With baseball season in full swing (pun intended), I’m in full summer-time mode now. Watching baseball movies serves to propel me through the season.
There are a lot of things I don’t like about summer, especially in the Midwest, with the humidity and the bugs. The heat never really bothered me; when I was living in New Mexico, it’d get into the nineties and sometimes the hundreds, but with no humidity. I’ve taken hikes in that kind of heat and (mostly) survived.
There are, however, a few things I LOVE about the summer, like the return of the grilling season. Sure, grilling up a steak or pork chops is nice, but keeping it simple with brats and burgers just SCREAMS summer to me, and nothing more so than grilling up some hot dogs.
How can you think of summer and NOT think about hot dogs? Franks are one of the keystones of baseball games, which is one of the things that helps get me through the summer and into my favorite time of year, the fall.
As I’m sure I’ve repeatedly mentioned, I am an avid baseball fan and a rabid Dodger fan. I love the game for all its timeless pastoral greatness. And there are plenty of baseball movies to enhance the experience of watching games.
Since moving to Iowa, it’s been unbearably difficult to watch Dodger games. MLB has so graciously blacked out games for six major league teams- the Cardinals, Royals, Cubs, White Sox, Brewers and Twins, so somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of the Dodgers’ games are blacked out for me. Of the remainder, the bulk of them are played on the west coast, usually starting around 7:00 pm, PDT, which is 9:00 here in Iowa, meaning I’m usually on my way to bed. Of the remaining games I can watch, I’m seeing them play east coast teams, like the New York teams, the Florida teams, Boston, Washington, and so on, but with the new schedule balance, those are few and far between.
To help fill in the gaps of watching games, I often find myself watching baseball movies with the same enthusiasm as I watch games.
But, I can’t just watch any movie at any point during the season. No no no, there’s a certain time that’s appropriate for watching each movie.
For example, the early season is great for watching movies that are bright and funny. Movies like Major League, A League of Their Own, and The Sandlot. Mid-season is the right time to watch movies that have a bit more serious tone, movies like Moneyball and 42. The sunsetting end of the season that brings about my favorite time of year is the perfect time for romantic reflection on the game with movies like Bull Durham, The Natural and For Love of the Game.
On this mid-May afternoon, with Brandy in Oregon leaving me unsupervised, we are now right around a third of the way through the season. In a fit of nostalgia, I decided to shun my responsibilities for a while and put on one of the movies on my list. I’m watching A League of Their Own before resuming my to-do list, which includes a trip to Walmart to pick up a few things for the big trip we have coming up. While there, I will be picking up a package of Ball Park Franks and buns, and accompaniments.
Tonight’s Dodger game is set to start at 8:00, I certainly don’t want to wait that late to eat but having a hot dog as I settle in even to watch the pre-game show after a day of watching baseball movies should make for a fantastic evening.
Much of the remainder of the baseball season will be spent on the road. Some of our stops will make it easier to watch the Dodger games, such as when we’re in Colorado and Oregon while other stops might make it more difficult such as when in Vermont and Maine but rest assured, I will make every attempt to watch any game I can.
And for the times when I can’t, I’ll have the movies.
-Phil