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SPORTS
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Photo by TIM MANDELL
Owen County junior Trey Lenear pitched a complete game 1-hitter
on Saturday against Kentucky Country Day. Lenear struck out 10
batters.
Next
stop, state
Juett
headed to Hanover
Slone
picks Campbellsville
Going
the distance
MBMS
track competes at conference meet
OCHS
goes 1-1 in All A regional
On
the sidelines
Movies,
curses and silliness
Tim
Mandell
There’s a funny
scene in the movie “Fever Pitch,” where Drew Barrymore
is at Fenway Park and gets hit in the head with a foul ball, and
her boyfriend, played by Jimmy Fallon, fails to notice she’s
unconscious, because he’s too busy congratulating the guy
who ended up with the ball.
It’s funny, because it’s a comedy, and we know Drew
Barrymore’s character is fine.
I missed “Fever Pitch” when it came out in theatres.
Actually, I skipped it on purpose.
I had already seen it the first time around — when it was
an English movie (also called “Fever Pitch”) about
a soccer obsessed longtime suffering fan played by Colin Firth,
who begins a relationship with a woman who doesn’t understand
his sports obsession — which is basically the same plot
as the new one, except they moved the story to Boston and made
it about baseball.
Plus, the previews for the more recent version made it look like
a stupid scatterbrain sit-com type film, and those are my least
favorite movies. I hate slapstick.
But when “Fever Pitch” came on HBO, I tuned in, figuring
I’d give it a few minutes, and if it wasn’t any good,
I’d try something else.
As it turns out, Fever Pitch is hilarious, it’s charming,
it’s entertaining, and it’s one of the best sports
related movies to come out in a long time.
And even though the main focus of the movie is the couple’s
relationship, I think the film only works because it’s based
in Boston.
There was something mystical, or spiritual, or whatever, about
Boston’s lack of success in baseball since Babe Ruth was
traded to the Yankees.
The way their fans always seemed to be suffering from so much
losing, it was easy to jump on their bandwagon in 2004 and root
them to victory, just so they would stop whining, and we could
finally put to bed the stupid notion that a sports team can be
cursed.
Plus it was a good story, and it was exciting to see the Red Sox
win the World Series, even though I’m not a fan of the team.
But when the Red Sox won the championship, I almost expected the
world to end.
Of course, it didn’t.
And then last year the White Sox — another bunch of losers
who hadn’t done anything since they cheated way back in
1919 — won the championship.
And still, the world didn’t end.
It’s been a two-year feel-good ride in baseball, but if
the Cubs take the title this year, I’ll make sure to be
watching the series from a bomb shelter.
Because even a bad sports movie franchise wouldn’t push
its luck and go for the feel-good trifecta, without expecting
a disaster.
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