Now Playing: “Jews and Baseball”
You might have caught word of this around the interweb, but it appears to be a real thing now: Peter Miller’s Jews and Baseball: An American Love Affair has opened in New York and Los Angeles — and will be doing the same in Kansas City today (Friday, the 19th). A general opening will occur sometime in the following weeks.
So far as a proper review goes, it’s with all my heart that I regret not being able to offer one. However, allow me to state with totally undeserved authority five things about the film:
• Sandy Koufax agreed to be interviewed for it. (That’s him at around the 1:53 mark.)
• There appears to be no footage of fly balls clanging off Ryan Braun’s glove. This I find terribly misleading.
• Director Peter Miller has worked pretty extensively with Ken Burns, meaning this film is almost definitely well-crafted.
• It also means that viewers should prepare to be bullied emotionally by musical cues (the hopeful “whoosh” around the 1:28 mark, for example).
• Being bullied by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones is considerably less objectionable.
H/T: Ben Platt at MLB.com
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
Love Ron Howard wearing the Yomiuri Giants cap, must have got it that day when he was in Tokyo promoting a film and tried to catch Tom Hanks’ first pitch.