Baseball Meets Pop Culture
It's the end of March and that means baseball season is here once again. I'm gearing up to cheer on the Cubs, eat plenty of hot dogs, sing loudly during the seventh-inning stretch and pretend the White Sox don't exist. To get you excited for the best sport of all (sorry March Madness, but my bracket is dead), I've put together a compilation of baseball moments in pop culture.
A League of Their Own is home to one of the most iconic lines in film history, leading coaches everywhere to proclaim: "There's no crying in baseball!" The movie tells a powerful story about two sisters who join the women's All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. Directed by Penny Marshall, the movie's the cast includes Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Bill Pullman and many more. It's a must-see for any baseball or film lover.
In season three of White Collar, crime-fighting duo Neal and Peter head to Yankee Stadium, where Neal is tasked with stealing a Babe Ruth-signed baseball on display in the park (it's a long story). The USA show often goes on-location throughout New York City so being able to film at the brand new stadium and play ball on the field added excitement to the episode. Even if it does focus on the Yankees...
In the music video for Hold Up, Beyoncé struts down the street swinging a baseball bat, in a now-famous image from her Lemonade album. As she smashes in car windows, I have to ask: Jay-Z, what were you thinking?
In season one of Boy Meets World, Cory Matthews is obsessed with baseball and Philadelphia Phillies. While he does realize he won't become an MLB player when he grows up, his dad brings special guest Jim Abbott to their house to make sure Cory never gives up on his dreams. Jim shares some wisdom with Cory about the importance of getting a good education. Mr. Feeney approves.
I'd be remiss to write about baseball movies without bringing up the iconic 2005 romantic comedy Fever Pitch. Starring Jimmy Fallon as a Red Sox-obsessed teacher and Drew Barrymore as the cool girl eyeing a big promotion, these two crazy kids (spoiler alert!) find love at Fenway Park. I've seen this movie too many times to count, because it combines cursed baseball teams (I can relate), romance, Sweet Caroline montages, vintage Fallon humor and a dramatic finale filled with delightful romcom clichés. Ironically, the movie was filmed during the 2004 baseball season, which was the year the Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino and won the World Series. The filmmakers changed up the plot of the movie to match real life events and flew the crew, Jimmy and Drew to film from the winning game in St. Louis. Anything can happen during baseball season!
In the magical train wreck that is the TV show Smash, the musical numbers still manage to triumph. In the show's pilot episode, Megan Hilty performs as Marilyn Monroe and croons about her love of baseball players in The National Pastime. It was one of the first big songs staged in the series and demonstrated the show's potential. Sadly, it never lived up to the hype.
Of course, no conversation about baseball films would be complete without Field of Dreams. I saw this movie for the first time when I was a kid. My parents had to skip over the school board scene, due to bad language, and I was only semi-freaked out by the whole ghost aspect of things. I was already a huge Cubs fan at this point in my life and fell in love with the way that baseball brought different people together in the movie. My family took a trip to Iowa to visit the actual set and run around the magical baseball field. Last summer, I re-watched the film for the first time in a while and found myself still breaking down into tears at the end when Kevin Costner throws around a baseball with his dad.
What's the point of having a newsletter, if I can't sneak in this GIF of the Cubs winning the World Series any chance I get? Kris Bryant's look of sheer joy as he throws the ball to make the final out of the game is permanently etched in my brain.
As Seen on TV
In honor of baseball season, let's travel back to the fall of 2016. While most eyes were on Dan Fogelman's NBC show, This is Us, many didn't realize he also co-created, Pitch, a Fox show premiering at the same time. The show only lasted for one, 10-episode season, where it focused on the fictional story of the first female Major League Baseball player. Kylie Bunbury lit up the screen as Ginny Baker, who made her way onto the San Diego Padres thanks to her outstanding pitching ability. The series followed her struggle to pitch under pressure and earn the respect of her teammates, ability to deal with fame and the many ups and downs that come during any baseball season. While the show felt soapy at times -- Mark Consuelos plays the General Manager, and he's secretly dating the coach's daughter; Ali Larter plays Ginny's agent and she's secretly dating Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who is rocking a Jake Arrieta-style beard as the team's catcher -- it was a fun peek into the inner workings of baseball and the fictional world where a woman plays on an MLB team. Kylie Bunbury is a star, who did a great job portraying the many layers of Ginny's character. When the show got too bogged down in flashbacks, she made them worthwhile with her ability to pull the pain of Ginny's past into present day. The cast as a whole had wonderful chemistry and it was fun to watch them all interact as a team. The show received cooperation from the MLB, so the actors were able to film in the actual Petco Park and wear real Padres uniforms, which certainly helped add a level of realism to the unique scenario. The soundtrack was centered around pop-infused classical music from Black Violin, which set a fun, yet intense, tone for the episodes. Sadly, the first season ends with several unresolved cliffhangers that will leave us hanging indefinitely. If you missed Pitch the first time around, I encourage you to check it out. It's fun take on a sports-centered TV show and unfortunately it wasn't given enough time to truly deliver a win.
Bonus Pick: The legacy of the fictional Ginny Baker lives on. Baseball Hall of Fame assistant curator Gabrielle Augustine is the only female player on her baseball team and she pushed to get some artifacts from the show added to the Hall of Fame.
Haven't You Heard?
A year after the 2016 election and I'm finally able to watch re-runs of The West Wing again. To accompany this re-watch, I've also been listening to The West Wing Weekly podcast, hosted by Josh Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway. These two are going episode-by-episode through the show and providing commentary with the help of a truly impressive roster of guest commentators, including Under Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy, former White House Communications Director Don Baer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, show creator Aaron Sorkin and many of the original cast members, including Richard Schiff, Rob Lowe, Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney. The podcast almost feels like someone creating a thesis about The West Wing. Interviews are handled with care and provide excellent introspection into the show and the way its' fictional scenarios relate to real-life politics. Josh Malina does his sarcastic Josh Malina thing, while still providing valuable insight into the behind-the-scenes life of a West Wing actor. Hrishikesh Hirway is brilliant and does a great job dissecting each scene, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of the show. While The West Wing is a beloved classic now, it's fun to listen to Aaron and Tommy Schlamme detail their struggles during the first season to get the network to support their high-budget ideas. It's also exciting to see how concepts from the TV show inspired Lin-Manuel Miranda when writing Hamilton, as Richard Schiff tells a fun story about meeting Lin backstage and realizing that they were each mutually starstruck. Despite my love of the show, I'm cringing more and more throughout the re-watch process at the way Aaron Sorkin writes female characters, and while the podcast does point out these problems for the most part, the downside of having so many West Wing insiders on is that an actual critique of the episode isn't always possible. You can tell the cast truly enjoys revisiting the show years later, especially in our current political climate, and I too am enjoying an escape from reality, when I hear President Bartlet ask, "What's next?"
Bonus Pick: If you're looking for a quick spin through The West Wing highlight reel, Hrishikesh put together a list of his top five favorite scenes from the series.
Required Reading
On Saturday, more than a million people gathered in cities across the globe for the March for Our Lives. It was an inspiring look at what the next-generation of voters can do for America. Some excellent articles have been written pre and post-march about the Parkland activists and the distinction between this movement and previous gun control pushes. Time Magazine put together an in-depth cover story about the Parkland students and the school shooting generation. Slate documented the importance of conversations about intersectionality in the gun violence crisis. And The Atlantic wrote about the power of this younger generation to inspire adults to listen and believe that change is still possible.
