American Traditions Converge In Reel Baseball

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Although he never played a day in the major leagues, University of Arkansas faculty member David Pincus made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame before Pete Rose, courtesy of his new book, Reel Baseball.

A convergence of two great American pastimes - movies and baseball - Reel Baseball focuses on the ways that baseball has been used in movies as a form of cultural shorthand. As an example, Pincus, who teaches management in the Walton College of Business, points to the movie Pearl Harbor.

"In Pearl Harbor there is a scene where the Japanese bombers are flying in overhead while on the ground some children are playing baseball in a park," Pincus explained. "Of course, the attack on Pearl Harbor was at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning, so it is not likely that literally happened. Baseball was being used as a shorthand for all things American, while the children symbolized innocence in the face of aggression."

Pincus and co-author Stephen Wood, chair of the department of communication at the University of Rhode Island, will present their book, as well as hours of interview transcripts and research materials to the Hall of Fame library today in Cooperstown, New York. The event will take place in conjunction with the 14^th Annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture.

Reel Baseball comprises 18 essays, including papers presented at the Cooperstown Symposium and analyses by Pincus and Wood, and forewords by Dale Petroskey, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and Alvin L. Hall, founder of the Symposium. Although the material is carefully researched and documented, Reel Baseball is not a textbook. Its variety of topics is designed to appeal to a broad general audience.

Predictably, Reel Baseball covers baseball films, such as Field of Dreams and The Natural, and has an entire section devoted to Babe Ruth. However, the sections on baseball in non-baseball films and interviews with filmmakers provide new insights into the process of filmmaking and the role of baseball in American culture.

"In many ways, the non-baseball films tell us more about ourselves because of the way they use baseball," Pincus explained. "Directors rely on baseball to convey many ideas and evoke emotions."

This is evident in the transcripts of interviews with directors of baseball movies: Ron Shelton (Bull Durham and Cobb), Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams), Arthur Friedman (Price of Glory) and Penny Marshall (A League of Their Own). In addition to the difficulties and techniques involved in presenting baseball realistically in a movie, the conversation topics range from their relationship to baseball to why they wanted to make a baseball movie and why they use baseball in other movies.

As Arthur Friedman summed it up, "Baseball’s a metaphor for life. It’s a game of inches; life is a game of inches. Its part of the American fabric."

Reel Baseball also includes interviews with actors Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones and James Belushi and film critics Robert Osborne and Jeffrey Lyons. Other interviews include Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers; Lynn Novick, who co-produced the PBS mini-series Baseball with Ken Burns; former Dodger Broadcasting Director and movie consultant Brent Shyer; and Rod Dedeaux, legendary USC baseball coach.

"What Reel Baseball shows is the myriad influences of baseball on film and on America’s social and cultural landscape," said Pincus. "We wanted to show the may subtle ways that the reality of baseball gives substance to the unreality of film."

In the 10 years it took Pincus and Wood to create Reel Baseball, they also developed what may be the largest filmography on baseball in non-baseball film. Spanning films from1898 to 2002, it is a constantly expanding list that is available on their web site: http://www.ReelBaseball.net.