Tuesday, January 26, 2010

TEGWAR - The Exciting Game Without Any Rules

For all of baseball's resonance in our culture, the paucity of quality baseball films is surprising. Hollywood is 0-2 on perhaps the most natural subject for an epic film - Babe Ruth - having produced two truly horrible biopics about the Bambino, starring William Bendix and John Goodman respectively. Spike Lee finally gave up after years of trying to get his Jackie Robinson movie funded - even after having secured the participation of Denzel Washington in the starring role. Fairing somewhat better were a pair of late 80s films touching in different ways on the 1919 Black Sox scandal, the quasi-mystical "Field of Dreams" and John Sayles' "Eight Men Out". "Bull Durham" also rates a mention as an enjoyable romp through the minor leagues.

One of my personal favorites is "Bang The Drum Slowly" from 1973. The film is based on Mark Harris' novel (a bare bones television adaptation with Paul Newman had been attempted in 1956). The film introduced many people to Robert De Niro, and his sensitive understated performance is a revelation to watch considering the roles that he would become known for later ("Mean Streets" was released shortly after "Bang The Drum Slowly" and would form the template for his characters for years to come).

In the film, De Niro's character is Bruce Pearson, a catcher of modest talent and even more modest intellect. Pearson forms an unlikely friendship with pitcher Henry "Author" Wiggen, wonderfully played by Michael Moriarity, who passes for somewhat of the intellectual on the team, having written a book and set up an insurance business on the side. (Some thought Wiggen's character was based on Tom Seaver). Henry's newfound loyalty to Bruce is based on a secret they share about the doomed catcher's health. We get to see how this friendship is played out against the dynamic of a major league ballclub during the throes of a pennant race.

A sublot of the film is Wiggen's holdout (this in the days before free agency, of course). Wiggen wouldn't report to camp unless he was paid the ungainly sum of - wait for it - $127,500 a year. How times have changed.

The film wisely steers clear of too many action sequences (footage of the 1969 and 1970 World Series was used) but instead focuses on the more meditative rhythms of the baseball life, and the tribal nature of professional baseball players: The clubhouse, spring training, etc. One of the enjoyable aspects of the film is the card game Tegwar (The Exciting Game Without Any Rules) which is a time-honored way for ballplayers to separate suckers from their money. Pearson - not being considered mentally agile enough to help in the scam - is not welcome at the Tegwar games. It is a sign of Wiggen's increasing loyalty to his teammate that he after learning his secret he refuses to play Tegwar without including the catcher.

The film was shot in 1972, and both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium were used as locations for the fictional New York Mammoths. (Mets fans would be interested to know that the Kiner's Korner set was used for the singing players scene). In an interesting side note related to our specific area of interest, the actual last Yankee flannel uniforms were used by the Mammoths (the emblem was changed on the home pinstripes, the road "NEW YORK"s were left unchanged). I would also like to take a moment to praise Vincent Gardenia, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the crusty and suspicious Mammoths skipper, Dutch Schnell.


Vincent Gardenia as N.Y. Mammoths manager Dutch Schnell.

Anyone wanting to see a more meditative film about baseball players than say, "Major League", will be well-rewarded with this nuanced and heartfelt baseball film.

About the jersey: The Mammoth home pinstripe flannel jersey is available with Robert De Niro's #15, or with the numeral of your choice. It is specially-priced at $99 for a limited time (reg. $185).

20 comments:

  1. Interesting coincidence that Pearson wore #15 in the movie and met a tragic end, same as Thurman Munson did in real life a few years later.

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    1. Player numbers were given out to match then-current Yankees so their action footage could be used. You will actually see Munson tagging a runner out at the plate. So DeNiro wore Munson’s No.15, Moriarty wore Mel Stottlemyre’s No. 30 and Vincent Gardenia Ralph Houk’s No. 35. Other players wore Yankee numbers according to their positions as well. An even funnier thing was using Shea Stadium as the Mammoths’ home field when the Yankees would have to play there in 1974 and 1975. Also, filming was done in the clubhouses and lower corridors of both Yankee and Shea Stadiums, a fact readily apparent to anyone who played or worked there.

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  2. It is The EXCITING Game Without Any Rules. Also, the movie really works because Harris himself wrote the screenplay and captured the stilted language which is ostensibly written by Author. Check out the whole series of books. They are beautiful and funny.

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  3. For anyone who has seen the movie Sugar, they would automatically put it as one of the top baseball movies of all time. Especially in this era of Latino ballplayers....

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  4. Ben and Ron: Title has been corrected. My mistake. Thanks...ed.

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  5. One of my favorite movies of all time -- baseball movie or not.

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    1. I start crying right away and am a mess by the end. ”I rag on no one” line finally does me in! I'm crying now just writing this.

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  6. Ugh. Why do you suppose they updated the screenplay to the early 1970s? Having read the book first, I loved the 50s-era innocence, and found the updates distracting -- particularly the leisure suits, muscle cars and mutton-chop sideburns.

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  7. Another possible inspiration for Wiggen might be pitcher Jim Brosnan, author of "The Long Season" and "Pennant Race."

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  9. I was born in '83, and came upon this in 2001 after reading The Southpaw. Why doesn't anyone remember this movie? Like you say, the list of quality baseball movies is very short, and yet nobody of any age knows of it when I mention it.

    PDizzle: I have to disagree. I thought it was very well done. I become irritated when a movie tries too hard to emulate the book it was adapted from. The best book adaptations stand alone as their own product. Movies don't have the same qualities of the written word and vice-versa.

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  10. Michael Moriarity and Robert DeNiro--what a win-win combination. Moriarity may be a nut (I only saw him in person once, and his rudeness surprised me), but he is brilliant. If you're a fan of his acting, see The Last Detail--Moriarity and Jack Nicholson. Moriarity steals a scene from Nicholson, and nobody steals scenes from Nicholson.

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  11. PDizzle, a.) Sports movies, owing to the logistics of renting stadiums & crowds & trying to have actors athletic abilities match scripted action, often cost a lot-esp in the days before CGI & b.) Because period movies are expensive, one involving a sports team will have your crowds in period dress & hairstyle, period airports, hotels & train stations along wit period planes & trains etc c.) Somewhere, sports movies got a bad rap as unprofitable-the producers probably picked the easiest choice, moving it to present day

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  12. Great movie! Whenever I see a Yankees game on tv, I often think of three 1st basemen in pinstripes: Chris Chambliss, Donnie Baseball...and #12 Danny Aiello.

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  13. Sonic Forces is a disappointing rehash of everything that has been done wrong with the Sonic franchise in the past. There were some good ideas here, but none of them were executed in a way that was fun or enjoyable.
    See more review: Jurassic World Evolution
    Smoke and Sacrifice
    Moonlighter

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  14. I think Bang The Drum Slowly did not do well because another similar movie came out about the same time: I Am Third, which was a true story about football player Brian Piccalo and Gayle Sayers. I’ll leave it to critics to say which one was better, but I feel like maybe not as many people saw BTDS.

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  15. This a very wonderful post about uniforms in baseball and why each team needed a different one then the other team. Thanks for the share. Have a wonderful day.
    Classic Body Worx

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  16. The Wiggen character was NOT based on Seaver. The novel was published in 1956. Seaver was twelve.

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