Baseball Honeymoon # 4

Well gang, we just keep outdoing ourselves. Every episode of Baseball Honeymoon sets the bar higher, and I am sure you will agree that #4 continues the trend. Of course, when the original bar is somewhere below Death Valley, it’s not too hard to pull off this feat.

Fair warning: there will be no discussion of performance enhancement or steroids on this show.

It’s Oscar time, no not Oscar Gamble, but the Academy Awards-- and the theme of Episode 4 is movies and baseball. We kick things off with Bagels and Boxscores, discussing the remaining thin crop of Free Agents. Lisa and Wayne divide them up into guys who should get multi-years, guys who should take a one-year deal if they get the offer, and guys who should stay home and take care of their grandchildren.

Our first interview comes at 9:12, when Lisa gets erstwhile big league manager Grady Little to talk about his experience on the set of “Bull Durham”. Grady also discusses life after baseball for him and his wife, and their cookbook. Wow…a husband and wife doing a project together. I wonder what THAT feels like.

18:05-Music: “The All-American League Theme” from “A League of Their Own”.

Next at 18:34 comes Trivia, and Lisa gives the answer to last week’s question about “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”. Instead of a new question, we imitate our podcasting idols, Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson of “Filmspotting”, and do a version of their usually hilarious “Massacre Theatre”. We’ll call it “Murderer Theatre”, and you’ll see why. Lisa and Wayne do their very best to destroy the dialogue from a baseball movie, and you guys have to guess what movie that is.

At 24:43 Lisa then gets ex-Minor Leaguer Jim Betzsold to discuss his role in the 1996 epic “The Fan”. We get some insight into what it’s like on a movie set, and what it feels like to beat the crap out of Wesley Snipes repeatedly.

31:50-Music: “I’m Forever Blowing Ballgames”, sung by John Sayles in “Eight Men Out”.

At 32:18 Wayne and Lisa read some Listener Mail; the good news is somebody liked Wayne’s “Song With Orange (and Blue)”. Bad news is somebody also liked “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. Worse news is, Wayne sings a bit of “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. Oh, the humanity!

Curly W (aka Bill Heid) gives us some insight at 38:40 into his unique dialect. Bill has always liked to use baseball metaphors for other items of interest; music and women, in particular.

42:37- Clip: Trailer from “Field of Dreams”.

Our Top 5 baseball movies commences at 43:40 with a guest on hand to do the listing with us. It’s Matty Robinson of the aforementioned “Filmspotting” podcast. To quote Lisa, “We’re not worthy”. Wayne talks to Matty for a bit, gets him to promise that he and Adam won’t sue us for using all their ideas, and then the three of us list our favorite baseball movies. There is much overlap to be sure, but the BH crew do stump the FS guy with their co 2nd ranked pick. Matty provides some great insight into why it is that inaccurate baseball movies irk fans so much.

The three then close things out with a wonderful and heartfelt salute to “The Fan”, which they all agree is the finest film about baseball ever made, maybe the finest film of the last 50 years.
Ain’t sarcasm great?

64:13-Music: “Long Gone”, Hank Williams.

64:23-The honeymooners close out episode 4 with a preview of the next show…kids, we got the immortal Jim Bouton to do a great interview for our books about baseball show, Baseball Honeymoon 5. Raise that bar again!