BASEBALL COACHES UNPLUGGED

Exploring the Magic of Baseball and Cinema: Behind the Scenes of 'Field of Dreams'

• Ken Carpenter • Season 3 • Episode 16

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Join us for a captivating journey into the world of baseball and cinema as we welcome Ben Orlando, the charismatic host of the Midnight Library of Baseball podcast. Ben reveals the heart and soul behind the iconic film "Field of Dreams," sharing insights from his exclusive interviews with the film's actors, director, and crew. This episode promises a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes stories, from the camaraderie among the cast to the serendipitous involvement of Kevin Costner, all of which contributed to the film's enduring impact on American culture and its nostalgic ties to baseball.

The magic of baseball comes alive as we explore the personal stories and historical narratives that shape this timeless sport. Hear about the overlooked tales in baseball history, like the mystery of Lou Gehrig's disease, and imagine a world where female knuckleball pitchers take center stage. Ben shares how revisiting beloved interests can reignite passion and transform personal challenges into compelling podcast narratives, illustrating the powerful intersections of sport, storytelling, and human connection.

Finally, we take you behind the camera to uncover the challenges and triumphs of bringing "Field of Dreams" to life, from a historic drought that threatened the cornfields to the innovative solutions that followed. Listen in as we celebrate the dedication of key figures like W.P. Kinsella and Phil Alden Robinson, whose vision and passion helped create this unforgettable cinematic experience. This is a heartfelt celebration of the magic that happens when baseball and storytelling collide, offering inspiration and joy to fans everywhere.

Join the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast where an experienced baseball coach delves into the world of high school and travel baseball, offering insights on high school baseball coaching, leadership skills, hitting skills, pitching strategy, defensive skills, and overall baseball strategy, while also covering high school and college baseball, recruiting tips, youth and travel baseball, and fostering a winning mentality and attitude in baseball players through strong baseball leadership and mentality.


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Speaker 1:

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again, but baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.

Speaker 2:

Hello and welcome to Baseball Coaches Unplugged. I'm your host, Coach Ken Carpenter, and on today's podcast we go behind the scenes of one of baseball's great movies Field of Dreams. I sit down with the host of Midnight Library of Baseball podcast, Ben Orlando. He takes us through his interviews with the actors, director and crew as they share the remarkable stories about a cornfield, the game of baseball and wanting to play catch with your dad welcome to baseball coaches unplugged with coach ken carpenter.

Speaker 3:

Presented by athlete one. Baseball coaches unplugged is a podcast for baseball coaches With 27 years of high school baseball coaching under his belt, here to bring you the inside scoop on all things baseball, from game-winning strategies and pitching secrets to hitting drills and defensive drills. We're covering it all. Whether you're a high school coach, college coach or just a baseball enthusiast, we'll dive into the tactics and techniques that make the difference on and off the field. Discover how to build a winning mentality, inspire your players and get them truly bought into your game. Philosophy Plus, get the latest insights on recruiting, coaching, leadership and crafting a team culture that champions productivity and success. Join Coach every week as he breaks down the game and shares incredible behind-the-scenes stories. Your competitive edge starts here, so check out the show weekly and hear from the best coaches in the game. On Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

Speaker 2:

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Speaker 2:

I'm trying something different on today's podcast. I decided to sit down and talk to Ben Orlando, who is an author. He writes novels and he puts out an unbelievable podcast called Midnight Library Baseball, and if you're looking for a podcast to listen to, this is one I would highly recommend you add to your subscription listening rotation. He does a phenomenal job and he just tells a great story, and it's about baseball, and you're looking for something to listen to over the winter. I think you will really find that this is a podcast that is just great to listen to, and I brought him on to discuss everything that he did with Field of Dreams and he had a chance to talk with actors and film directors and the crew and the crew and they tell a great story of what happens in a movie when it's being filmed. And what most people don't realize is all the actors really, really enjoyed making this movie, unlike what you hear about in some movies when they're being made and with christmas right around the corner, here it's mid-december.

Speaker 2:

As I did this recording, I wanted to. Everybody gets a chance to spend time with your family and friends over the holiday season and you know it, this movie, you know, really tugs at the heartstrings. At the very end, and you know, being someone who's 61 years old, you know I would love to go back and have one last chance to play catch with my dad. And you know, if you have a chance to play with your son or daughter or get a chance to throw with your dad one more time, I would say take advantage of it. And so I really think that Ben Orlando will tell you a great story about Field of Dreams and what I'm going to do, differently than any other podcast I'm doing, I'm going to share what it's like prior to recording and jump right into the actual interview. So you'll hear a little bit at the beginning where we discuss some things, and I decided not to edit that out and let's see what you think.

Speaker 2:

If you enjoy it, let me know, if you don't, let me know too. I'm always looking to improve. But this is ben orlando with midnight library of baseball. I, I. I stumbled upon your podcast and I was just wow, I, I'm. You know, I've been doing it for three years now and the way you do it, oh yeah, that's blows my mind. It's, it's so good.

Speaker 4:

Thank you and like you're talking like season one and season two, or does one?

Speaker 2:

I, I jumped in on the field of dreams, okay, and that's kind of the whole thing, because my podcast is interviews with baseball coaches from high school to major leagues and I I thought when I came across yours, I was like I wanted I would love to get this out to all the coaches that listen and I mean I just think that I, I, I love the movie and I just was like, wow, this is, this is so good for me. I mean I, you know, I love how you do it, your style, and I, I wish I had that ability. Are you a a one man operation or do you have?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's just me, just you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's impressive.

Speaker 4:

Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

I'm a one man operation and I'm nowhere near the level of what you're doing, that's for sure.

Speaker 4:

It takes a while for sure, like all the different pieces, and I mean so for you. What is it that made you start doing your podcast?

Speaker 2:

I'm a high school baseball coach here in Ohio and a teacher a high school baseball coach here in Ohio and a teacher During COVID I ended up having to take disability retirement because I had to have my large intestines and colon removed, so I was so sick that I couldn't no longer teach. So I've been coaching for 27 years and I was like I I gotta find a way to stay around the game, and you know, and so I was like I'm gonna try a podcast. I had no clue what I was doing. But uh, you know, here it is three years later and I mean I've had everybody from major league coaches, you know all kinds of different people. So so it's been. You know it's, it's. It helps me personally and you know, there are just so many people with great stories and that's that's what I, that I enjoy probably more than anything.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah. How are you doing with your health?

Speaker 2:

Uh well, I, I just I was at the Cleveland Clinic last week and things aren't going so great, you know. So I, you know, I'm kind of waiting to speak with the surgeons again next week to see what's happening. And you know, you just kind of just kind of deal with it, you know, I mean, that's, that's, that's life.

Speaker 4:

I guess you could say yeah, well, I mean, you said our age difference. How old are you?

Speaker 2:

I'm 61. Okay, you know, so I'm. You know, this is the only thing I can do because with my illness, you know, I I get outside for a little bit, you know, maybe go to dinner and things, but I pretty much, because of how sick I am, I have, I have to be at home quite often.

Speaker 4:

So yeah, Connection to the world.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, pretty much, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

But, but I mean your podcast.

Speaker 2:

I just shared it with one of my assistant coaches and he's got a long drive and you know he's gonna be tuning in for sure on his long drive, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

But but yeah, I, you know, like I said, I appreciate you taking the time to do this and it's it means the world to me. You, you know, and like a lot of my guests, I don't know if they realize how much it means to get a chance to to do this and them to take time out of their day to to uh to be on my podcast, and the fact that you know we're in a situation where my software wasn't working on my end and you're now uh, offering up your, your software to me, yeah, well, I, yeah, I mean I appreciate you saying that and yeah, I mean it means a lot, that it means a lot to you and just hearing that and yeah yeah, and you know, I, I kind of, I I went through as many of the podcasts as I could and, um, you know, jotted down some questions, you know, and if you know we could, we could kind of go through them.

Speaker 2:

And if it takes a direct, whatever directions it goes, I, you know, I appreciate that. Yeah, you know we can go ahead and get rolling, cause I'm sure you're probably a pretty busy guy. So, yeah, yeah, well, I, um, you know, when, when I have a guest on the podcast, I, I, um, I love when they share a a great story and you know, you you host the Midnight Library of Baseball and the way you tell a story in your podcast, it almost feels like you're right there in it, almost like a documentary, if you will. And what inspired you to come up with this podcast?

Speaker 4:

So I am. I mean I've done a lot of things, but I'm a writer, I write novels, I write short stories and over the last I mean I kind of gotten away from baseball. So I love baseball as a kid baseball cards, the Red Sox, weed bogs and I lived in Pennsylvania, in Bethleh, where we got the Yankees. So I would watch the Yankees and really just enjoyed watching them. And over the years I left the country in 2000, was away for a while and really lost touch with sports. Lost touch with sports. And I came back to baseball and sports probably seven years ago, six, seven years ago, and I started reading baseball novels again and every summer it's like it was just the season and I would find all the baseball novels I could find. And you know, as I'm writing and I'm always writing novel ideas and starting novels and stories, and I would start these baseball novels. And it's not easy for me. I run into a lot of my own stuff when I'm writing this. One idea came out about huh, why aren't there more knuckleball pitchers? And two, why, you know why, isn't there a female knuckleball pitcher? And it feels like this you know, this kind of bridges the gap and so I wrote this novel in a couple months and it really annoys me in films and you know, when they show writers, novelists, they're just cranking it out and they just sit down and write out this novel and it's done, which is not the process. It takes months and years, but in this case, like I had a first draft in a couple of months and it was the easiest, get an agent and like we talked and moving it through the process and she's like, yeah, maybe you can come up with an idea of building your audience, something that you love to do, and I'd done podcasts before. I had this podcast called history repeating itself, just similar in format. So it was about history, you know the overlooked and interviewing professors and experts. And so I came up with this idea because, you know, I really found my love again of baseball and these overlooked stories, like in you know, one of my first episodes is did Lou Gehrig have Lou Gehrig's disease? And really getting into these questions. And you know the knuckleball why aren't there more knuckleball pitchers? And getting into the stories and the emotions.

Speaker 4:

And as I was doing that, I started I found this um article on doc Graham Moonlight Graham and he was a real person and that blew my mind and so I did a whole, I did an episode on um, the could have been so. Kurt russell, the actor, uh. John dillinger, the gangster, uh and um and doc graham, you know, like they were really good baseball players, and Doc Graham got his big break. And here's this real guy. It's like it's amazing enough. It's this fictional story, but to me when you see something that you think is fiction, it's a great story, and then you find that it really happened, like that's, that's, that's amazing.

Speaker 4:

And so I put that together and I just, little by little it was inside of me coming up and, like field of dreams, this voice, and it sounds cheesy, but it started to come up in me, this idea of really delving into this um, this project, this movie, and I started to just find story after story and it was just the tip of the iceberg and so at some point I'm like I want to do an entire season and there have been three or four documentaries on Field of Dreams, but they're not long.

Speaker 4:

They're an hour, maybe a little longer, and they can't even touch all the stories that are here. So I wanted to go all the way back, the very beginning, to where this idea came from, this seed of a story that turned into a novel, that turned into a film, and that's what I've been doing. And now I'm coming up against my own things too, my own history with my father and my emotions, and, at this point, sharing these intersections of emotions and baseball. That's what I want to do, because how Field of Dreams impacts people. It allows people who are shut down and cut off. It allows them to connect again with their feelings, whether it's sadness, whether it's, you know, these happy feelings with their family or fathers, and that's what I want to do. So that's the, that's the impetus.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know I it's funny you mentioned the knuckleball mentioned the knuckleball. My most listened to episode is with an Army buddy of mine that when he got out of the Army he decided to attend Florida State and he was from Connecticut and he's like I, always wanted to go to Florida State and by chance he saw a Florida State offer to try out to students and he up and they ended up keeping him and he was just blown away. That you know. He had no idea how hard he could throw a baseball and he was throwing 90. He ended up signing a professional contract and he thought I got to come up with something different and he started throwing a knuckleball and it took off for him and the stories he tells about.

Speaker 2:

He lied about his age during a tryout and they ended up signing him and the way he really stuck with the knuckleball and he ended up working with Hoyt Wilhelm and the Yankees. He ended up actually when he was in their minor system throwing BP whenever the Yankees were facing Tim Wakefield and you know the GM would bring him in. He would throw BP and take a shower, go sit up in the GM's box and he ended up saying he threw BP and a lot of guys wouldn't want to take it because they'd like I'd rather go 0 for 4 than try to hit a knuckleball. And but Strawberry, he said he threw to him for probably a half hour and he goes. He couldn't touch me and he goes and like in the first inning he goes out there and hits a upper deck shot off of Sparks and he's like this guy's in the big leagues and or you know and I and I can't. It wasn't Sparks, I'm sorry, it was, I think it was Wakefield, I believe, if I remember correct, and he goes and he couldn't hit me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, quite, you know, made it to the big league level and you know the other side of it is. I grew up in eastern ohio in a small town called bel-air and the next town right up against me, phil and joe necro, oh, really grew up, you know, right, you know just a couple miles from where I lived and you know the stories that come from back there and, yeah, the two probably greatest knuckleballers, brother combo, out there yeah or not, brother combo, like they're just yeah, yeah, that's, that's awesome but uh, yeah, so that's great to you know, that's great to hear how you you did that.

Speaker 2:

But, um, when you know you started doing the series on, you know what, in what in my opinion is the greatest baseball movie, field of Dreams, you know you take them behind the scenes with that movie, what you know, all the different stories you come across. What was your biggest takeaway?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, um, one of the running threads of this movie is that it shouldn't have happened. And that's another. And I, I love those stories too, like there are so many reasons why this shouldn't have happened. And people, first you have wp cancella and you know his push, his drive. And then you have WP Kinsella and his push, his drive, and then you have Lawrence Kesenich, who's the editor.

Speaker 4:

I mean, there's an addition here too, but Lawrence Kesenich pretended to be an editor, like an actual editor, because he was young and so he lied about that and then hawked Kinsella into turning his short story into a novel because he loved it so much, I mean. And Kesenik, when he was turned on to this story, he just read a sentence about the short story. It wasn't even the short story and he's like this is amazing, no-transcript, or even five times and given up, this would never have existed. But all these people who really persevered and they had this vision, it was important to them and I feel a little bit like that too as I'm doing this. It's just like, yeah, I really want to do this and I really want to finish it and that, that story, I mean, that's incredible. Um, but all the, all the emotional stories and all the father son behind the scenes stories Um you know that's the.

Speaker 2:

That's what jumps out to me is I mean baseball's almost secondary, because of the message that comes from it yeah yeah yeah, and I, I you know I look at it. I you know that that scene there at the end is just that's amazing. How that?

Speaker 4:

uh, you know, they, they, they talk about everything that goes on throughout the movie, but ultimately it's about him and his dad yeah, yeah, yeah, and it all builds up to that too, right, it's like you need all those initial pieces so that it has that impact. Yeah, but it is, it's it's father's son. And I mean my last um, I mean actually the episode I'm I'm going to release. Next, there's a story in there about so you have don lansing, who's who's the farmer who owns part of this field in Iowa, right, and then you have Al Ames Camp, who owns the other part of the field. You have two guys because the field's split, and so you have these two farmers and Don Lansing becomes this kind of surrogate father to Dwyer Brown who plays John Kinsella, right, because Dwyer's father died just before he started filming. And then Al Ames camp when he was on his deathbed and when he was dying in the hospital, he asked his wife to to call um.

Speaker 4:

Wendell Jarvis, the head of the Iowa film office, had tried to contact Kevin Costner, and this was 13 years later. This was nine. This was 2001. Um, I think, and, and this was 13 years later, this was night, this was 2001, um, I think, and uh, and kevin costner was overseas filming and he he got this message and he called him at three in the morning he called al ames camp, like, and he was able to talk to him before he died. And like it, it's, it's, and these stories are incredible, these connections to people and the kindness, the generosity and everyone I've talked to Phil Alden Robinson, timothy Busfield, who played Mark, the brother-in-law, dwyer Brown All these people are just so kind and so generous and still so excited to talk about this movie.

Speaker 2:

That happened 35 years ago, well, isn't it? You know, from listening to your episodes it's like they talk about when they first met in the church. Yeah, do the read how it was like they were all blown away, is that right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, they didn't know until they came together and read the script and everybody said the script was amazing, like in terms of scripts, and some people I talked to said in all these years it was the greatest script they'd read. And they read thousands of screenplays, thousands of scripts. There was something about the way that Phil Alden Robinson adapted the novel but also added his own elements and move things around, and so the feeling that came up in this church and it's a church, you know, it's like it already has this atmosphere it was this buzz in the air that they took with them to iowa, like it was something special well they, they put together an amazing cast.

Speaker 2:

You know, costner, james, earl jones, bart lancaster are the big stars. But um, the field itself and the corn and the house are also critical elements of this movie and um, they are a big part of the, the success of the movie. I think, and could you share the uh, the, the issues they had with the corn Cause. That was critical to the, to the whole movie.

Speaker 4:

Yeah Well, this was Iowa was experienced, and it was not just Iowa, it was a huge portion of the United States in 1988, going up into Canada. This drought that happened, and it was the biggest drought since the Dust Bowl, the 1930s. And so they couldn't grow corn. Nobody around them could grow corn, and executive producer brian frankish. He was like there's no irrigation around, and he would. They would travel to these other farms, like why aren't you irrigating your corn? And the people were like the the lord will provide, and you know, we want to just rely on god. And so they weren't. There was no irrigation.

Speaker 4:

And so Brinkish took out an insurance policy on the corn, and I don't know how much exactly it was, but he ended up getting hundreds of thousands of dollars back that he used to water the fields and also to pay for this lost time because they had to wait. Also to pay for this lost time because they had to wait. Um, and they ordered all this fake corn from south korea, like all the corn that there existed in the world. They ordered all that. They didn't end up using it, and then the corn shoots up taller than kevin costner. So now he has to stand on a platform as he's walking around and it's all these little things that you don't notice that are just really cool. You know that that are happening, that they're thinking about.

Speaker 2:

Well, like any movie, some of the actors, they're really not the first pick and you know, I've read stories about great movies and they're like well, actually this person could have been in that movie. What are some of the people that you remember, that you know, for example, kevin Costner. He, he wasn't the original pick. Is that correct?

Speaker 4:

Yeah Well, they didn't think he would. They didn't think he would do it. One because he'd already done a baseball movie in Bull Durham, and and two, he was already engaged in a project. So they just like he wasn't even a consideration. But then, uh, somebody working with Phil Alden Robinson ran into Kevin Costner in a restaurant and slipped him the script and Kevin Costner read it and he's like, next morning he met with Phil Alden Robinson for breakfast, and there you go, and it was Robin Williams who was considered, and I don't know who else. I remember reading something else about somebody else, but yeah, that was so, you know, and it's like it seems like Kevin Costner will do as many baseball movies as he can. He's done quite a few.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and he. The one thing about him is he looks like you know he's played the game. You know, and that's the frustrating part when you watch a movie about sports, and then sometimes there's actors that you know you could tell they weren't athletes. And with Costner, you know he's believable because of Bull Durham and being Billy Chappell for the love of the game. Yeah, rod dado at usc, the hall of fame baseball coach, and how they, uh did they? They sent somebody out there to have him to talk him into working with some of the actors. Is that correct?

Speaker 4:

uh-huh, yeah, yeah, well, that's the, that's the, that's brian frankish, who was the production manager, executive producer, and he this was early on, so it was like Phil Alden Robinson, the writer-director, and he has Brian Frankish and a couple crew members from a previous film and they're putting everybody together and Phil Alden Robinson says I want Rod Dato to Robinson and said I want Rod Dado, I want him to come on board and really gather these actors, slash baseball players. They also wanted people who kind of had a certain look, kind of older, gruff, kind of walked around like players from the 1920s and 1930s. They wanted Dado then to kind of walked around like players from the 1920s and 1930s, right, and they wanted Dado then to help them along and turn them into old-time ballplayers. And so Ryan Frankish never met the guy he goes to meet, rod Dado. And Rod Dado's like your name's Frankish, and Frankish said yeah.

Speaker 4:

He's like did your dad go toish? And Frankish said yeah. He's like did your dad go to USC? And Frankish said yeah. And Dato's like well, I went to USC in 1935, and your father was my best friend, wow. And Brian Frankish, his father went to war a few months after Frankish was born, 1943. And he died in 1944 in the Battle of the Bulge, and so he never met his father and he sat down with Dado and heard stories about this man he never met. And that's a Field of dream story, right? Yeah, exactly right behind the scenes yeah, and that's.

Speaker 2:

You know that. Uh, you you talk about the cast and they. They seem like they they from from your interviews with with. They really enjoyed being around each other. And you know, the one that really jumped out to me is Timothy Busfield, because he actually was a legit baseball player and he played the brother and and you know he would joke and get James Earl Jones laughing because he was imitating Burt Lancaster. Could you share the hot dog story? I guess that's a big part.

Speaker 4:

He would just joke around and he says inappropriately, because it's like during scenes, while they're shooting, he's imitating Burt Lancaster and like doing his voice and making James Earl Jones laugh from his belly and making james earl jones laugh from his belly right and just kind of breaking things up.

Speaker 4:

Uh, and a lot of people like to do burt lancaster and ryan frankish, who I just talked about, who you know, uh, didn't know his father. He kind of, when I sat down with him, it was cool because he kind of has a Burt Lancaster feel, like the way that he talks, he's very, he's very, uh, very controlled and he has this presence about him and this deep voice as he talks and deliberate. And so that was. That was cool, um, but yeah, um, yeah, timothy Busfield, he really enjoyed his time and a lot of the people, like you said, they really enjoyed their time Meanwhile, phil, a little bit out of this depression and really create this positive environment. But there was a lot of camaraderie, a lot of joy on the set, according to the people I talked to according to the people I talked to.

Speaker 2:

Well, could you explain how they filmed the car scene where all the cars were coming to the field.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, and that was a really, really fun thing to talk about with Brian Frankish, because he organized it all and he put an ad in the paper to get all these people to come for free. And they assembled on this ball, on this other baseball field I don't know if it was the Little League field or high school field, but they had to coordinate, they had to shut down everything within miles because you were getting these aerial shots and actually that night there were five or six games were planned like night games. So they had to talk to everybody and cancel all those games so they could turn all those lights out. And so they used one of those fields to gather everybody and it was thousands of people, thousands of locals, and this is Iowa, in the middle of nowhere. All these people are coming together.

Speaker 4:

They had picnics, they had games, it was kind of like a fair they put together. And then at some point they had a radio station in, you know, the farmhouse, everybody, and Brian Frankish got on the loudspeaker and he read James Earl Jones's People Will Come speech and he told them and that's all of you. And you know, all of you have come and now it's time for you to do your part, and so they communicated to them. They had you know the logistics is kind of amazing because they had you know, crew and policemen on the roads.

Speaker 4:

They had, uh, they had mechanics like, uh, you know, kind of like triple a in case cars would break down, because these cars were out there on that road for hours and they were just sitting there right waiting, and then, um, they did several shots, several takes, and phil alden robinson came up with the idea of having them turn their lights on and off like intermittently, so that from an aerial shot it looked like they were slowly moving forward and it's a really cool effect to the final shot. But it was a huge organizational achievement Because at the time, you know, there's no CGI, no special effects, really. I mean there are, but everything that happened was there, like all these 1,500 cars were there.

Speaker 2:

All these people were there. Now Ray Liotta in the scene he's. It's about Shoeless Joe Jackson and he plays Shoeless Joe. And was he a baseball player?

Speaker 4:

I guess no no, he played soccer, so he was not a baseball player. And there there was a little bit like some things I read and people I talked to, like Kevin Costner, he was kind of chomping at the bit because he's a baseball player, right, he wants to play and show his skills and he's pitching against Ray Liotta, who doesn't have a lot of baseball skill. And that's where Rod Dato came in. He tried to help him and so what you see is the product of Rod Dato really coaching him and kind of shaping him. But they tried to make him a left-handed batter like Shoeless Joe, because Shoeless Joe was left-handed, but shoeless joe, because shoeless joe was left-handed, but he just he couldn't do it. And they're like we'd rather have him look competent as a right-handed batter than incompetent as a left-handed batter. And you know, as you know, people who've watched have issues with that.

Speaker 4:

it's like, oh, you haven't represented shoeless joe accurately but that's, that's hollywood right yeah, well, I mean, they thought about it because I talked to the casting director, marjorie simpkin. She's like the most important thing that I look for is presence. Right, is this person really filling the role? Are you emotionally affected by them? Like that's? And this movie again, it's not about baseball, it's like baseball is a vehicle to get to this emotional point. So when she saw Ray Liotta and they brought him in, he had presence, he really brought this emotional effect and so that superseded any kind of. Does he bat right, lefty, you know, any kind of? Does he have a southern accent, which he also didn't right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah, it's hard to imagine ray leota with a southern accent, especially since you see him in all the gangster type movies right, right right but, uh, you know the the thing that I, you know, I think about with that movie is it was so well done and you know, james Earl Jones at the time was, you know, the big Star Wars, you know voice of Darth Vader, and was there anything that, were there any stories that came from how they got James Earl Jones to play that role and be a part of the movie?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, well, I mean, this is why you need hours. I feel like to tell the story, because it's not that they just got James Earl Jones, but if you read the book Shoeless Joe, the novel, it was, uh, the the reclusive writer was JD Salinger and who wrote Catcher in the Rye, and so he was the author. But in real life JD Salinger was still alive and he did not want to be first in the book and second in a movie. So he threatened the lawsuit and Phil Alden Robinson, who did the adaptation, he said you know, I didn't really care about the lawsuit.

Speaker 4:

Here's this guy who said, over and over again I just want to be left alone. And you know, with all due respect to WP Kinsella and this book, he's like I want to honor J, to honor jd salinger's wishes, and leave him out. So he was watching this play on broadway fences, which is also has baseball in it, and he saw james earl jones and he said, hmm, it's like what would it be like if kevin costner tried to kidnap james earl jones? Right, he pictured that scene and he's like that'd be good.

Speaker 4:

And so, um, then James Earl Jones, his wife at the time read the script and she's like you have to do this movie, uh, and she said but you know, there's this really good speech in here but they'll probably cut it out because that's what they do and they didn't right. He got to tell, he got to give this memorable speech and he loved this. And James Earl Jones said in interviews that of all the films he did and he did many, many films, many plays he's like field of dreams is one of the most memorable. To me is one of the most special that I've done.

Speaker 2:

That's. That's amazing, considering what, considering what he's done as an actor. Yeah, but you know I'm a big movie buff and I was fortunate there was a movie that's called Gibsonburg that, you know, it wasn't like you-time movie or anything, but it's a true story about a high school team here in Ohio that had a terrible season and then when it came time for the state tournament, everything went their way and they ended up winning a state championship and they filmed a lot of it here in central Ohio. And a buddy of mine called me up and said, hey, we need an umpire for a scene during the state championship game and I had umpired before. And he goes won't you come down? I was like, yeah, I have nothing else to do and I end up having a call at first base.

Speaker 2:

That is a critical part of the, the state championship. And you know, my 15 seconds of fame was actually probably more about like three or four seconds. And just watching how they try to make a movie and they kept shooting the scene over and over and over and I kept saying to myself, why don't they just try this? But you know I'm not a director, so I just kept doing it, you know. But it's amazing how that works out, you know, and what goes into just making a movie.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so you got a taste of just how long it takes and like you never see that in the final cut right.

Speaker 2:

No, no, and you know. Talk about the final cut. What was the movie was basically meant to be a comedy, right, I mean, that's what that's what Wyatt Brown said.

Speaker 4:

And Phil Alden Robinson, um, and it's funny, they kind of they disagree on uncertain things and have different versions and um, yeah, but Phil Alden robinson, he'd done romantic comedies before and he sees it as a comedy, uh, a whodunit kind of mystery. Uh, I mean, it's interesting to have to label it these things. And dwyer brown said you know it's in the fantasy section, which you know that makes sense. But it's like when I think of Field of Dreams, I don't know, fantasy doesn't come up. It feels to me like a drama, you know, and a baseball movie and there are these fantastical elements to it. But there were apparent, according to Dwyer Brown, there were a lot more jokes in it that they ended up cutting out and it's like it's interesting, like, as they're filming, phil alden robinson got a feel for where it it should be going and it kind of moved itself along into into a certain path.

Speaker 2:

So, yes, definitely well, you know your podcast, the midnight library of baseball. It doesn't just cover field of dreams and you know it, you, you got a lot of great stories that, uh, and you have a unbelievable way of telling that story. What are some other episodes that you'd say, hey, you might want to check these out. These are, these are pretty good.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, well, the whole first season. I have, I think, 25 episodes. That it's not Field of Dreams and then so after this season I'll be going back to that. You know really telling these baseball stories. Like, we already talked about the knuckleball, there's an episode in season one about the knuckleball and you know the whole question of why aren't there more knuckleball pitchers, why haven't there been more? Because here's a pitch.

Speaker 4:

One of the great barriers in baseball, especially for pitchers, is power. If you can't throw over 90 miles per hour, then you're done. And here's this pitch where it doesn't take power. In fact, you're trying to do the opposite. And anybody really who can throw a baseball has the capability of throwing a knuckleball and using it to success. So it really opens the door to all these people who have been cut off before. So like, why isn't there more effort? And there are some schools. I think there's a school, a knuckleball uh Academy in California. But like, to me it's not just a question about the knuckleball, but like, yeah, then you know, women can play baseball. People who can't, don't have a ton of power in certain areas, can compete and it's about something else I'm like that.

Speaker 4:

That's really interesting. And I mentioned lou gehrig. Um, you know, did lou gehrig have lou gehrig's disease and what that really means it's like? Is it a condition that he had no choice over or was it something that happened because of the number of concussions and physical trauma that he received? And then, uh, I did a series on equipment, which I avoid it because when you say it like that, oh, the series on equipment, to me it sounded boring. I'm like how can I, you know, bring some life into this? But you know, those have been some of the most well-received episodes and I do a really deep dive into the history of the baseball glove, of the baseball bat, of the ball, of catcher's equipment. And to me it's just fascinating the evolution of what equipment used to be like connecting it to manliness, and players wouldn't use gloves because it wasn't manly and they would have broken fingers.

Speaker 2:

And you see pictures of the catchers and their fingers are mangled and so just the things that they did so that they wouldn't be sissies, and how that changed over time yeah, definitely really really interesting yeah, well, hey, I, you know I really do appreciate you doing this for me and, uh, you know I, we could probably go on and on and I could do a, a whole series based on just your stories, you know. So thank you so much for taking the time to be on the Baseball Coaches Unplugged podcast.

Speaker 4:

Well, you're welcome, Ken. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

If you enjoyed today's show, be sure to share it with a friend and leave us a review. It helps us to grow. The show Baseball Coaches Unplugged is proud to be partnered with the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. As always, I'm your host, coach Ken Carpenter. Merry Christmas and happy holidays and thanks for listening to Baseball Coaches Unplugged.

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