"42"

Pretty much being the worst baseball fan ever, the fiancee and I finally had an opportunity to see "42" this evening. I went in to the film with very high expectations and am pleased to say that they were all either met or exceeded.

For most baseball fans, the story is familiar. Jackie Robinson was selected by Branch Rickey of the Dodgers to become the first African-American to play Major League Baseball in the modern era. Jackie spends a year in the International League in Montreal proving himself as a big league quality ballplayer and learning to handle what society, still firmly entrenched in Jim Crow, could throw at him. 

Robinson excels and Rickey has him join the Brooklyn Dodgers the following year. Some teammates have issues with his color, as do many opponents who act in a truly evil way. Other teammates put themselves on the line to prove that Jackie was just as good as they, notably Pee Wee Reese. Robinson excels, brings the Dodgers to dynasty status as a team and eventually makes the Hall of Fame.

Where the film truly excels is getting people who couldn't care less about baseball to care about this man and his story.

Written by Brian Helgeland, writer of such films as "LA Confidential" and "Mystic River," the film treads the fine line when adapting a true story for the screen and does so with success. The characters are well-rounded and while a majority of the audience cares for Jackie before the film begins, as it progresses, finds itself caring just as much for Branch Rickey, Rachel Robinson, and Pee Wee Reese as they do for Jackie. The script manages to lighten what could be a very intense film with humor and manages to stay true to the story. 

Yes, there were some choices that seemed a little too 'Hollywood,'and that is to be expected in a major studio release, but overall the film was amazingly accurate, even down to the smallest detail of the ballparks and uniforms. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. 

"42" contained some tour de force performances that Oscar may well be looking at when awards season rolls around. Nicole Beharie turned in a powerful piece as Jackie's wife, Rachel. Often we forget that although Jackie was the face of integration, Rachel was behind the scenes, giving Jackie the support he needed to pursue his role in American history and Beharie embraced that. 

In addition, Harrison Ford embraced his inner "angry old man" as Branch Rickey and delivered a phenomenal performance. One moment vehemently protective of Jackie, the next quietly contemplative about the wheels he had set in motion. Rickey had to wear many hats in his efforts to bring Jackie to the big leagues: drill sergeant, protector and counselor, amongst others and Ford steals the show regardless of what hat he was wearing.

Of course, who could forget Chadwick Boseman as Jackie? He had heart, a sense of humor, but above it all, a sense of humanity. Jackie wasn't a perfect man, but, as the quote goes, he had "the courage to not fight back." He showed the dignity of Jackie, getting back up after being spiked by Enos Slaughter and getting his revenge by winning the ballgame. It wasn't easy, but Boseman embraced this American hero and legend of baseball and comes away as absolutely believable.

This could not have been an easy film to make; the things that Alan Tudyk as the racist Phillies manager, Ben Chapman had to say would have been enough to make anyone feel awkward for hours and days on end. In fact, my fiancee wondered what it felt like to collect a paycheck for essentially shouting some of the most awful racial epithets. 

I wonder how the villains in this tale felt. The most prominent are dead now, many for years, and in essence, can't defend their actions. Not that there is much to defend, I suppose. History is a cruel mistress and when dealing with a true story, the villains tend to be self-made. Perhaps, later in life they realized their evil ways and renounced them and I would like to believe that. But honestly, we just don't know, and now, be it good or bad, the images we left of them are those created in "42."

"42" was powerful. It reminds us of how fortunate we are that we happen to be on the right side of history, at least for this particular cause, and how one man can bring a change. There's a reason that Martin Luther King worked together with Jackie to bring about civil rights and helped enact a huge shift in society. The film offers us a heartfelt glimpse into what it took for one rock to cause and avalanche. It was obviously a labor of love for everyone involved, from actors to set designers to costume researchers and their efforts did not go unnoticed. "42" gets my highest approval and I cannot wait to add it to my personal film collection, to remind us of what one man can do.

One Nation...

My feelings towards New England sports teams tends toward the loathing end of the spectrum, but if the Yankees can suck it up and play "Sweet Caroline," then we are all Bostonians for now, and I too shall stand in support.

"B" Strong

Padres Opening Day

I wasn't intending to attend my first baseball game until the 22nd of this month, to see the Angels take on the Rangers, but I got a call from my brother on Monday night offering me an extra ticket to the Padres home opener. After moving a few things around, I was able to take him up on his offer.

My fiancee, Lauren drove me from Orange County down to San Diego, picking up my brother from work as well, and dropping us  at the ballpark. My parents were also attending the game so we had a ride after the game, and Lauren wouldn't get stuck downtown while we watched the game.

We arrived shortly before the Opening Day festivities and found our way to our seats in the Toyota Terrace. Matt had gotten the tickets from a mutual friend and I hope to use the tickets again this season, sooner rather than later. Our section even had runners who would take your food order and deliver the order back to you so there was never a need to leave your seat. Fancy stuff!

This year the Padres are celebrating their 1998 run to the World Series (just as long as we don't bring up the Padres OTHER World Series) and I was a regular attendee during that season. One of my favorite players from that team was slugger, Greg Vaughn, so I was thrilled to see him throw out the first pitch to the catcher from the 1998 team, Carlos Hernandez.

The Padres also do something cool as they introduce the team. As the starting lineup is introduced, they come down from the stands and down a temporary staircase onto the field. I understand that they have been doing this for the past few years and it's a really unique way to start the year. I'm a big fan of anything that gets the fans in a closer proximity to the activity, particularly with all of the pomp and circumstance of Opening Day.

The Padres also happen to be the official team of the US military and so, of course, there was some military presence at the game. A large group of Marines was welcomed pre-game and prior to the National Anthem, the midshipmen from 2 locally based carriers unfurled a huge United States flag. The Padres also invite the fans to sing along with the Anthem, which is uncommon, but a welcome touch.

The game pitted Clayton Richard against Josh Beckett. Neither pitcher looked particularly great in the early goings, but Richard made the big pitches when he needed to and got some lucky ground balls, while Beckett got touched up a bit, including giving up a home run to Will Venable. I actually was telling my brother that I liked Venable, but that he has yet to capitalize on his tools, when he launched his no doubt home run.

The game would essentially see-saw back and fourth until the bottom of the eighth inning when the wheels came off for the Dodgers and they saw five runs score. The game was essentially over at that point and Luke Gregerson was able to pick up a win by throwing a single pitch. 

It was a great game, close for most of it, but ending up with a big win for the home team on Opening Day, which is always a big plus. In addition, I got the chance to see my new favorite Padre, Jedd Gyorko and Andrew Cashner, a favorite from his Cub days, both of whom did well.

It was a great way to kick off the 2013 season, and hopefully my other ballpark endeavors will be as exciting and satisfying! I've already decided that even outside of the Cubs series, I want to try to get to more games at Petco and maybe try to meet Jerry Coleman, one of the main baseball voices of my youth, and have him sign a baseball for me. 

I can't wait.

Petco Park Tour

With the Padres hosting their home opener tomorrow, I just was offered the opportunity to attend and, naturally, leapt at the opportunity. In keeping with that theme, I decided to talk about how I spent my birthday this year.

You may recall me mentioning growing up in sunny San Diego, and most of my family is still in San Diego county, so that was where I spent my birthday weekend. The big day fell on a Monday and as most of the family had work or other commitments during the day, I had to find some way to occupy myself. Having enjoyed a tour of AT&T Park several years ago, I thought that a tour of Petco would be a fun experience as well.

The Padres offered two tours daily during the off-season and my fiancee, Lauren, and I opted for the later tour, to allow for sleeping in and any sort of hijinks on the approximately 30 minute drive from my parent's house to the ballpark.

Despite some shenanigans involving a questionable "public parking" garage we made it to the ticket window in front of the stadium just in time to buy our two tickets and officially join the tour. Our group consisted of Lauren, me and another young couple who were pleasant enough and, like us, photography nerds, so we didn't feel too bad "holding up" the tour for pictures.

We began by touring the always exciting stadium bowels, including a look at Padres jail for people who would have a date with the San Diego PD in their immediate future. Then we got to the meat of the tour and entered the visitor's clubhouse. Evidently the home clubhouse was only available to the public on one day a year during the team's annual Fanfest, which had occurred a few weeks prior. I guess the reason for this was because the players with longer-term contracts with the club would actually leave their personal things in their lockers and apparently rifling through Chase Headley's wallet was frowned upon. Party poopers.

The visiting clubhouse was very cool though. Our tour guide made a point of emphasizing how the Padre's home team facilities were so much nicer than those offered to the visitors, which I'm sure is true, but it was a bit odd to be focusing so much on that particular aspect of the home team dynamic.

From the visitor's clubhouse we walked out through the tunnel into the visitor's dugout, walking past where the grounds crew keeps their supplies just inside the tunnel (once again mentioned as a 'home field advantage') and got our first view of the field.

 It really is quite a moment when you step out of a dark tunnel and are blinded by the sun, only to see a beautiful expanse of grass and base paths in front of you. We weren't allowed to step on the actual grass itself, but were allowed along the dirt perimeter on our way to the home dugout. It was cool getting to be that close to home plate and see essentially what the batter/catcher/umpire/ball boy get to see.

As the tour was going on, the guide was not only showing us various elements of the ballpark, but was also giving us the history of the Padres as well as baseball in San Diego. She was very knowledgeable, and it's nice to see the Padres either have an excellent training program or hire people who know their stuff, rather than just giving a disinterested teenager a binder of facts to lead the tour.

One aspect of the dugouts that I thought was kind of fun was the fact that the players essentially never sit on the lower part of the bench, as the many spike marks all over the seats bare witness. We grabbed our last few pictures of ourselves on the field and headed out the tunnel to the luxury seats.

The luxury seats are amazing. Not only are they right behind home plate and occasionally host luminaries such as Padres executive and Hall of Famer, Dave Winfield, but they feature a full service gourmet restaurant and bar, with exclusive views to the Padres batting cages and apparently has players coming in and out of it before game time doing meet and greets and autographs with the fans fortunate enough to have the requisite golden tickets.

 After seeing how the Padres elite experience baseball we were taken to another domain inaccessible to the common fan, the press box. As I have always wanted to be a sportswriter, this was right up my alley. The box itself was fairly boilerplate, though we did learn that as a writer you are given free hotdogs and basic ballpark food, but for a nominal fee you could be eating the same food as the big shots down in the luxury seats. Not too bad of a deal, if you ask me!

Exiting the press box, we were treated to fantastic views of the Coronado Bay Bridge, Coronado Island, and the revitalized downtown San Diego en route to see one of the private suites. Available only as an annual rental, the suite can essentially become your home away from home for the year. Not only are you able to attend every home game, but you have access to any event held at the stadium and can use it for personal or business use, even when the stadium is closed. That's a pretty nice perk!

Next we went over to the historic Western Metal Supply building located in left field, which now houses more suites, a fancy restaurant and the Padres Hall of Fame. In the Hall of Fame there are replica lockers dedicated to Jerry Coleman, Tony Gwynn, Dick Williams, Dave Winfield and Jackie Robinson.

The tour was winding down at this time and we took our last few photos and, just like Disneyland, found ourselves exiting through the gift shop, in the form of the Padres team shop where we had started the tour.

Overall, I enjoyed the tour. It was well worth the $11 and approximately two hours that it took. Getting on the field and in the dugouts would have been worth it alone, but add the other out of the way areas that we were able to visit and the history lesson that was intermingled and it was a great way to spend my 31st birthday!

Tours of ballparks are a great way to get up close and personal either with a ballpark you've never previously visited or to reacquaint yourself with your home park that you have visited a hundred times before. Sadly, in my research I have yet to find the Angels offering a tour of the Big A, but I plan on taking advantage of the tours on the two brand-new parks that I will be visiting later this season, but more on that in the future.

Have you ever toured a ballpark? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?

My Origin

You may be asking yourself how I, born and raised in sunny southern California managed to find myself in amongst the Cub faithful. Fair question.

To begin with, I grew up going to at least a few Padres games every year, notably with my dad and my grandmother on his side when the Phillies were in town. He had grown up just outside of Philadelphia and my grandmother loved the Phightin' Phils, but I had no real allegiance until the summer of 1992, when I was ten years old.

For some reason, my brother and I decided to put aside some of our weekly allowance that was normally earmarked for Ninja Turtles and spend it on packs of 1992 Score from the local drug store. I remember opening a pack on one Sunday morning after church and finding a card that would change baseball for me.

I don't know what it was about this particular card, but I do remember thinking that it was just about the coolest thing that I had ever seen. I decided then and there that I now had a favorite baseball player. 

So, I now had a favorite baseball player, but my loyalties were still tied loosely to the Padres. Later that summer, it would change for good. 

My grandfather on my Mom's side passed away that June. On Father's Day, no less. He was a Scottish immigrant who had settled outside of Chicago, and displaying a keen acumen, decided that he would be a Cub fan. It was never a huge thing when I was growing up, but WGN was on at his house in the summers and perhaps I subconsciously absorbed the sounds of Harry Caray and Steve Stone and that provided a place for my new Sandberg fanhood to germinate. 

Later that summer we were hiking on vacation in northern California in a small lake town that we had been visiting for years, when I decided to stop for a short water break. While sitting, I looked around me and lo and behold, right behind my rock was sitting a bright blue Cubs cap. I picked it up and looked around. Not a soul but our group. That sealed the deal. I decided that the cap was clearly a sign from my grandfather that I had made the right choice in choosing the Cubs. 

Sentimental pap? Perhaps, but I still believe, to this day, that it was a sign, and I have proudly worn my Cub love on my sleeve ever since. Never wavering through the few good times and the more plentiful trying times. I have since traveled to Chicago in the dead of winter no less than three times to attend the annual Cub Convention and have attended countless Cub games here in California, versus the Padres, Giants and Dodgers. 

So that's my story. What's yours?

Opening Day

Today as baseball celebrates the opening day of the 2013 season, I celebrate an opening of my own. I have long wanted to do a baseball-related blog, but was never able to figure out what exactly I wanted to do with it. After a re-invigoration in my baseball passions earlier this year, I came to the conclusion that I would do a blog full of my baseball adventures.

I am a diehard Cub fan toiling in the orange groves of Southern California, and with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States playing baseball a mere 10 minutes away from my home, I have become a big-time Angel fan by osmosis. 
Thankfully there is enough distance between me and Dodger Stadium to prevent an accidental affinity there.

I also have reawakened my passion for collecting cards and memorabilia, so there will probably be decent coverage of those topics here as well as my musings on anything baseball related that I deem worthy of a writeup. Hopefully you'll join me as I go "tripping baseballs!"