It Ain't Over

[Westside Steve]

It Ain't Over

Sony Pictures classics

PG-13.            98 min

 

In the early days of pro baseball teenager Lawrence  Peter Berra was the best and most natural baseball player from a suburb of St Louis nicknamed Dago Hill. His League was the American Legion League a far cry from the billion dollar organization that baseball is today, they didn't even have money for a bench so the players sat on the grass between trips to the plate. Lawrence sat cross-legged in a manner that reminded his teammates of an Indian Yogi. The nickname stuck  and an American Legend was created. I've been hearing about this movie IT AINT OVER for a long time, it was actually released momentarily in 2022 but we released a couple of months ago assumedly to qualify for the 2024 Academy Awards. It's streaming now but I'm pretty sure it will reopen in brick-and-mortar theaters in due time. Oddly enough from the ads and even some of the preview stills one would believe this was going to be a biopic starring Billy Crystal as the legendary ball player. It's not. Crystal is definitely a wonderful straight actor and I have no diet he could have nailed the role but his part in this true documentary is tiny and he plays himself commenting on one of his favorite ball players of all time. And one of America's. I grew up in a small town, Carrollton Ohio, just about 30 miles in from East Liverpool so the main teams were the Cleveland Indians or the Pittsburgh Pirates. When my pop was growing up he sold popcorn out front of Coley’s one of the last remaining stag bars in America in which there was a chalkboard separated into innings and a ticker tape machine. At the end of an inning one of the Cole Brothers Russ or Henry would stand on a stool and write the scores in the boxes.

It's that story and many others that make me believe that baseball is a true piece of Americana. Before the money before the TV deals before digital distribution before woke politics before the hard hits when every inning was man versus man.

It's been said, and I believe, that Yogi Berra was the heart and soul of the sport in his day. Kids today didn't grow up following him; I didn't because I was so young during his heyday but during that magical era of the USA.  I think everybody knows his TV commercials heard dozens of “Yogiisms” like ‘it ain't over till it's over’ and talking about a popular restaurant ‘nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.’ And the fact that Hanna-Barbera named an immensely popular cartoon after him. I don't even have to say the name. Unfortunately something that most of us don't recall is that he was, far from the media created cartoon but in fact one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived. I could cut and paste a list of his major league accomplishments a mile long but that's what this documentary is for. That and to show the love and respect from his family, his friends and his teammates and even his opponents. I loved it and can't imagine it not winning best documentary.

A

WSS

 

 

[Westside Steve]

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