Soul Of The Game

Finally, baseball season has started and the Orioles are 4-1! Wow! Kinda of a big deal when you consider that last season it took them close to twenty games to get their fourth win....despite my commercial efforts for them.

Let's take this chance to reminisce about those fine Orioles commercials from last season....

OK, enuff about me. I also wanted to discuss baseball movies and my favorite, Soul Of The Game. This is an HBO movie from the late 90's which gets into Jackie Robinson's signing as the first Black player in Major League Baseball. It specifically gets into how and why he was chosen as much for his character as he was for his playing ability. While there were other players in the Negro Leagues at the time who were probably more talented, Branch Rickey (then-owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers) knew that who ever was first would be looked at under a microscope by the media and all those opposed to integration and needed to excel on and off the field.

In an awesome scene, when asked what he's expected to do the hundredth time he gets thrown at by a racist pitch, Rickey tells Jackie that he's "not looking for someone who's strong enough to fight back but someone who's strong enough not to".

Yeah, Jackie Robinson is a bit of a hero of mine. If you're a frequent reader, you know that, back in my radio days, I got to be good friends with Rex Barney who had played on the same team with Jackie and he had the most amazing stories about who he was and what he went thru.

Did I mention the O's are 4-1!!