Calling Out Jacoby
Okay, the Yankees got themselves some good publicity for their recreation of the 1993 movie Sandlot. Cute or something. I suppose. I’d like to call out one of the stars of the production, Jacoby Ellsbury. Of course Jacoby is believed to be the first ballplayer of Najavo descent to play in the big leagues. Since he has now gotten his baptism in front of the camera, it’s time for him to do serious drama. It’s time to help promote awareness of Native American contributions to “the white man’s game.” It’s time to star in a few vignettes as Charles Albert Bender, the only Native American in the Hall of Fame. Jacoby’s got the good looks. That helps. But does he have the skills? Not sure, so I’ve arranged for a few vignettes of increasingly difficulty, all of which are based upon the real life Bender. The first vignette: Playing Bender, Jacoby takes a few steps towards the NY Giants dugout of John McGraw and his merciless bench jockeys Hmm- who could play the firebrand Little General and his devoted minions? Any suggestions? Anyway, it’s the 1913 World Series and Bender/Jacoby turns to the dugout, smiles and then cups his ear mocking the slurs and insults aimed at his Native American heritage. Of course, the crowd was raucous and defamatory as well, made desperate since they were one game away from defeat. The Giants have scored a four runs off Bender, more than he had given up at any point in his World Series history and they are threatening to add more. Once again, however, the Chippewa was imperturbable. The scoring stopped and the nine inning long taunting had no effect on Bender, at least not in field performance. Not because he was the typically stoic “piece of granite Injun” or “ the grim Chippewa son of the forest” or the “mesmerizing shaman “ or any of the ignorant newspaper explanations for his composure and talent. Instead he was a proud man who compartmentalized all the garbage so performance on the mound could be the way a man was judged.
McGraw should have known better . In 1905 World Series, the first played in NY, it was Bender who won the only game the A’s won. It was Christy Mathewson’s finest moment having pitched 3 shutout games during a 6 day span. Now, only 21, Bender made his case that he too was a pressure pitcher.
I believe Ells passes this first dramatic outreach with flying colors, that is, if he can pull off the smile. More on that later. Ellsbury’s next role is Bender’s one line response to the catcalls of “Back to your wigwam” or “You’re going to get scalped today, chief, “ etc. In these cases, Bender would walk over to the stands and proclaim, “Foreigners should either quiet down or return to Europe.” A piece of cake right Ells? Okay, a few takes.
Now Ells is ready to take on the most challenging piece of acting, one that has no words. A silent film except for the abusive words swirling about his head and heart. The scene calls for him to mimic the stare-turned-smile that Bender gave the taunting fans and players as he prepared to pitch. “The smile” silenced and provoked all antagonists. In one case, it sent a player charging the mound in response not to the inside pitch but in response to that smile. It was a dismissive “after what I’ve seen and felt, you really think you can break me with this stuff?” smile. In fact, the smile became one of Bender’s mind games, even as writers spoke of that “grinning Indian who has all the cunning of his race.“ Now performing the smile is not as easy as it seems. It is preceded by the quick penetration of sadness, then repressed anger. Bender no doubt felt such underlying emotion but he used them as fertilizer that helped the smirk blossom. Ells hasn’t gone through such ridicule and abuse, just as few Afro Americans players today could feel the smoldering anger in Jackie Robinson- The smile also said,“ You need to resort to this garbage because you haven’t got a chance. Pathetic “ No doubt it was born of supreme confidence in his remarkable pitching skill. Of course, a man who smiles like this and can’t back it up is seen as an idiot. Bender had a career 2.46 ERA, including a remarkable year in 1910 when he went 25-3 with a 1.58 . His Hall of Fame plaque mentions his three seasons leading the league in winning percentage and his record for three completed games in a six game world series, two of which he won, including a victory over the great Anglo- Christy Mathewson. Bender’s manager Connie Mack called him the greatest money pitcher in the history of the game.
In 1910 all but three members of Congress played the game and two of them were disabled. The nation was seriously in love with “its game.“ Now, it’s a distant second to football. Yeah, we can create cute videos, cut time between pitches, throw away the video games, refuse to pay for gas money to lacrosse practice, and such as we try such to resurrect the game we all love
If baseball is to go down, let it go down fighting, showing our youth and reminding ourselves that men and women of strength, courage, and humor played the game. Let’s create Bender like vignettes They can be played on smart phone videos during seventh inning stretch. We’ve hear enough of Sweet Caroline or Take Me Out to the Ball Game- if not, there are plenty of between inning possibilities. During pitching changes? In any case, got to keep the scenes short, like the attention spans of the kids and the parents who took them to the game, if they are watching the game at all. And how do we sell this to the players ? Many are used to the limelight. Don’t they all want to be broadcasters and ESPN commentators later-good practice. They need some retirement money or another classic car or whatever. Worse comes to worse, tell them its an investment in the game. I am now thinking of what role fits Curt Shilling for the Red Sox video. Tell me he wouldn’t take it on- standing up against bullying scene in the clubhouse. Johnny Pesky would have been awesome as an older actor in some scene requiring a sage like mentor. And if the players don’t bit? A thousand well know actors will.
On the small chance that MLB won’t pay the bill. There are sponsors for everything from first pitch to bullpen trip to pitching or hitting changes. For this Bender /Jacoby retrospective look- brought to you by a dental floss company- the perfect smile ? I’m not kidding.
Got any suggestions on these particular scenes and those who could play them, active and retired? Let me know. I feel a production company forming. Who will play Branch Rickey to Jackie R? The rights to Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech are already taken
Oh, I already have a funny Napoleon Lajoie vignette ready, and I know who I want to play the part. Napoleon who? You’ll see and you’ll remember.
