does. Oh but Ihad a dream the same dream.
Okay, well that's different from whathappened before. And then you know,
they go and they get this guyand then they see the thing on the
scoreboard that didn't happen before. Youknow, and then you know, they
(22:02):
pick up. Well, then there'sthe whole thing where they go to Minnesota
and he's walking around and all ofa sudden it's the seventies. Yeah,
and that because like they're also likethey were just like, well he's dead.
They're like is he uh? Oh? So I was like that,
that's that was a little confusing.But the thing is the funny thing though,
is like I like, again,like it's not a perfect movie by
(22:26):
any stretch, right, and likeyou can see the holes through a lot
of these things. It's just it'sso to me, it's just so enjoyable.
I just ignored it, right becauselike I enjoyed the characters. I
enjoyed their story, I enjoyed theirjourney, and it's it was very engaging,
and it's still kind of is engagingin that way where like I'm just
kind of I just get immersed init and just ignore a lot of the
(22:49):
pitfalls that happen. I guess Ican see that. Um, I guess
I'm not as engaged as as mostpeople in it, you know, I
mean, And and then of coursethere's the whole thing you know where it's
like this is the movie that makesgrown men cry, you know. Yeah,
well, well it's it's it's it'sthe it's the father son thing.
(23:11):
That's what it is. It's thelast scene because most people are just like
because when you're watching the movie,it's like, well I don't see why
people are crying over this, butit doesn't like, it doesn't happen until
the last line was like, hey, dad, you want to have a
catch. That's that's where it is, because the whole movie, you know,
it's about a couple of things,but it's really about like him reconciling
(23:33):
and you know, finally mourning theloss of his father, right and and
finally getting one more chance to like, you know, have have a moment
with him. That's what it is. So yeah, so let me ask
you this, um, do yousay do you want to have a catch?
Or do you say do you wantto play catch? Do you want
to play catch? Okay, apparentlyit's different depending on where you live.
(23:55):
Okay, I say play catch.I did too, which is weird to
hear every would say have a catchin this thing? Yeah, apparently that
was a colloquialism that was used,and so I guess people still use it,
Like I think it's like if you'rein like New England or something,
they say, have a catch.I don't know, it's weird, but
(24:15):
okay whatever, all right, Um, yeah, so I don't know.
I mean, you know, it'sfine, but it's not. You know,
I like the idea of this moviemore than I like the movie itself.
Okay, that's saying sense, okay, But I also, you know,
like the kind of like local connectionthat I have to it and everything
(24:37):
like that. You know, thisthis town in Iowa, Dyersville, is
not too far away from Chicago.It's like a three and a half hour
drive or something like that. Andyou know, I think I talked about
this on on our other show,but um, you know, I've been
there before, and it is crazy, Like you look at it in the
movie and you go there and it'slike, that's what it is. You
(24:59):
know, it's a corn field.It's a cornfield with a baseball field in
the middle of it. Then there'sa house which is now a gift shop
and you can just go and playbaseball there. You know that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean you can walkout of the corn you can do all
that stuff, and yeah, peoplecome, there's always people there if you
build it, yeah, and theybuilt it so so so people came and
(25:22):
and now more people are coming becauseMajor League Baseball has decided to actually play
a game at the Field of Dreams. Yeah, which is insane. And
another one where I'm like, whyare they doing this now? Right?
Like, yeah, this is thisshould have been something that they did annually.
(25:44):
Uh huh or why not start?Like if you're going to do it,
why not started in twenty nineteen forthe hundredth year anniversary of the you
know, Black So I guess theydidn't want to celebrate that since it was
you know whatever. We're kind ofweird that they're celebrating that. I mean,
we can't celebrate We can't celebrate cheaters, even though like all their records
are still upheld. You know,we can't do that. Yeah, you
(26:04):
know, you know, the hitKing is still Pete Rose. You know,
Barry Bond is still the home runKing. Can't celebrate these things.
Roger Clemens, you know, stillhas seven cions. You know. Yeah,
cats can't celebrate these people. TomBrady still is still regarded as the
goat, even though he's you know, all of his championship teams have did
you know, tied to some sortof cheating activity. Can't celebrate these people
(26:26):
though, yeh, can't do it. Yeah, Well, they're they're doing
they're doing this thing. It's it'ssuper weird. It's super weird, but
it's definitely a cool idea. They'renot actually playing on the field because the
field itself is pretty small, right, Okay, so they're building a new
field like down the down the lock, down the corn or whatever, down
the Corn. I don't know,And I mean it looks pretty cool.
(26:48):
I mean, it's built more forMajor League Baseball. There's going to be
I think only like eight thousand seatsor something like that, which is insane.
I keep on seeing all this stuffwhere it's like enter for your chance
to win tickets, you know,I mean like basically like they're not selling
any tickets, really giving things awayand doing things like, you know,
donate to this charity and you'll beentered into this raffle or whatever it is,
(27:12):
because it'll be the hardest ticket toget, like in the history of
baseball probably, right, I mean, like harder than a World Series or
anything like that, because there's barelyany seats. Yeah, and the White
Sox will be playing against the Yankees, of course, which I guess makes
sense. You know, whatever theyhave. I mean, the stadium itself
(27:33):
looks really cool. You know,they are going to be playing under the
lights, you know, because theyhad lights on the field over there,
you know, so all that stuffand also to see the ball. It
does you know, although it's weirdthough, because it's like, ah,
yeah, you know, stick itto the owners for their you know.
But I mean anytime you see anyplayer today asked like, which do you
(27:55):
prefer day games or night games?They always say night games, of course.
Yeah yeah, I mean why wouldn'tthey, I know, yeah,
um so yeah, I mean it'sit's like a movie based on a game,
which now has a game based onthe movie. So crazy. Yeah.
(28:18):
Art imitating life imitating art. Yeah. Yeah, it's come full circle.
And and this game is going tobe next week, you know,
August twelfth, and hey there's actuallygonna be some good teams playing in it,
which is cool. I know,there's one good team playing in it.
Oh. The Yankees are trying,right, they're trying. They didn't
address any of their issues in freeagency. There are issues they can't they
(28:41):
can't they can't get people out.It's pitching in defense. But yet they
just they get two people to hit, you know, home like lef who
are left handed, to hit youknow, you know home runs to right
field. It's like, oh,we got a short porch. That's that's
great. But if you blow leadsbecause your bullpen sucks like that, that's
not going to help you. Soagain, I'm not like trying to help
the Yankees here. I'm just pointingout that they did something dumb. I
(29:03):
mean, it is kind of weirdbecause you got like two teams in front
of them, you know, yeah, so whatever. I mean, I
guess they're the Yankees, so they'realways buying, right, I mean,
that's just how it works. Butopen that letter. Yeah, I mean
it's it's a The other weird thingabout it, I guess is you would
think, like, oh, they'regoing to be wearing their throwback uniforms,
(29:23):
right, yeah, Why why aren'tthey? Yeah, seriously, couple people
and nobody really knows what they'll bewearing. We've seen the hats. The
hats look cool, and I guessmaybe that's what it is they want,
because you know, you look atthe uniforms in the movie, and it's
like the socks are wearing like awhite hat with navy blue pinstripes no logo
(29:47):
on it, and it's like,well, that's kind of hard to sell
to a national audience. So yougive them a navy blue hat with like
the s Ox logo from from nineteennineteen that was on the jersey and it's
like fuzzy to kind of make itlook like wool or whatever. Yeah,
And I mean it's it's a coollooking hat, and the Yankees have one
too. Um. But then twodays later they're going to be back in
(30:10):
Chicago and they're going to be wearingtheir nineteen nineteen uniforms with their hats without
a logo on it and stuff likethat. So that's cool, and I'm
actually going to go to that game, which could be fun. You know.
I was going to ask, how, like, how many times have
you entered to win a ticket tothe Field of Dreams. I haven't even
bothered because here's the other thing,right, So you you win and you
(30:33):
get your ticket, and then wheredo you stay, Like, there's not
a lot of There's a town calledGalina, which is about like an hour
away, you know, and myaunt and uncle actually have like a house
there, And I'm like, oh, well, there it is. There's
your answer. Yeah, see thatI can. I can stay there.
But yeah, there's no way thatI'm getting a ticket. So yeah,
(30:56):
but whatever. Still cool, it'scool that they're doing and something I'm definitely
looking forward to to watching, youknow, for sure, Yeah, yeah,
for sure they should. They shoulddo stuff like this more often,
right because like baseball, like they'vein recent years, you've heard like they've
had problems like, you know,relating to fans and relating to the younger
(31:17):
generation and trying to make the gamemore fun and all this other stuff.
Well, doing stuff like this willhelp you with that some of that problem,
right, Like or you know,when you know, they play a
game in Williamsport at the at theat the big league field, like and
they have the little leaguers you knowin the in the stands watching them and
talking to them and all that otherstuff. Do stuff like this, right,
(31:38):
like this ingratiates yourself more to thefans and to a younger audience and
a new audience when you do stufflike this, because it's not it's not
detracting from the game. You canstill you still play the same game,
right, It's just you know,the like change, like the simple thing
of just changing the venue every nowand then is does wonders? Yeah?
Do you remember, like I don'tknow, twenty years or whatever might have
(32:00):
been, like nineteen ninety nine.I can't remember when they did the Turn
ahead the Clock games with those uniforms, like futuristic uniforms so great. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I don't know. It's it's kind I know they're
kind of doing that again with thesewith these new City edition things that they're
(32:22):
trying to do. Um, someteams are more successful than the others.
Um. Yeah. So I'm stilllooking forward to ours. I'm like,
I'm telling you, like, likeours needs to say h town on it
and have the rainbow. That's whatThat's all it needs and it's perfect.
Could very well have that, youknow, I mean, who knows.
I'm curious to see what the Yankeeswill do for theirs, right, because
(32:43):
there's such traditionalists they are. Andthis is what I'm thinking, like because
like with the Chicago one, theyvery clearly made it about the neighborhoods.
So what if they did that,what if like the Yankees uniform was exactly
the same, but instead of havingan end, why you have like brons
a bee for the Bronx. Right, Okay, that could work. That
could be interesting. We'll see,yeah, we'll see what they do.
(33:07):
Yeah. Anyway, this game forpeople who might want to watch it or
whatever, at least in America.It's on Thursday night, August twelfth.
I think it's probably seven o'clock game. It's gonna be on Fox, so
check it out. Is Joe Buckgoing to be calling this game? I
mean he must be, right,of course, it's probably gonna be Joe
(33:29):
Buck and John Smoltz. Yeah,it's too too bad, you know,
like seeing the White Sox. Hecan't get their announcers stone you know,
they're they're the best. But no, I'm sure it'll be Joe Buck.
All right, yeah that guy.What what's your what's your take on Joe
Buck? I'm okay with him.I don't hate him as much as everyone
else does. I think he's signed. I don't either. I think it's
(33:50):
just he's just he falls into thetrap that people make him make fun of
him for right, Like he can'thelp himself, Like he just ends up
doing the things people hate him forit. I think that's money. Um,
I do appreciate his His Twitter biothough, it says I love every
team except for yours. Apparently that'sgood. That's good. Yeah, he's
(34:12):
a weird guy, but he isa weird guy. Yeah that's okay.
All right, Oh, real quickabout this movie though, uh Art Lafleur,
Um, you know what I'm talkingabout. I don't think I do.
Okay. So he's the he's theguy that that played the first baseman
for the White Sox when they showback up. Okay, he's the guy
that looks like an umpire like likein real life. Uh. And so
(34:37):
it's funny like he has over ahundred you know, credits to himself on
on dB. You know, he'sbeen a working actor for a very long
time. Um, but he wasalso he played Babe Ruth in the Sand
Loot. And this dude looks exactlylike like the cartoon umpire from that painting,
(34:57):
you know, that famous painting theumpire like holding his hand out like
like for a rain during the raindelay. Yeah, yeah, you know
the picture. He looks like that. Well you know, I mean,
hey, if they ever turned thatpicture into a movie. Yeah, I
know, he's they know who tocall. Yeah, all right, interesting
yeah, interesting casting in this moviefor sure, yes, all the way
(35:19):
around. But yeah, got thatguy from uh Studios sixty on the Sunset
Strip or whatever it is and allthat stuff. Yeah, yeah, Burt
Lancaster's last like, yeah, oneof his last things. Yeah, James
Earl Jones, Darth Vader himself,Light Graham, Yep, I don't know.
(35:43):
Weird movie. It's it's loved bymany. Yes, not like you're
not me, but but you Sothat's that's good. That's good. Got
half of us. Yeah, yeah, Well at some point we'll have to
circle back and revisit Eight Men Out. Yes, yeah, all right,
Well, I guess that's pretty muchit for today. Thanks for listening.
(36:07):
Until next time. Lance. Wherecan people find you on the Internet.
They can find me at Sir LanceLaster on all of my social media's,
and you can find me also onthe United Federation of Podcasts talking about all
the things that make Arrow Arrow onAlways Hold on to Arrow, and you
can find us on Twitter at DoNot Fail Our Pod. You can find
me on Twitter and letterbox at Mumblesthree K, and you can also find
(36:30):
me on my website, Film Damagepod. Dot com doing a show called Film
Damage, and yeah, I guessthat's it. We'll be back in a
bit with the next episode for amovie, which we haven't decided on yet.
I mean, we do, dowe do Jerry McGuire? Does that
make sense? I mean, Ihave no objections to doing Jerry McGuire in
(36:52):
any circumstance. So okay, allright, maybe we can plan on that.
Okay, all right, And ifyou build it, you will come
join the revolution, join the NerdParty.
Welcome to the Nerd Poltyam, Hello, and welcome to Training Montage, the
show on the Nerd Party where wetalk about sports movies. I'm Mike,
(00:28):
and today we're going to be talkingabout Field of Dreams. Now, I
know that baseball is pretty pretty bigon your list of sports, right it's
number one for me. Yeah,yeah, and you know, I mean,
(00:49):
it's it's an exciting time for baseballright now. We've got, you
know, the second half of theseason going on in the major leagues.
Both of our teams are in forplace, which is exciting. It is
exciting headed towards a postseason matchup potentially, we'll see how that goes. Yeah,
the trade deadline just passed, whichit was crazy insane. Who did
(01:12):
Houston get? We are big pickupwas Grave Grave Men from the from the
Mariners relief pitcher. Okay, wellthat's good because we needed we needed bullpen
help. Yeah, yeah, thesocks, I mean, their bullpen was
pretty strong, but now it's substantiallystronger. They picked up the Cubs set
(01:34):
up man, and then the nextday they picked up Craig Kimbrell, who's
probably the best reliever in the game. Yep, So now the Socks have
Kimbrell and Hendricks, two of thebest closers. Yeah, on one team.
Yeah, so yeah, after theeighth inning, good good luck,
(01:56):
you know. I mean that's true, not to men and Kopek and everything
beforehand. They now have all ofthe setup men and all of the closers
from Chicago. Basically, yeah,they basically have decided to make every game
a five inning game. Yeah,that's cool, that's cool. Didn't work
out yesterday, which was weird.They lost twelve to eleven, but you
(02:19):
know, that's baseball. Yeah,someone hit Seby Zavala, the first player
in history, I think, tohit his first three home runs all in
one game. Yeah, one ofwhich was a Grand Slam and they still
lost. Yeah, go figure.But they also got Caesar Hernandez from Cleveland,
(02:39):
which is important because Cleveland is theteam that's chasing them. So Cleveland,
see, they're not chasing anything.They're not chasing anything. So I
guess that means the Socks are prettysecure in their position. Yeah, congrats
on winning the Central Division. Yeah, thanks, I mean, Houston,
they're not not too bad either,right now, that's that is correct.
(03:01):
We have the best offensive baseball oneof the best defenses in baseball, some
of the best starting pitching in baseball. Yea awful relief pitching, which is
why we had to go out andget some at the trading deadline. Well,
we'll see how this all plays out. And then in addition to all
of this, you've also got baseballgoing on right now in the Olympics for
(03:23):
the first time in thirteen years.And yeah, that's kind of exciting.
They have a lot of former Majorleaguers playing and stuff like that. Team
USA has won their first two gamesand now they're in the knockout round and
we'll see how that all plays out. So lots and lots of baseball.
Yeah, and there's going to beanother event which ties directly into this week's
(03:46):
movie, which is a Field ofDreams game next week. But before we
get into that, let's talk aboutField of Dreams. So this movie came
out in nineteen eighty nine. Whendid you first see it? Um,
that's a good question. I thinkthis is like a movie that we rented
(04:11):
and watched. Yeah, I thinkwhen I was you know what, five
or six or so. Okay,I believe that's the first time I saw
it. Okay, And uh,yeah. I mean for me, it's
the same deal. Although it wasprobably right after it came out on home
video. Um, so I wouldhave been like nine or ten years old
(04:31):
and everyone was talking. I mean, this thing got nominated for Best Picture.
It actually did deservedly. So okay, um, we'll get it.
We'll get into that. Um.This was right when I was getting super
into baseball, right, Okay,So the idea of like a baseball movie
(04:51):
was pretty amazing to me. Andif you would ask me when I was,
you know, ten years old,what's your favorite MOVI movie of all
time? I would say Field orDreams No Doubt, which had just come
out. You know, as asI got older, my opinion may have
changed slightly, but we'll get intothat. So Yes. Starring Kevin Costner,
(05:15):
Written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, this is a movie about a
guy who has a voice telling himto build a baseball field in the middle
of his cornfield in Iowa, andhe does, and then, most notably,
I guess, shoeless Joe Jackson andthe players from the nineteen nineteen Black
(05:41):
Sox scandal come back and play baseball. Yeah. So, in addition to
being this movie being you know aboutCostner and his journey. It's also a
a White Sox like history lessons slashappreciate these people in this team type of
piece, you know what I mean? Yeah, which, as a Sox
(06:05):
fan, like, what is yourtake on all of that? Well,
I mean that's the other thing aboutit, right, Like not only was
this a movie about baseball, butit was a movie about the White Sox
And certainly like this was like myhistory lesson for what happened in nineteen nineteen.
And for those people who don't know, White Sox were really good in
(06:27):
the nineteen teens, that they wonthe World Series in nineteen seventeen and they
were dominating and in nineteen nineteen,I think people say that team was actually
better. But in the World Seriesthey lost, and the reason why they
lost was because eight players on theteam through the game, they took money
(06:49):
to throw the series and after pressurefrom Chicago organized crime. Yeah yeah,
I think they actually deal with this. Uh this story in um was that
Martin Scorsese HBO show, UM eightMen Out No U Boardwalk Empire. Oh
(07:11):
that's right, Boardwalk. I forgotabout that show. I forgot he was
even involved in that. Yeah,yeah, so so that I mean that
it's it's a big deal, right, And you know, because of that,
all of these players, including shoelessJoe Jackson, who was considered to
be one of the best ever,they were all kicked out of baseball for
life. Yes, and you knowthere's a lot of um, you know,
(07:35):
lurking variables there. You know,the fact that oh, well,
as they say in the in themovie, like he may have you know,
taken money, but he did notseem to shoot the game. Yeah,
he was playing you know, fullforce or whatever. Like you look
at his stats in the series,and you know he was not pulling his
(07:58):
punches or anything like that. Butalso, you know, the reason why
they took money is because the youknow, just like most teams at the
time, the ownership was basically cheatingthem out of first salary, yeah,
wherever wherever they could. So theywere doing this in order to make ends
meet. So yeah, you know, kind of hard to blame them for
(08:20):
that. No, It's it isinteresting though that like even you know,
I tell this the students all thetime. The cool thing about history is
that people back then acted just likewe did. Their circumstances were different,
um, and in this case,like you have, you have the players
doing something to get their money,right, which is why you hear a
(08:41):
lot of times today's you know gameswith athletes of every sport, they're just
like, hey, get your money, you know, like they're like,
you know, we don't blame theplayers were taking their check right, because
they're they're often you know, screwedby ownership or the powers that be all
the time. Right. And thisis another example of that. Um.
(09:01):
And in addition to how you saidthat, there's like a there's you know,
some wrinkles in the in the cheatingscandal. I like how you said
that. I wish the people wouldunderstand that in more modern circumstances. Um.
But it's okay. Though, it'sokay. Maybe we'll get a movie
made about us at some point,and you know, we'll have you know,
Josel two Bay coming out in thecornfield and or something, or like
(09:24):
an oil. Well like if theymake it in Texas, maybe that'll happen.
Maybe I wouldn't hold my breath,but maybe of course I wouldn't because
we're because we're public. Got tome, number one, nobody's worse than
us. We're the scorge of theEarth. I mean, you know,
I a as someone who who doesn'treally care. You know, it's pretty
bad. I mean you look atlike that Danny Farquhar video and everything,
(09:45):
and it's like that's pretty bad.You know. Yeah, yeah, I
mean it's it's pretty bad. Butyou know there there are other things that
are bad as well, Like,you know, I don't know roll this,
Chapman, I don't know. Youknow, Nazi's on the Nazis on
the A's, you got the Dodgersand their scandals. You got you know,
players you know, dying over overopioids in Major League Baseball. But
no, let's concentrate on the Astros. Also, let's also not forget pictures
(10:09):
have been cheating four years and wejust talked and started to talk about it
now. But we're the worst peopleever. Okay, well yeah, no,
I will definitely agree with you there. You know, we're all just
Chapman is terrible. You know,Trevor Bauer is terrible. Um, you
know, much worse than anything thatthe Astros did. So you know,
I I totally agree with you onthat one. Yeah, but you know,
(10:33):
they still cheated, so you know, yeah, I'm not saying they
didn't. That's the thing. I'mnot saying that they didn't, but you
know, you need to you needto be fair well you know, I
mean, I mean that's the thingwith sports fans which I don't understand.
I mean, yeah, and maybemaybe it's it's has something to do with
whatever the a track, but youknow, well it's it's tribalism, right
(10:56):
and in a lot of its basistyou know, form a lot has a
lot to do with it. Andit's one of those things where like fans
are really forgiving of people who aregood at playing yes, which is weird
to me. I mean because likeif I was, I mean, like
when when when you know, TrevorBauer was a free agent and the White
(11:20):
Sox were actively pursuing him, Iwas like, I that is the last
thing that I want, right,because then you're there and you're it's like,
Okay, I want my team towin, and yet I don't want
this guy who's for those people whodon't know, currently on administrative leave for
(11:41):
um, administrative leave, I meanthat's what it's called, right, currently
on administrative leave for you know,um. I guess uh, I guess
it would be like spousable abuse.I'm not exactly sure the details. Yeah.
So yeah, I mean, whywhy would you want to root for
(12:03):
someone like that? I would muchrather take someone who's not as good at
pitching, but it's not morally corrupt. Yeah, yeah, so whatever,
Maybe that's just me. I don'tknow. Yeah, but regardless, Um,
the nineteen nineteen Black Socks, Yeah, yeah, and it was and
it was like a big thing atthis particular point in time, I think,
(12:26):
just because of the way that thatthese things happen for whatever reason,
you know, you get you know, Armageddon and Deep and Packed it at
the same time, you know,Dante's Peak and Volcano and back in eighty
eight eighty nine, within the spanof eight months, you had Eight Men
Out and Field of Dreams, bothmovies which dealt with this scandal. Yeah.
(12:46):
I was going to ask you aboutthat because like, why was it
why? What was what was sospecial about nineteen like the late eighties that
made people start thinking about like theWhite Sox scandal, like because at that
point, it's you know, it'sit's a long time, so like what
was going on that people is like, you know what, people need to
know this story and people need toget you know, we need to we
need to know about these characters andand and they're involved in what really happened.
(13:09):
I'm wondering if it's just coincidence,right, I mean you think at
some point it had to be okay, But as a kid, you're kind
of confused. You're like, oh, there's these two things whatever, you
know. And you know, obviouslylike Eight Men Out is the much more
sort of adult story. I mean, it's still rated PG. You know,
it's not like it's you know,but that is like a drama which
(13:33):
deals with you know, really kindof like the politics behind this scandal,
whereas Field of Dreams is like afantasy, right, like a yeah,
there's nothing wrong with it, butit's a you know, this kind of
like very um schmaltzy whatever about youknow, the the glory of baseball or
(14:00):
whatever you want to it's a veryromantic yape story. Yeah, in that
regard. So that's the one thatyou're going to show to kids or whatever,
you know, And and you know, it's the type of thing where
it's like, okay, especially asa White Sox fan, Like you're saying,
like and you watch Field of Dreamsand you're like, this is amazing,
and then you hear like, oh, there's another one, Eight Men
(14:20):
Out, and then I like,I remember watching that movie as a kid
thinking like this is great, youknow, I can't wait to see this
thing, and putting it on andjust being like, this is the most
boring thing I've ever seen in mylife, you know. But as I
got older and I watch these moviesas an adult. Now I see Eight
(14:41):
Men Out and I'm like, thisis fascinating. And I watch Field of
Dreams and I have a slightly differentopinion of it. So let me ask
you, what is your opinion ofField of Dreams. I love this movie.
Yeah, ok, yeah, Ithink you know, it's I think
it's the right amount of fantasy,it's the right amount of romanticism, and
(15:03):
it is just it has all theelements of the feel good in it,
you know what I mean? Andyou know this, you know what's basically
you know, this is just inwithin Kevin Costner's run of baseball movies.
How many did this, dude?Do? Six? I mean it was
the last. So there was BullDurham first, right, yeah, and
there's this, and then there's ForLove of the Game, and then the
(15:24):
one that I think is kind oflike borderline or whatever. But there was
that movie where he played like aretired baseball player. Okay, I forget
the name of it. Um hewas like a radio host or something like
that. Okay, yeah, soI would say there's four, this is
four, Okay, this is numbertwo? Got it? Yeah? Yeah,
(15:45):
but you but it's funny, likewe associate Costner with with baseball movies
among other things that he's done.Right, Um, you could definitely point
to like, oh yeah, likethe dude's a baseball man. Yeah for
sure, for sure. Um yeah. I mean it's weird, like every
time I watched this movie, andI've seen it an unusual number of times
for whatever reason, like I havelike a different sort of opinion about it
(16:08):
each time. But there was agood stretch like between when I was a
kid and when I was adult whereI didn't see it, you know,
like maybe like ten years, andthen when it came time to revisit it,
you know, probably because I'm like, oh, Baseball, I love
this movie. You know, thiswas my favorite movie as a kid,
and I watched I'm just like,this is the cheesiest crap I've ever seen
(16:32):
in my life. You know,like I just I can't stand it.
And you know, I watched ita couple of years ago and I was
like, that wasn't too bad,And now watching it today, I was
really curious what my reaction would be. And my reaction was basically like,
it's not the worst thing in theworld, but it's dumb and it doesn't
make any sense. Now, thereare there are some things that don't make
(16:56):
sense in here that like that whenI was watching also like is that really
how that would have gone down?Like like when, for example, when
Shula's Joe meets Terrence Man, likehe was just so calm about it and
he was just you know, like, hey, you want to come with
us? Like that is probably themost unrealistic thing that happened in this movie.
(17:18):
Yeah, that has ghosts coming outof a cornfield to play baseball,
Right, we have Shula's Joe Jacksonfrom nineteen nineteen sing a black man and
being like, hey, you wantto come hang out with us? Yeah,
that would not have happened. That'sthe most realistic thing that happened in
this movie. Yeah, I know, Like I was like watching it through
like today's eyes, you know,and everything, I'm like well, where
(17:40):
are all the players from from thenegro leagues? Right, yeah, not
even mentioned. But at the sametime they're like, oh, we wanted
more players, so we invited them. So it's like, oh, yeah,
I guess those guys probably wouldn't beinvited anyway, right yeah, so
you know, but yeah, theydon't even mention that at all, which
is which is weird. Um ohno, it's not weird. No,
(18:02):
I guess it's not weird. Itjust is what it is. Yes,
yes, unfortunate okay, yeah,um yeah I did laugh at that when
I was When I was watching,it was like this is like that took
me out of the movie for yeah, yeah, like yeah, just come
on, let's come. It's like, are you kidding me? Yeah?
(18:22):
And then like I did think itwas funny how he mentioned how like ty
Cobb wanted to play but it's likewe didn't like him when he was alive,
so he told him to scram Andthat was like the most Rayliota ray
Leota was in this movie. Ithought that was hilarious. Helped himself.
It's because it was basically it wasbasically like his good Fellas laugh. That's
what that was. Yeah. Therest of the time, you don't even
(18:45):
like remember that this is Ray Yoda, you know, and until until that
part, oh, which I thoughtit was funny, but like that,
I did appreciate the dig at tyCobb because that guy was a deplorable human
being. Yes, yes he was. Yeah is good. Um, yeah,
I don't know, like the wholething. I mean, look,
(19:06):
it's a stretch to begin with.Anytime you do this stuff, right,
Like, I know, there's somepeople who would just go with it,
and it's like, yeah, youknow, it's it's it's the it's the
magic of it all, you know. And anytime anyone says like it's the
magic of it all, I'm justlike, oh God. Like whenever I'm
watching Harry Potter and they're just likeyelling things at each other and then like
(19:26):
pointing their wands or whatever, I'mjust like, well, see, I
say, I think that's different becausewhen in those types of movies, and
I'm not just necessarily defending Harry Potterwould let me just say that for the
record, Um, it's like theirown rules are kind of weird anyway,
and so it's like, well,they just they all just know magic,
and it's like my guess, andso I just I guess. But but
(19:49):
the rules in that movie, inthose movies are also weird, and I
don't get them either. So andthat's the thing, right, And I
feel like the reason why you don'tget them is because they're just making it
up for whatever or they need inthis particular moment. That's the trouble with
magic in in like magic in movies, not like movie magic, right as
as the term that we all know, but like the use of magic in
(20:10):
movies, like as like a asa as a day says makana type of
thing, right, Like, that'sthe problem because we don't we don't.
They're the rules are too hard todefine. Um And sometimes if you define
them, that's cool, but likehere there there is no definition of them
outside of the players can't come acrossthe line. Yeah, and only Ray
(20:32):
and his family can see them.And and and then Homeboy at the end
like sees him when when doctor Graham, when Doctor Graham shows up. Yes,
And that's the thing that it's likeit's a stretch to begin with,
like some guys like I heard avoice in my field and now I'm gonna
build this thing, you know,And and his wife is so supportive and
(20:53):
says like, I think you needto do this, and then he does
it, and I'm just like,okay, well I'm already I'm not feeling
this thing. Well here's the thing, Like she's like, you know,
the award for most supportive spouse inthe history of spouses. Yeah. But
they established in the opening monologue ofthis movie in the in the in the
(21:15):
very beginning that in the exposition thatthey were people from the sixties, right,
So of course she's down with it. She's super chill. Yeah,
I guess so, I guess so. And then you know, okay,
so then he keeps on getting allthese other messages or whatever, and he's
like, I gotta do this thing. And at one point, I mean,
it's all over the place, like, oh, they're talking about this
(21:38):
guy, Terrence Mann. I figuredit out. I need to, you
know, talk to this guy.Oh what doesn't that seem a little coincidental?
Yeah it does. Oh but Ihad a dream the same dream.
Okay, well that's different from whathappened before. And then you know,
they go and they get this guyand then they see the thing on the
scoreboard that didn't happen before. Youknow, and then you know, they
(22:02):
pick up. Well, then there'sthe whole thing where they go to Minnesota
and he's walking around and all ofa sudden it's the seventies. Yeah,
and that because like they're also likethey were just like, well he's dead.
They're like is he uh? Oh? So I was like that,
that's that was a little confusing.But the thing is the funny thing though,
is like I like, again,like it's not a perfect movie by
(22:26):
any stretch, right, and likeyou can see the holes through a lot
of these things. It's just it'sso to me, it's just so enjoyable.
I just ignored it, right becauselike I enjoyed the characters. I
enjoyed their story, I enjoyed theirjourney, and it's it was very engaging,
and it's still kind of is engagingin that way where like I'm just
kind of I just get immersed init and just ignore a lot of the
(22:49):
pitfalls that happen. I guess Ican see that. Um, I guess
I'm not as engaged as as mostpeople in it, you know, I
mean, And and then of coursethere's the whole thing you know where it's
like this is the movie that makesgrown men cry, you know. Yeah,
well, well it's it's it's it'sthe it's the father son thing.
(23:11):
That's what it is. It's thelast scene because most people are just like
because when you're watching the movie,it's like, well I don't see why
people are crying over this, butit doesn't like, it doesn't happen until
the last line was like, hey, dad, you want to have a
catch. That's that's where it is, because the whole movie, you know,
it's about a couple of things,but it's really about like him reconciling
(23:33):
and you know, finally mourning theloss of his father, right and and
finally getting one more chance to like, you know, have have a moment
with him. That's what it is. So yeah, so let me ask
you this, um, do yousay do you want to have a catch?
Or do you say do you wantto play catch? Do you want
to play catch? Okay, apparentlyit's different depending on where you live.
(23:55):
Okay, I say play catch.I did too, which is weird to
hear every would say have a catchin this thing? Yeah, apparently that
was a colloquialism that was used,and so I guess people still use it,
Like I think it's like if you'rein like New England or something,
they say, have a catch.I don't know, it's weird, but
(24:15):
okay whatever, all right, Um, yeah, so I don't know.
I mean, you know, it'sfine, but it's not. You know,
I like the idea of this moviemore than I like the movie itself.
Okay, that's saying sense, okay, But I also, you know,
like the kind of like local connectionthat I have to it and everything
(24:37):
like that. You know, thisthis town in Iowa, Dyersville, is
not too far away from Chicago.It's like a three and a half hour
drive or something like that. Andyou know, I think I talked about
this on on our other show,but um, you know, I've been
there before, and it is crazy, Like you look at it in the
movie and you go there and it'slike, that's what it is. You
(24:59):
know, it's a corn field.It's a cornfield with a baseball field in
the middle of it. Then there'sa house which is now a gift shop
and you can just go and playbaseball there. You know that's awesome.
Yeah, I mean you can walkout of the corn you can do all
that stuff, and yeah, peoplecome, there's always people there if you
build it, yeah, and theybuilt it so so so people came and
(25:22):
and now more people are coming becauseMajor League Baseball has decided to actually play
a game at the Field of Dreams. Yeah, which is insane. And
another one where I'm like, whyare they doing this now? Right?
Like, yeah, this is thisshould have been something that they did annually.
(25:44):
Uh huh or why not start?Like if you're going to do it,
why not started in twenty nineteen forthe hundredth year anniversary of the you
know, Black So I guess theydidn't want to celebrate that since it was
you know whatever. We're kind ofweird that they're celebrating that. I mean,
we can't celebrate We can't celebrate cheaters, even though like all their records
are still upheld. You know,we can't do that. Yeah, you
(26:04):
know, you know, the hitKing is still Pete Rose. You know,
Barry Bond is still the home runKing. Can't celebrate these things.
Roger Clemens, you know, stillhas seven cions. You know. Yeah,
cats can't celebrate these people. TomBrady still is still regarded as the
goat, even though he's you know, all of his championship teams have did
you know, tied to some sortof cheating activity. Can't celebrate these people
(26:26):
though, yeh, can't do it. Yeah, Well, they're they're doing
they're doing this thing. It's it'ssuper weird. It's super weird, but
it's definitely a cool idea. They'renot actually playing on the field because the
field itself is pretty small, right, Okay, so they're building a new
field like down the down the lock, down the corn or whatever, down
the Corn. I don't know,And I mean it looks pretty cool.
(26:48):
I mean, it's built more forMajor League Baseball. There's going to be
I think only like eight thousand seatsor something like that, which is insane.
I keep on seeing all this stuffwhere it's like enter for your chance
to win tickets, you know,I mean like basically like they're not selling
any tickets, really giving things awayand doing things like, you know,
donate to this charity and you'll beentered into this raffle or whatever it is,
(27:12):
because it'll be the hardest ticket toget, like in the history of
baseball probably, right, I mean, like harder than a World Series or
anything like that, because there's barelyany seats. Yeah, and the White
Sox will be playing against the Yankees, of course, which I guess makes
sense. You know, whatever theyhave. I mean, the stadium itself
(27:33):
looks really cool. You know,they are going to be playing under the
lights, you know, because theyhad lights on the field over there,
you know, so all that stuffand also to see the ball. It
does you know, although it's weirdthough, because it's like, ah,
yeah, you know, stick itto the owners for their you know.
But I mean anytime you see anyplayer today asked like, which do you
(27:55):
prefer day games or night games?They always say night games, of course.
Yeah yeah, I mean why wouldn'tthey, I know, yeah,
um so yeah, I mean it'sit's like a movie based on a game,
which now has a game based onthe movie. So crazy. Yeah.
(28:18):
Art imitating life imitating art. Yeah. Yeah, it's come full circle.
And and this game is going tobe next week, you know,
August twelfth, and hey there's actuallygonna be some good teams playing in it,
which is cool. I know,there's one good team playing in it.
Oh. The Yankees are trying,right, they're trying. They didn't
address any of their issues in freeagency. There are issues they can't they
(28:41):
can't they can't get people out.It's pitching in defense. But yet they
just they get two people to hit, you know, home like lef who
are left handed, to hit youknow, you know home runs to right
field. It's like, oh,we got a short porch. That's that's
great. But if you blow leadsbecause your bullpen sucks like that, that's
not going to help you. Soagain, I'm not like trying to help
the Yankees here. I'm just pointingout that they did something dumb. I
(29:03):
mean, it is kind of weirdbecause you got like two teams in front
of them, you know, yeah, so whatever. I mean, I
guess they're the Yankees, so they'realways buying, right, I mean,
that's just how it works. Butopen that letter. Yeah, I mean
it's it's a The other weird thingabout it, I guess is you would
think, like, oh, they'regoing to be wearing their throwback uniforms,
(29:23):
right, yeah, Why why aren'tthey? Yeah, seriously, couple people
and nobody really knows what they'll bewearing. We've seen the hats. The
hats look cool, and I guessmaybe that's what it is they want,
because you know, you look atthe uniforms in the movie, and it's
like the socks are wearing like awhite hat with navy blue pinstripes no logo
(29:47):
on it, and it's like,well, that's kind of hard to sell
to a national audience. So yougive them a navy blue hat with like
the s Ox logo from from nineteennineteen that was on the jersey and it's
like fuzzy to kind of make itlook like wool or whatever. Yeah,
And I mean it's it's a coollooking hat, and the Yankees have one
too. Um. But then twodays later they're going to be back in
(30:10):
Chicago and they're going to be wearingtheir nineteen nineteen uniforms with their hats without
a logo on it and stuff likethat. So that's cool, and I'm
actually going to go to that game, which could be fun. You know.
I was going to ask, how, like, how many times have
you entered to win a ticket tothe Field of Dreams. I haven't even
bothered because here's the other thing,right, So you you win and you
(30:33):
get your ticket, and then wheredo you stay, Like, there's not
a lot of There's a town calledGalina, which is about like an hour
away, you know, and myaunt and uncle actually have like a house
there, And I'm like, oh, well, there it is. There's
your answer. Yeah, see thatI can. I can stay there.
But yeah, there's no way thatI'm getting a ticket. So yeah,
(30:56):
but whatever. Still cool, it'scool that they're doing and something I'm definitely
looking forward to to watching, youknow, for sure, Yeah, yeah,
for sure they should. They shoulddo stuff like this more often,
right because like baseball, like they'vein recent years, you've heard like they've
had problems like, you know,relating to fans and relating to the younger
(31:17):
generation and trying to make the gamemore fun and all this other stuff.
Well, doing stuff like this willhelp you with that some of that problem,
right, Like or you know,when you know, they play a
game in Williamsport at the at theat the big league field, like and
they have the little leaguers you knowin the in the stands watching them and
talking to them and all that otherstuff. Do stuff like this, right,
(31:38):
like this ingratiates yourself more to thefans and to a younger audience and
a new audience when you do stufflike this, because it's not it's not
detracting from the game. You canstill you still play the same game,
right, It's just you know,the like change, like the simple thing
of just changing the venue every nowand then is does wonders? Yeah?
Do you remember, like I don'tknow, twenty years or whatever might have
(32:00):
been, like nineteen ninety nine.I can't remember when they did the Turn
ahead the Clock games with those uniforms, like futuristic uniforms so great. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I don't know. It's it's kind I know they're
kind of doing that again with thesewith these new City edition things that they're
(32:22):
trying to do. Um, someteams are more successful than the others.
Um. Yeah. So I'm stilllooking forward to ours. I'm like,
I'm telling you, like, likeours needs to say h town on it
and have the rainbow. That's whatThat's all it needs and it's perfect.
Could very well have that, youknow, I mean, who knows.
I'm curious to see what the Yankeeswill do for theirs, right, because
(32:43):
there's such traditionalists they are. Andthis is what I'm thinking, like because
like with the Chicago one, theyvery clearly made it about the neighborhoods.
So what if they did that,what if like the Yankees uniform was exactly
the same, but instead of havingan end, why you have like brons
a bee for the Bronx. Right, Okay, that could work. That
could be interesting. We'll see,yeah, we'll see what they do.
(33:07):
Yeah. Anyway, this game forpeople who might want to watch it or
whatever, at least in America.It's on Thursday night, August twelfth.
I think it's probably seven o'clock game. It's gonna be on Fox, so
check it out. Is Joe Buckgoing to be calling this game? I
mean he must be, right,of course, it's probably gonna be Joe
(33:29):
Buck and John Smoltz. Yeah,it's too too bad, you know,
like seeing the White Sox. Hecan't get their announcers stone you know,
they're they're the best. But no, I'm sure it'll be Joe Buck.
All right, yeah that guy.What what's your what's your take on Joe
Buck? I'm okay with him.I don't hate him as much as everyone
else does. I think he's signed. I don't either. I think it's
(33:50):
just he's just he falls into thetrap that people make him make fun of
him for right, Like he can'thelp himself, Like he just ends up
doing the things people hate him forit. I think that's money. Um,
I do appreciate his His Twitter biothough, it says I love every
team except for yours. Apparently that'sgood. That's good. Yeah, he's
(34:12):
a weird guy, but he isa weird guy. Yeah that's okay.
All right, Oh, real quickabout this movie though, uh Art Lafleur,
Um, you know what I'm talkingabout. I don't think I do.
Okay. So he's the he's theguy that that played the first baseman
for the White Sox when they showback up. Okay, he's the guy
that looks like an umpire like likein real life. Uh. And so
(34:37):
it's funny like he has over ahundred you know, credits to himself on
on dB. You know, he'sbeen a working actor for a very long
time. Um, but he wasalso he played Babe Ruth in the Sand
Loot. And this dude looks exactlylike like the cartoon umpire from that painting,
(34:57):
you know, that famous painting theumpire like holding his hand out like
like for a rain during the raindelay. Yeah, yeah, you know
the picture. He looks like that. Well you know, I mean,
hey, if they ever turned thatpicture into a movie. Yeah, I
know, he's they know who tocall. Yeah, all right, interesting
yeah, interesting casting in this moviefor sure, yes, all the way
(35:19):
around. But yeah, got thatguy from uh Studios sixty on the Sunset
Strip or whatever it is and allthat stuff. Yeah, yeah, Burt
Lancaster's last like, yeah, oneof his last things. Yeah, James
Earl Jones, Darth Vader himself,Light Graham, Yep, I don't know.
(35:43):
Weird movie. It's it's loved bymany. Yes, not like you're
not me, but but you Sothat's that's good. That's good. Got
half of us. Yeah, yeah, Well at some point we'll have to
circle back and revisit Eight Men Out. Yes, yeah, all right,
Well, I guess that's pretty muchit for today. Thanks for listening.
(36:07):
Until next time. Lance. Wherecan people find you on the Internet.
They can find me at Sir LanceLaster on all of my social media's,
and you can find me also onthe United Federation of Podcasts talking about all
the things that make Arrow Arrow onAlways Hold on to Arrow, and you
can find us on Twitter at DoNot Fail Our Pod. You can find
me on Twitter and letterbox at Mumblesthree K, and you can also find
(36:30):
me on my website, Film Damagepod. Dot com doing a show called Film
Damage, and yeah, I guessthat's it. We'll be back in a
bit with the next episode for amovie, which we haven't decided on yet.
I mean, we do, dowe do Jerry McGuire? Does that
make sense? I mean, Ihave no objections to doing Jerry McGuire in
(36:52):
any circumstance. So okay, allright, maybe we can plan on that.
Okay, all right, And ifyou build it, you will come
join the revolution, join the NerdParty.
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