I'd watch these movies

Thanks to the largesse of our employer, Phil and I went to the All-Star fanfest on Sunday. While I was disappointed not to find any prints or even note cards of Michael Schwab's graphics promoting the game (and I am not about to pay $199.99 for one, thanks), my nerdly soul thrilled to the exhibits. The minor-league hats, sorted by MLB affiliate and by level of play, were delightful, and I got to establish old-coot cred by snorting, "I remember when the Norfolk Tides were the Peninsula Pilots. Hmmmph!" The one wall of "Women in Baseball" was unintentionally hilarious with its "Many women have been involved in baseball -- as owners. Also, Tom Hanks was in a movie about women who played baseball. Thanks, gals!" approach.

But the exhibit I have not been able to stop thinking about is the history of African-Americans in baseball.

No matter how much I read about it, I struggle to understand how people could be denied basic human rights and dignity based on their ethnic background and that was okay by "polite" society. It just seems so antithetical to what the United States is supposed to be. And to look at the racist attitudes of America's pastime, and to see what a great thing the Negro National League was in spite of a country and a culture that conspired to deny people their rights and dignity -- it is an overwhelming lesson in how closely the worst and best of humanity lay next to one another.

So we walked through the glass-fronted lockers that held wool jerseys and looked at the photos and historical accounts of teams. When we got to Andrew "Rube" Foster's locker exhibit, I read about everything he had done, then turned to Phil and said, "His life would make a great movie. Why hasn't there been a movie made about this guy?"

And the more I think about it, the more I wonder: why haven't we seen any movies about Negro National League baseball?

There is something cosmically wrong with a world in which there are movies about dogs playing baseball and college drips playing baseball, but there is not a single commercial effort devoted to the father of black baseball.

So when I read this morning's "Waiting for Action" in the WaPo, I thought of Rube Foster. Perhaps serious-minded people will say that there is nothing at all similar between the absence of movies about the civil rights era and the absence of movies about black baseball. But I think there is:

"Even though America has a huge export business in entertainment, movies about our own history often don't travel too well," says Edward Saxon, an independent producer who worked with Demme on "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Philadelphia." Then you add race in. It's the received wisdom of Hollywood that movies with black themes and lead actors, especially dramas, don't travel overseas. And the exception [to that rule] doesn't get a chance to get proven much."

Bob Berney, the president of Picturehouse Films, wonders if that calculation "is still true or used as an excuse, or out of laziness. I run into that a lot: 'You'll never get international with a black cast.' But if you look at music, all the hip-hop artists appear to be huge in Europe and Asia and everywhere else. It's an issue that the more old-guard gatekeepers have, rather than the audience. Something is going to have to break through, and then once it does, everyone will say, 'See, it's not a problem.' "

Sometimes, it feels like we are not far removed from the country that thought it was okay to have separate-but-separate baseball leagues.

Comments

[Jana]

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City was one of my favorite places to go with visitors or when I needed something to do. I am sure that exhibit was awesome. (Sidenote: I saw Zito pitch in the 100-degree heat against the Cardinals on Sunday...are you guys still sad he left the A's? Great game for us, not so much for them.)

[Polly]

Oh, don't get me started. I used to work for an educational publisher that did a LOT of Black history, and so many of these stories are SO compelling (overcoming great odds, life & death stuff), and either they never get made into any kind of commercial film, or when they do, people manage somehow to bleed all the drama out of them (see Amazing Grace for the most recent example of this). I mean, for God's sake, don't tell me white people won't find this interesting--I'm white, and I do.

[Julie]

I have a lot of relatives who are baseball geeks (and white), and I think they'd be all over a movie about the Negro Leagues. They need to case it like they did with "A League of Their Own"--a few "real" actors, a hot pop star or two, and a couple of comedians who can pull off dry one-liners. There ya go.

[Polly]

(See, now you've gotten me started...I warned you!) I'm not even a fan of baseball, and I when I had to research the Negro Leagues, I found the history totally fascinating. I really got into the Homestead Grays--and I'm not even into any team that plays now, at a time when I am alive. The personalities were totally engrossing: Satchel Paige was this super-funny, unsinkable guy, while Josh Gibson was such a tragic figure.

If it was done even half-competently, "The Homestead Grays" would be a great movie.

[mkr]

It would be interesting if there were more facts, regarding black-starred movies not travelling well.

I can easily imagine a compelling Negro League film doing well here, but I really have no idea how it'd go over in Germany, China, wherever.