>Subject: Baseball Movies and Team Names > >Is it my imagination, or is it a relatively new phenomenon to find baseball >movies (ones that aren't based on real players' lives anyway) using the >names of real teams? (Eg., the Cubs in ROOKIE OF THE YEAR, the Twins in >LITTLE BIG LEAGUE, the Angels in ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD, u.s.w.). > >I do note exceptions, eg. DAMN YANKEES (which is really about the Washington >Senators--"first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League) and > the original ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD took place with the Pittsburgh Pirates. > >I suspect that marketing and financing play roles in the selection of teams-- >for example, Chicago and Minnesota have been hustling to enlist film projects >in their locations, and none of the teams mentioned above is exactly at the >top of the playoff contenders right now. Thoughts? Interesting point: in BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY and THE NATURAL, we had the Mammoths and the Knights, respectively. Given the proliferation of plugs for products in films, I assume the makers of the recent films you mentioned have entered into some kind of marketing/licensing agreement with the baseball nabobs. Given the plot of DAMN YANKEES, we couldn't have had a fictitious team name. "In football, we get the blitz and the bomb, with the field general marching his troops downfield into pay dirt. In baseball, we have the error, and the sacrifice.....and all we want to do.....is go home...." -George Carlin Leonard Black Wisconsin TechSearch 141 Wendt Library/UW-Madison (608) 262-5913/Fax (608) 262-4739 [log in to unmask] "Eschew obfuscation"