Baseball on the brain

On the first day of every Major League Baseball season, my beloved Baltimore Orioles, by sheer power of alphabetical order, are in first place in the American League East.

Unfortunately, for almost 20 years now, that's about as close as we O's fans can come to bragging. But, with spring around the corner, that's all about to change (yeah, right.)

The Orioles have bolstered their simply woeful bullpen with Danys Baez, Jamie Walker, Scott Williamson and Chad Bradford. The Orioles also traded for right-hander Jaret Wright and signed first baseman/designated hitter Aubrey Huff to a three-year, $20 million deal; outfielder Jay Payton to a two-year, $9.5 million pact, and right-hander Steve Trachsel to a one-year, $3.1 million contract.

OK, I know that not one of these comes close to an A-List player, but baseball is all about dreams, so let me enjoy my moment of delusion. And, for one day, the Orioles being in first place.

From "Half Nelson" to the minors

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks the world needs more baseball. In what could be a very intriguing project, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the team behind "Half Nelson," will write and direct a pic about Dominican baseball.

"Sugar" will look at the promise and broken dreams of a Dominican baseball prospect plucked from his native country to play in the U.S. minor-league system. It will be a fictional tale based on creators' research; it focuses on Miguel "Sugar" Santos, a teenager who ends up far from home playing for a team in the Midwest after showing baseball aptitude in his native country. It's described as a dramatic and cautionary account of the baseball scouting machine with a good-natured character at its center.

And here I thought the definitive movie about minor league baseball had already been made with Brendan Fraser's turn in "The Scout." (In case you have doubts, I am kidding. Give me "Bull Durham" any day.)

Five baseball flicks I can't live without

1. The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg
Though it's been well acknowledged that Jackie Robinson went through a world of shit he certainly didn't deserve, it's been largely overlooked that Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg also suffered lots of abuse as a Jewish player. Aviva Kempner sets out to lionize him and succeeds with this doco, a must-see for anyone who loves baseball.

2. The Natural
This is the one exception I'll allow to this otherwise ironclad rule: If you change the ending of one of my favorite books, I will not support your movie. "The Natural" somehow succeeds with this, however, putting a feel-good spin on Bernard Malamud's novel that just works for me.

3. Eight Men Out
This one should really be subtitled "the movie that proved John Sayles will never have a megahit." With Jon Cusack on board and the story of the 1919 Chicago Blacksox to work with, he may not have made his great box-office breakthrough, but he did turn baseball's blackest eye (so far, at least) into a solid drama.

4. The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars and Motor Kings
I probably would never have seen this little gem if it hadn't been filmed in Macon way back in 1975. Starring Richard Pryor, Billy Dee William and James Earl Jones, this often funny, often touching movie is about a Negro League team that, to rail against the corrupt ownership of the league, sets out on a barnstorming tour against teams across the midwest. If you can still find this on VHS, I recommend it most highly.

5. The Bad News Bears
I'm probably the only person in the world who didn't just flat out hate the remake with Billy Bob Thornton (and yes, I realize that laughing at the wheelchair-bound kid who shows up at practice in a Wheaties-Breakfast of Champions T-shirt probably means I'm damned for eternity), but that's not what I'm talking about here. What made the original so much better is that the kids truly were dirty little castoffs, the kind of genuine losers you just don't get to see often enough, so when they win it's just that much more fun. And, of course, it's just funny as hell.

So, there you have it. And, if you're a long-suffering Orioles fan like me, tune in April 2 at 7:10 p.m. on ESPN2 when Erik Bedard leads the birds into opening day battle against the Twinnies (and, presumably, the unhittable Johan Santana.) What's at stake? The right to say you're in first place for one more day, of course.