Realmscapes

Favorites of Entertainment: 2011

Here is a little taste of the "favorites of" everything in several categories across entertainment. Not everything on this list necessarily came out in 2011--but 2011 is the first time I heard/read/saw the entertainment.

Be forewarned I am SO far behind on my TV shows, lol, so don't expect to see current favorites listed or current seasons.

Each category has my #1 favorite and a runner-up:

Pastime (1991)

Despite the film's promotional material, this film isn't a story about racism. Yeah, it plays a role, but this is 1957 California--which means we aren't on the front lines of the Southern race wars, and Jackie Robinson has already broken the race barrier down in Major League Baseball a decade earlier.

Pastime is a story about legacy... self-worth... self-respect... tact... the value of the whole life journey... and finding humour and the best light in unfavorable situations.

This is my favorite sports/baseball film after Field of Dreams and The Natural, and it might even rank before that last one on many days.

This film has much sentimental value to me as well as being one of three films that my Dad and I loved to watch together every year (the other two being April Morning and An American Christmas Carol, both of which I will review at another time). 

There really isn't much else I can say about the film. It's simple, and yet even today I can find new layers and value to its story when I watch it. This is a great father/son film, filled with excellent teaching moments. (And be sure to watch for some cool cameos by baseball legends like Bob Feller, Ernie Banks, Duke Snider, Don Newcombe, Bill Mazeroski and Harmon Killebrew!)

GRADE: A+

Fantasy Sports 2010, Week 36: Winning One League, Starting Three More

This is the time of year when I'm going nuts fantasy-wise with a bunch of overlap. Baseball and Major League Soccer are winding down, but UEFA Champions League, the NFL, Euro Qualifiers, and the Premiere League are just getting started. The result? Really really long fantasy sports posts for several weeks. Scrolling skills will be needed.

Mark McGwire, The Dark Knight

Big Mac is looming large as a hero to me now more now than ever. McGwire is the first Steroid Era superstar to fully come clean on the role steroids had in his career. The result is just about every sports journalist and retired player coming out of the woodwork--from Carlton Fisk to Ferguson Jenkins--demanding their pound of flesh.

In The Dark Knight, Bruce decides that the only way to prevent The Joker's goal of corrupting Gotham's heroes to create despair and disbelief in true heroism is to become the scapegoat for the crimes that Harvey Dent committed as Two-Face.

Since Clemens and Bonds are too cowardly to admit their use, Mac is left to take the full ire of the above groups alone, despite that pitchers are just as much to blame as hitters. He seems strangely at-peace in this role. I am sure part of his motivation is personal penance. But he appears to be well aware that nothing he says will be taken as truth by his many critics--except for the admission of course--and that he is being sacrificed on the altar created by the Steroid Era.

But Mac loves baseball; this passion is his true "drug". Hall of Fame or not, Mac knows his legacy and appears willing to sacrifice all the good he accomplished if it means helping the sport move past its past. (I still believe that this was in his mind when he took the PEDs in 1998, when baseball needed the Home Run Chase more than anything.) If Mac didn't purely love the game he never would have stepped out of the shadows.

Like Batman in The Dark Knight, Mac is willing to take the dirty laundry of baseball--fully if necessary--so that the fans can continue to believe in its heroes and the ideal that incorruptible integrity will out. That is why St. Louis fans gave him a standing ovation two weeks ago. And I am convinced this superhuman display of heroism--and not his stats--is why ultimately Mark McGwire will reach the Hall of Fame.

Re: Edes: John Lackey's deal with the Boston Red Sox seems out of character for general manager Theo Epstein

ESPN researcher Mark Simon notes that since 1990, there have been 16 pitchers to sign deals for five years or more. Only two pitchers on that list -- Greg Maddux and Mike Mussina -- averaged 30 or more starts per season over the life of their contracts. Kevin Millwood and Gil Meche are likely to add to that number, and eventually so could CC Sabathia, Matsuzaka and Burnett, but none are a guarantee.

Almost half of those pitchers have been busts -- Barry Zito, Mike Hampton, Chan Ho Park, Darren Dreifort, Denny Neagle, Kei Igawa, Wilson Alvarez and Alex Fernandez.

In what group will Lackey fall? Care to make a prediction?

via sports.espn.go.com

That's easy: Lackey is definitely in the "likely to make 30+ starts" category.

He's got heaps more talent, dominance, and stamina than any of those that failed--except Zito, who was just a starstruck kid overwhelmed at his own price tag and the expectation to perform for that money, and who was forced onto the same stage as Barry Bonds.

Lackey will be an outstanding #3, and really--in many ways--Lackey and Halladay are similar in just about everything except age (Lackey is a year younger) and injury history (nothing major for Lackey thus far).

I will say that Boston's rare decision to sign a free agent to a long-term deal has got to be a loud message sent to Bay's agent, who insisted on a five-year deal for his client. The message being: "We'd love to have ya Jay, but your agent is a fool. Matt Holliday's long-term deal was as much--if not more--about STL locking up Pujols long-term than anything."

Rant on Jeff Passan

Yahoo's Jeff Passan is exactly the kind of pharisaic, snobbish media type that I would give a million bucks to see given a professional over the knee. First he has the audacity to judge Josh Hamilton's demons, and now he is telling Mark Mcgwire what he apparently needs to do to save his legacy.. in the eyes of the Passan's of the sports media (no doubt).

I'll bet that Jeff Passan was a failed athlete, or didn't have the stones to be an athlete. But he happened to be good at stringing some sentences together and saw an opportunity to let loose his jaded pride on those he can never be like. Bravo, Jeff. I'll also bet that you drew out Hamilton because you are jaded on your Creator too and there's nothing better to those like you than seeing a Christian stumble from one's thorn in the flesh.

I believe I know what makes a hero far better than Jeff does. Mac and Josh are definitely heroes. Jeff is too.. to the fans of his own mental domain.

Big Mac Redux

It's Baseball Hall of fame voting season, so of course opinions on my favourite baseball player, Mark McGwire, rears its head. Like Gordon's opinion above, my views have evolved somewhat over the last couple of years.

I still support Mac. I still wholly categorise his situation in different class as that of Mr Bonds (whom I do not support).

The way Mac has made himself such a recluse is more than curious. No one doubts the man's honour, love of baseball, or likable personality. Combine this with the likely notion that MLB officials knew of the steroids problem for years and at best turned a blind eye. So I have a theory.

God Bless, Nolan Ryan

I sincerely hope he follows through with his "turnback machine" re: pitching in the MLB. Former White Sox ace, "Black" Jack McDowell also strongly advocates a return to pitching by instinct and not numbers or "twinges".

Men and Boys

“We’ve been getting stomped around the last 10 years and it isn’t going to happen anymore. I had to let them know early and let them know right away,” is the "wisdom" bestowed on baseball by Rays pitcher, James Shields, the day after sparking the bench-clearing ball when he plunked Coco Crisp.

And that's pretty much been the Tampa Bay attitude since the beginning of Spring Training, when the Rays went after The Evil Empire to establish their apparent theme for 2008. Up until this season, I was impressed by Manager Joe Maddon's steady leadership on a team that got very little attention. Not this season; either he's going along with his players destructive attitude, or he's spearheading it.

High schoolers believe they can earn respect by brawling with rivals in the parking lot and corridors, Mr Manager. Men earn theirs stoically and without fanfare. The Rays do not have the depth of the Sox, or the blank checks of the Bombers; this may be only season where the Rays can take the East by storm before returning to earth for awhile (like the Rockies have, or the Pirates did). Why throw it away for short-term pride?

If you haven't realised this now, perhaps you will come to remember it when you're sitting through a drubbing of your bullpen in Texas or LAofaA. I hope you will not have to reflect on it in October while staring at a schedule result sheet that shows a season lost following June 5th.

Boston's Wall of Weird

The only commentary I have on last night's game is: Don't blame Wakefield.

I was against his being used. Not because he doesn't deserve to be in the game but because I simply thought it was risky to pitch a guy who hadn't played for over two weeks--and the games he did play before that were bad--due to injury, I know, but sometimes bad consistent performances carry over (psychologically).

But Wake stepped up and was awesome. That homer by Blake means nothing. As for the infamous liner that followed: TV commentators talk like Wake had no business going after that ball hit back through the box. But the truth is, Wake was reacting. A ball comes that close, and you react to catch it. Baseball is a game of reflexes, Joe. Maybe if you played the game instead of just commentating on it all the time you'd know that. And Tim, you should know better and be correcting your fellow talker. Shame on you.

The scary thing right now is the Tribe are getting all the lucky breaks. The ball just keeps jumping into their gloves like two magnets, while their par 3 & 4 pitchers have been made to look stellar because of double-plays and seven-run innings. And it's the "weird" stuff like that that often sends a team to the next round. (And it obviouslly doesn't help that only Papi, Manny, and Lowell are hitting with any consistency in this series.)

I also blame baseball economics. Without all the hooplah and too many millions surronding Daiske, there is no way he is in the rotation for the AL Championship. I have nothing against him--I think he will be much better next year now that he has tasted a season of American baseball--but the guy is clearly spent...like three weeks ago now. I'm surprised that Francona doesn't bench him citing the familiar "Papelbon Paranoia Syndrome" (whether he feels that way or not). But because of the overseas expectation and $$$ he's forced to start him.

Economics costing a team a World Series berth: always Weird, and always maddening.