Any Hope For Sequels?

Once again, thanks to Boys and Girls Clubs of Dallas and Warner Brothers, I was able to see another movie pre-release.  Except in this case, it was basically a month pre-release so how cool is that?

So the movie this time is Dolphin Tale 2 and returns pretty much the entire cast that made the first movie great.  While the release date has moved from September 19 to September 12 it continues the real life story of the dolphin Winter and her new companion Hope at the Clearwater (FL) Marine Aquarium.

In this edition we get to see Sawyer (Nathan Gamble) and Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) growing up as they start to take on projects within the Aquarium and also find a little more about themselves.  Sawyer for instance needs to find if he can break away from Winter to take on a semester at sea that studies wildlife on the sea.  Hazel meanwhile needs to determine if she and her father can have a relationship built on mutual professional respect.

All in all the film was good and this is a real life story that is a continuation of the first real life film.  Unlike the first film which had the popsicle scene, it seemed that this picture was more dramatic and less fun, but it did let viewers of the first film grow up with Sawyer and Hazel.

I'm giving this four stars on the five scale as I have hope for very few sequels that do not have the words Star Wars in them, but this was much better than expected and is a film you can take your family to without wondering what messages are your kids going to be exposed to?

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium seems to present a balanced approach to conservation, life, and relationships with parents so for all those reasons I liked it as a dad.  There were hints however during the pre-talk with the artists that there is a potential third installment so...stay tuned.  There may be more fun from Winter and Hope in the next few years.  If they continue this formula, I am sure I will be buying four or more tickets.

Decisions

"I made one decision in my life based on money. And I swore I would never do it again." - Brad Pitt (as Billy Beane)

This month's baseball movie is Moneyball.  For me, Moneyball is not just a nice respite into the world of basball General Managers, trades and the ridiculous season the Athletics had in 2002, but helps me think through a couple of life issues.

First, life requires choices and when you make choices sometimes they work out great.  Sometimes not.  The question is do we bang our head against the wall hoping to change things or do we change.  Billy Beane had been a first round selection of the New York Mets, but finished is career only after six seasons with a .219 batting average.  He had the opportunity to go to Stanford University, but turned it down to play baseball.

As his career failed to progress he made the choice to move into scouting - a move that would ultimately help him into the GM's offices later.  This is important because like noted elsewhere in the movie - we all stop playing the game at some point.  We don't know when and many don't get to choose how.  Beane on the other chance made his own choice, changing paths as circumstances dictated.  By adapting to circumstance he overcame the situations that held him back.

The bigger thing I get from this movie though is money.  You do not have to make millions to be great or to do great things.  Making decisions based on money is just fool hardy and it is entirely possible to live on a reasonable budget and enjoy yourself.

I listen to sports radio all the time and a regular topic are the rookie dinners in the NFL where rookie players are expected to pick up the tab for older players so that they can eat steak and then take steak home to their dog.  This is moronic and sophomoric.  Why?

What this tells me is not that you are cool NFL Player, but that you are wasteful and not focused on the right things.  I like the idea of Beane turning down the Red Sox offer of millions of dollars in salary to stay in Oakland and demonstrate that some things are more important than money.  I like the idea that he showed decisions can be about more and they should be.

A League Of Their Own

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great." Tom Hanks (as Jimmy Dugan)

Girl's baseball.  Girl's baseball.  A girl's baseball movie.  Really?

Yes, really.

Other than the mostly historic portrayal of the All American Girl's Baseball League in this film, the important part of the movie is the reminder that baseball, like life, is not easy.

Baseball is exceptional for teaching lessons in overcoming adversity and perhaps as a firefighter/paramedic by education and profession I identify with the idea of being up against all odds.  The old line is true, great hitters fail sixty-five to seventy percent of the time and they are still applauded for their success the rest of the time.  As a paramedic I stopped counting a long time ago those victims who I knew had little chance because the stats were stacked against them.

Similarly, who said life was going to be easy.  You graduate high school, go to college, party it up, pay your dues and do your classes.  Now you have a piece of paper saying graduate.  Life still isn't easy.  Again, no one said life would be easy, but that is what gives it meaning and makes it rich...not the easy times, but the ones your remember overcoming.

Bull Durham

Annie Savoy: "The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self awareness."

Truer words may have never been spoken.  Some days you look around and you see people who seem successful based entirely on pure dumb luck.  They don't look in the mirror to know thyself.  They just look in the mirror.  For me that has never worked as I have always tried to follow the Shakespearean sentiment from Polonius "to thine own self be true." (Hamlet: Act I, scene 3)

In any case, this month's baseball movie is Bull Durham - the story of the Durham Bulls, currently the AAA franchise with the Tampa Bay Rays.  At the time of the movie though they were the A ball team for someone.

It seems an appropriate time to talk about working through troubles and figuring out what you need to do now - in the springtime.  Like in life, we start by learning how to play the game, and as we go through life we theoretically get better at playing the game of life until our middle years when hopefully we are at the top of our professional game.

There are some interesting parallels from the movie and life though.

One, get your team involved.  As Crash Davis noted, don't try to strike everyone out.  Throw ground balls and get your defense involved behind you.  His point wasn't to make a commentary on facism versus democracy, but to say get your people on your team working behind you.  Leaders would call this delegation.

Two, as Coach Joe Reardon said...there is no room for lollygaggers.  You have to hustle to play baseball or live life.  Hustle out there.

Finally, as Walt Whitman once said, "I see great things in baseball. It's our game, the American game. It will repair our losses and be a blessing to us."  I know when I have had a hard day or challenges abound, a simple game of catch helps get me through.  Few things can relax and inspire me at the same time, but baseball does and I am thankful for that.

Spend a little time thinking about the lessons in your minor league stint and I think you will find they are similar.

A Great Ten Minutes, But...

I am a ridiculous James Bond fan.  As any James Bond fan will tell you, the first five minutes of the movie are often the best introductions.  In some introductions, Bond has to climb in the back of a horse trailer, then pilots a single man jet or he flies off in an astronaut-like jet pack as he makes a getaway from exercising his license to kill.  These are the hallmarks of the James Bond film series.  However, the latest installment of the Spiderman film series, The Amazing Spiderman 2, might push James Bond for the first five minutes of film action.

I was able to see the film early due to the generosity of Dwayne Harris who had supported the Oak Cliff Boys and Girls Club and was rewarding behavior that was sensitive to our natural resources by treating members of the club to an advance screening of the film.

While the movie had some of the usual non-turns and then wrapped itself in a predictable plot of non-twists, in terms of the first five minutes the action was interesting.  What followed was typical comic book action that follows what would be a script that quickly falls off into what would otherwise be a very average film with the normal non-plot twists and lack of character development.  I have not seen the first film and not sure what characters were previously developed and while the film is okay it was a little light on plot and character development.  Maybe I should have read the comic, but I will say this.  If you can use a film like this to motivate kids to be good stewards of their local natural resources, I say good job.

Major League

Maybe I am wrong, but for me you can not start the baseball season off without watching Major League.  I realize that this movie is a combination of the Land of Misfit Toys along with an adult Bad News Bears, but how else would you start your baseball season?

My involvement with Cleveland baseball is pretty limited.  I got to meet Bob Feller at a Richmond Braves kid's baseball clinic when he taught the art of pitching to a bunch of seven year olds who had no idea who he was or what we were doing.  (Disclaimer: my baseball ability starts and ends in the dugout.  My dad could play.  My son is extraordinary, but it skipped a generation I guess.)

In any case, it is an interesting film to watch to see a manager plucked right out of a tire shop management position and the team filled with players from prison and the Mexican League.

Who doesn't want to root for a guy trying to make his last bid in the majors?  Who doesn't want to root for the troubled kid who perhaps finally has his head on straight?  (By the way, does Charlie Sheen always end up in these roles or is it just me that life imitates art?)

In any case, it is hard for me to start my baseball season without a little Major League.  I think from hereon, I will try to bring you one baseball movie a month throughout the season for you to ponder.  Have a great day!