PLAY BALL ! Brilliant promos

If you ever played baseball as a kid, and I certainly did (and still love playing softball to this day), these 15 second clips will resonate wildly with you as they did for me. Great work MLB and who ever produced these.

Happy Fathers Day!What have you done for the community lately?

The last game of the 2019 season. Our Pirates won their last nine games straight including this final championship game, beating the odds on favorite. We couldn't be more proud to have sponsored the Pirates for this 4th and final season. What a blast!

I shot the video and my son who played the game, and is in the video, edited the whole thing on an iPad.

Roberto Clemente would have turned 84 yesterday

ROBERTO CLEMENTE one of my biggest and first inspirations and heroes as a kid and to this day #Legend #LetsGoBucs #Humanitarian #Inspiration #Integrity #Pirates #PuertoRico #TempPost if you don’t know why i would post this please take a few minutes and look him up 👊🏽✊🏽✌🏽⚾️ today would have been his 84th birthday.

A post shared by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Aug 18, 2018 at 10:58am PDT

‘O.J.: Made in America’ Director Boards Roberto Clemente Biopic

I am looking forward to this... Clemente was an idol to me growing up.

from Variety:

Ezra Edelman is following up the award-winning “O.J.: Made in America” by spotlighting another famous athlete.

The Oscar winner has signed on to direct Legendary’s biopic on baseball icon Roberto Clemente.

Legendary closed a deal for Edelman to develop a feature film with writer Rowan Ricardo Phillips based on the life of the famed baseball player. John Lesher will produce alongside Fuego Films’ Ben Silverman and Jay Weisleder, with Giselle Fernandez and Sandra Condito serving as executive producers.

The studio previously picked up the rights to David Maraniss’ book “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero” and entered into an agreement with Clemente’s family for his life rights. Legendary has already seen success in this genre, having successfully launched the Jackie Robinson biopic “42” to box office and critical success, and hopes for similar results with this film.

Clemente played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 to 1972. On Dec. 31, 1972, Clemente boarded a small plane en route from Puerto Rico to Nicaragua to assist with earthquake relief. The heavily loaded plane crashed just off the Puerto Rican coast, and Clemente’s body was never recovered. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973.

Whiting Award-winning poet, Guggenheim fellow, and Paris Review sports columnist, Phillips is also the author of four books: “The Ground,” “Heaven,” “The Circuit,” and 2010’s essay collection “When Blackness Rhymes With Blackness.” Also a prodigious sportswriter, his work in that field has appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker as well as the Library of America’s “Basketball: Great Writing About America’s Game.”

Edleman’s “O.J.: Made in America” was celebrated for not only its in-depth look at the infamous football star, but also for its reflection of race relations in the country. The pic went on to win an Emmy and Oscar for best documentary.

Andrew McCutchen has a huge night at the plate with two home runs, including his first career grand slam, and a career-high eight RBIs

The Perfect game That Wasn't PITTSBURGH PIRATES walk off WIN in the 10th

One of my favorite players in professional sports today, Josh Harrison becomes the 1st player in history to end a no-hitter with a walk off Home Run in extra innings.





Josh Harrison connects for a walk-off home run to left field, breaking up Rich Hill's no-hitter in the bottom of the 10th inning

For eight innings, Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill was perfect. For nine innings, he was unhittable. But the Pirates' first hit was the only one they'd need.
Josh Harrison ripped a walk-off homer to left field in the 10th inning, breaking up Hill's no-hit bid and giving the Pirates to a wild 1-0 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday night at PNC Park.

a few other incredible moments in this incredible game:

click here: Mercer's Incredible catch

click here: Josh Harrison does it on the field too!

can't front on this either:

Watch this film I helped out on No-No A Dockumentary

on Netflix now:

We Do It For The Kids .... Burning Flags Press is for the Children

Opening Day Ceremony at Greenwich Village Little League with the team I sponsor.

Crime of the Big Leagues great 10 minute doc.

A mini-doc about the late Lester Rodney, the unsung hero that helped desegregate Major League Baseball.

Crime of the Big Leagues from Tomorrow Media on Vimeo.

The High Five!

On October 2nd, 1977 Dusty Baker hit his 30th homerun of the season. As Baker rounded the bases, an excited rookie named Glenn Burke met him at home plate, raised his arm high in the air and slapped Baker's hand. It was the first high five recorded in the history of sports. A year later, Burke was forced out of baseball amid rumours of his sexual orientation

via @nolimitsoldier

Chuck D Speaks On Black Baseball Players

from Public Enemy.com

Almost sixty-nine years have passed since Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, but despite the progress spurred on by this historic act, the sport faces declining numbers of both black players and black fans. Chris Rock has even likened being a black baseball fan to being part of an endangered species. In an interview with Complex, Chuck D discussed why the sport he loves is becoming an increasingly foreign experience to black youth.

In the 80's, black players represented about twenty percent of the MLB. Now they represent less than eight percent. "It disturbs me because of my own personal adoration with something I was obsessed with baseball as a [teenager]. I was obsessed with the game," Chuck said when asked how he felt about the sharp decline in black players.

Chuck sees this as another symptom of American society's eagerness to jail black men. "Number one, baseball in the United States of America starts with relationship of father to son. Ya hear me? Starts with the relationship of father to son. My father played baseball with myself and my brother... When you have the eradication of the black community and the destruction of black fatherhood for whatever reasons it might be—you can say it’s a redefinition of the family but there are actual facts. Meaning what? There was 100,000 black men in prison in 1970, and there’s well over a million and a half now in U.S. prisons... If you take the father away from the son, you’re going to have a lot of missing [opportunities for] explaining how we should work together as a team..."

"The black community has been fragmented seriously, since the 1980s, for a bunch of different reasons. Be it drugs, guns, a whole bunch of areas of non-development," Chuck said. "Baseball fields were always full in black communities in the United States in the ‘50s, in the ‘60s and in the ‘70s. They were full and at the same time you’d go to the sideline and fathers would almost always outnumber the sons. You don’t see that nowhere no more."

Chuck also takes issue with people claiming that the sport is boring, or that the reason it's failed to attract the attention of young athletes is because it's not as exciting to watch as say, basketball or football. "So when people say baseball is boring, yeah it’s boring because you don’t have the time to understand, to grasp it. Don’t just say it’s wack because you don’t understand," Chuck said. 

You can read the full interview, which includes more of Chuck's thoughts on how baseball has changed since he was obsessed with it as a teen, over at Complex.

http://www.complex.com/sports/2016/04/chuck-d-interview-loss-of-black-baseball-players

By Michael Lacerna for PublicEnemy.com

Couple of nice catches last night as baseball gets ready for OCTOBER

In Honor of Baseball Hall of Fame Weekend and the undeniable respect Hip-Hop artists have for the game

I present this find from the STRAIGHT//OUTTA//COOPERSTOWN tumbler:

A mashup of Hall of Famers from America’s two favorite pastimes.

“Then I get physical and hit you with another hit /

The brother’s it, and nothing’s equivalent”

“Do the Smurf, do the Wop, Baseball Bat /

Rooftop like I’m bringing ‘88 back”

“The pitcher all on the mound /

Throwin’ fastballs with a curve,

the nerve of speedballin, HA”

“Crank shit, Shawshank Redemption scholar/

Roll up, based on dollars, baseball hat, big collar”

“Yo, my man, how bad do you want it? /

You know how many cats I threw the pitch, and they never caught it?”

“Can’t do the shit we do, the way we do wit’ no dough /
That’s like trying to win a ballgame, if you ain’t takin’ no score”

“You need to put me in the hall of fame /
I’m worldwide, a legend in this game, (check the resume)”

“How the fuck can I stay out the pen /
When it’s one-two-three strikes you in”

“They get in a slump like baseball players when they short on they rent /
Anything goin’ you ain’t knowin’ how much money you spent”

“Whip smelling like fish from 125th /
Throwing ketchup on my fries, hittin’ baseball spliffs”

“You talk all that robbery shit, but it’s lame /
You wouldn’t steal first base at a baseball game”

“Never defeated not conceited, but let’s face facts /
Couldn’t beat me with a motherfuckin’ baseball bat”

“I get baseball money, check my home run average /
Take over the game and let my homeboys have it”

“So what, I’m a player, playing the field /
if you want me, you better yield”

“Wherever I go, my crew is true to swarm /
Got stripes in New York like Yankee uniforms”

“I go for the home run, you the type to bunt /
No support, stay in court twice a month, light the blunt”

“All day ho, my neck look sweeter than parfait ho /
Rap Derek Jeter in a red two seater /
I can throw this dick from far away ho”

“Coming in the club with that fresh shit on /
With something crazy on my arm /
Uh-uh-hum, and here’s another hit; Barry Bonds”

“Now I’m in the 9th inning /
Thought I fell off, ain’t quite finished”

“Wu Killa Bee appear on your body like the pox /
Keep rivalries like Yankees and the Red Sox /
I’d rather see it in the ballpark, then see it on the block”

“And big hitter in, leavin’ a fitter in, literin’ /

Get rid of considerin’, rocks be glitterin’”

“I’m coming boisterous with 5 million switches /

I’m the man with single and double and triple 

and four five six time them bitches”

“I father, I Brooklyn Dodger them /

I jack, I rob, I sin /

Aww man, I’m Jackie Robinson”

“Should’ve known when I made it all the way to third base /

And that was only the first date / 

Could of made it to home plate”

“How dare those who talk, we can’t have them /

Some make me wanna go out with the bat and a magnum”

“Won’t be a strike three, cause I don’t play fair /

I'mma look you in your eye while he hit you from the rear”

“With my jeans on, and my team strong /

Get my drink on, and my smoke on /

Then go home with, something to poke on”

“Cause you ain’t got no points in this game, kid you frontin’ /

I’m home run hittin’, you be buntin’”

Chris Rock’s Take on Blacks in Baseball

from HBO sports



thanks,
Jeffery Radice

A Great Story: Mo’ne Davis

thanks, Insideplaya

"No-No" A DOCKUMENTARY opens this weekend (and next) Nationwide. Be sure to Go See It!

This is a film I spent several years working on with the Director and Producer, as a Creative Consultant and Associate Producer. I have posted about it several times since the beginning of the project as well as posting about my personal relationship to the subject, Dock Ellis.

I think the film came out great and is a fitting tribute to my old friend and inspiration as a kid. Can't forget to mention, the original score was done by none other than softball team mate of mine, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz.

A few of my past DOCK posts below:

For Dock Ellis On His 67th Birthday:
LSD Memories, Celluloid Dreams

My Personal Dock Ellis Story (Pt. 1)

"No-No A Dock-umentary"
premiering at Sundance Film Festival this week

Here's a photo of myself with Director Jeff Radice and Associate producer and another fellow softball team mate of mine Carlos "Chili" Cañedo at the "Montclair Film Festival" premiere.



trailer:


Theaters this weekend:

5-Sep New York, NY Village East (I'll be here opening night)
5-Sep Los Angeles, CA Laemmle Noho 7
5-Sep San Diego, CA Reading Gaslamp 15
5-Sep Pittsburgh, PA Harris Theater 2-week min. run
5-Sep Seattle, WA Northwest Film Forum
5-Sep Dallas, TX Texas Theatre Fri-Sun weekend run
5-Sep Houston, TX Drafthouse Vintage Park
5-Sep Austin, TX Drafthouse South Lamar
5-Sep Burlington, IA Capitol Theater One Night Only
5-Sep Pelham, NY Picture House
5-Sep San Francisco, CA Roxie Theater
5-Sep Boston, MA Coolidge Corner Theater

next weekend:

12-Sep Chicago, IL Facets Cinematheque
12-Sep Denver, CO Sie Film Center
12-Sep Cleveland, OH Capitol Theatre
12-Sep Amherst, MA Amherst Cinema Arts Center
12-Sep Washington, DC West End Cinema
12-Sep Bellingham, WA Pickford Film Center
12-Sep Philadelphia, PA PFS Roxy
12-Sep Bryn Mawr, PA Bryn Mawr Film Center

after that:

13-Sep Portland, OR Hollywood Theater Saturday, 7:30pm one-night screening

19-Sep Santa Fe, NM CCA
19-Sep Albuquerque, NM Guild Cinema
19-Sep New Orleans, LA Zeitgeist Arts Center TBD
19-Sep Tyler, TX Liberty Hall One Night Only
19-Sep Omaha, NE FilmStreams TBD
19-Sep Milwaukee, WI Union Theatre
19-Sep Kansas City, MO Drafthouse Main St.
19-Sep Columbus, OH Gateway Film Center
19-Sep Phoenix, AZ Harkins Shea 14 TBD
19-Sep Tucson, AZ The Loft Cinema TBD

26-Sep Oakland, CA New Parkway One Night Only

8-Oct Gloucester, MA Cape Ann Community Cinema One Night Only

17-Oct Tallahassee, FL All Saints Cinema 3-day engagement

6-Nov Olympia, WA Capitol Theater (Olympyia FS) One Night Only

Saint Roberto Clemente?

via The Huffington Post
Religion News Service | By Heather Adams

(RNS) Richard Rossi is on a crusade of sorts, traveling to cities across the country to collect stories about the fabled healing powers of baseball great Roberto Clemente.

His goal? Nothing short of making Clemente an officially recognized Catholic saint.

“He had a calling to be a great baseball player,” Rossi said, “but he had a calling beyond baseball.”

Clemente played right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955-1972. He reached 3,000 hits and won the National League MVP trophy in 1966.

On Dec. 31, 1972, Clemente boarded a flight in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to ferry relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Soon after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing Clemente and four others.

Rossi was only 9 years old when Clemente died but remembers going to Pirates games for $1 with his father. Since then, Rossi said he’s read almost everything written on Clemente and talked with many more people who knew him.

After talking to several people, including a nun, Rossi said, he learned the religious side to Clemente had been left out of most biographies. So, Rossi, a 51-year-old Catholic and independent filmmaker in Hollywood, made it one of the bigger parts in his movie, “Baseball’s Last Hero: 21 Clemente Stories.”

Now, Rossi and a group of volunteers are listening to people’s stories about Clemente, and they’re using the scientific tools of X-rays and medical records to verify tales of Clemente’s miraculous healing touch.

Under normal circumstances, miracles are considered much later in the process, after the church has officially opened a sainthood cause. Catholic teaching says miracles attributed to a saint — two are needed for canonization, after his or her death — are evidence that the person has God’s ear in heaven.

“One reason the Catholic Church has lasted a couple of thousand years, it has this kind of process, they’re very slow and so we want to make sure we present something that, you know, has a lot of credible evidence,” Rossi said.

Rossi already has several supporters on his side, including Duane Rieder, executive director of the Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh.

Rieder said he has spent time talking to family, friends and nuns who knew Clemente; they say he predicted his own death through dreams of him dying in the ocean and his body not being found.

But Rieder said he feels that the most important part is not the way Clemente died, but the way he lived his life for others.

“He’s the only true baseball hero. He’s the only person, player that ever gave up his life helping other people. Everybody else, you know, Babe Ruth wasn’t a hero. He was a hell of a baseball player,” Rieder said. “Roberto Clemente was the only true baseball hero.”

Rossi is also looking for support from bishops, including Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan — and even Pope Francis.



“The purpose of my writing is to humbly ask your blessing my efforts to defend the beginning of the canonization of Puerto Rican athlete humanitarian Roberto Clemente,” the letter says.

As the archbishop of San Juan, Nieves would have to sign off on Clemente’s sainthood cause and move the process along to the Vatican. The Archdiocese of San Juan did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Rossi also hopes to meet with Pope Francis and show him his movie. “I think he is the perfect pope for this — No. 1, being Latin American. But No. 2, he thinks outside the box.”

Carmen Nanko-Fernandez, a Latina theologian at Chicago Theological Union, is writing a book about Clemente, “El Santo! Baseball and the Canonization of Roberto Clemente.” She said anything is possible with Pope Francis, but due to a canonization process that can stretch on for centuries, she isn’t so sure Clemente will make the cut.

“All evidence seems to point to that Clemente was a good guy who tried to lived his life well. So in that sense, you know, does he have a chance at being considered a saintly person? Sure,” she said. “Will that make him into the canonization process that makes him an officially recognized saint in the Catholic Church? I’m not so sure.”

But Nanko-Fernandez said Hispanic Catholics can continue to venerate and honor him, making him an unofficial saint.

“It’s not necessary for one to become an official saint to be considered a saint,” Nanko-Fernandez said.

For Rossi, Clemente is needed as a saint for “ordinary” people to look up to. Clemente lived his life for others and died in service to the poor, Rossi said, and what could be more saintly than that?

“When we look at the process of canonization, unfortunately, it’s very weighted towards celibate people that choose the vocations of being a priest or nun,” Rossi said. “I mean, there’s a very small percentage that walk it out in the real world as a family-first man, as a husband, as a father, in a secular culture, as a baseball star.”

"No-No A Dock-umentary" premiering at Sundance Film Festival this week

For those of you who have been following me or this blog for a while you should be familiar with my connection to the one and only, Dock Ellis. If not you can go back and read some of my previous Dock related posts.



So the film I have been consulting on finally went public night before last and is playing a few more times this week out at The 2014 Sundance Film Festival. The 1st review that came in gave it a 9 out of 10! Also got a nice mention in Esquire magazine as one of the top films to see at Sundance this year, as well as a nod in Entertainment Weekly... So it's off to a good start. A cool film that does some justice to the story of an old friend who inspired me greatly before I was even a teenager. Check it out if you can and let us know what you think.

- GEF

please download these images and spread 'em around (art by Ernesto Yerena)

The story of the pitcher who threw a no-hitter while tripping on acid—known by fans and nonfans alike—has become emblematic of professional baseball’s excess in the 1970s. However, that pitcher, Dock Ellis, had a career and a life that transcended one use of LSD.

During a time when the insular world of baseball was clashing with the world outside, Ellis was widely known as one of the most unabashedly black baseball players ever. Nearly suspended for wearing curlers in his hair and refusing to apologize for or moderate his aggressive behavior, Ellis used drugs to hide his crippling fear of failure.

No No: A Dockumentary provides the backstory to an outrageous anecdote by presenting the full life—warts and all—of a unique baseball player and human being. From Jackie Robinson to Donald Hall, Ron Howard, and others, Dock Ellis touched the lives of many people, as told in this surprising story of redemption.

Cast and Credits
Director: Jeffrey Radice
Producers: Mike Blizzard, Christopher Cortez, Jeffrey Radice
Cinematographer: John Fiege
Editor: Sam Wainwright Douglas
Music Supervisor: Randall Poster
Composer: Adam Horovitz [YES! our boy AdRock!]
Animators: Jen Piper, Jake Mendez, Scott Calonico
Contact: Sara Sampson / Sara Sampson PR / sarasampsonpr@gmail.com

Why I Wear the # 21

Roberto Clemente was one of my idols as a pre-teen, His integrity and heart inspired me forever.
Here's an interesting little piece that was posted on ESPN's website recently.



Thanks, Doug!

My Personal Dock Ellis Story (Pt. 1)

These guys from Austin, Texas "Baseball Iconoclasts, LLC" are making The DOCKumentary. We found each other a while back and since then I have signed on to help them when I can with advice and ideas, all that I can. The subject of Dock Ellis, the infamous Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher, and all around bad ass motherfucker is very close to my heart.

And right now they are trying to raise funds over on Kickstarter for the film. I think it's a very worthy cause and should be a fun inspiring flick for anyone and everyone.



So as part of the fundraising they have occasional updates and teasers of information to keep people coming back and turning their friends onto the project. Last week they asked me if I'd participate in a "Five Questions" Q&A on Dock, and my story and interest in him. I was more than happy to oblige and finally write down the story for the internet world to check out.

Here are a couple of my answers and some of the photos I shared with them - PLEASE SUPPORT THIS FILM, Go to the Kickstarter page and give a couple a bucks, or more, what ever you feel like. Thanks!

Full piece Five Questions with Glen E. Friedman - HERE.

Do people understand how much Dock Ellis was alone on the frontier in his time?

I don't think so, at all, other than a handful of fans and dedicated historians. Culturally, he was incredibly significant, though only time would tell, and those thirsty enough for knowledge and history would ever know. That is, if it wasn't for this film, which I hope will help spread the knowledge of the truly great player and human being Dock Ellis was. He was a fucking hero to me, that's for sure.


How did you meet Dock Ellis?

I first met Dock at Shea Stadium, here in New York, when I was a kid around 11 years old. When I went to games, I was fervent about getting autographs and memorabilia and I would always get there early to watch batting practice and to try to talk to the players ... asking for autographs, loose practice balls, broken bats, whatever a player had access to.

One afternoon Dock walked over to me, probably 1973, and asked why was I yelling so much. Of course I just wanted his attention, to say hello and to get an autograph. He said relax, not to worry, after he was done practicing he'd come back over and give me an autograph. A few minutes later, he came over and asked me why I wasn't wearing an authentic Dock Ellis shirt? I happened to be wearing the nearest thing to a game jersey one could get in the early seventies - a 100% nylon Willie Stargell kid's jersey I picked up in Cooperstown, just across from the Baseball Hall of Fame. There was Dock, pulling at my most prized shirt and asking why was I wearing a fake. I was bummed he was making fun of my favorite shirt, so I asked him, "Well, where can I get one of the Dock Ellis shirts you're talking about? I've never seen one." He didn't really clue me in on that, but he signed my autograph book, for the first of many times.

Eventually in the conversation... Dock told me to meet him by the press gate later in the day, once he was sure he wouldn't be called upon to pitch (midway through the 2nd game of a double header). I went to the designated place at the designated time and there came Dock strutting out in platform shoes, double-knit black flair paints and a red fishnet t-shirt. He was behind a fenced-in area, near the press gate and player entrance. People saw him and started yelling his name, "Dock, Dock!" He walked straight towards me. He's got a brown paper bag, lunch bag sized, in his hand. He knelt down and started to talk to me, and said, "Don't open this up! Don't even peek inside this bag, until you get back to your seat, otherwise you won't get outta here alive." I said, "OK, Thanks Dock! See you around ..." thinking I'd got some super cool "Official" Dock Ellis T-Shirt.

I got back to my seat and looked inside the bag then, as discreetly as possible. I didn't really believe my eyes, so I couldn't just peek in the bag, I had to take out the contents to really see what it was, if in fact it was, yes it was his actual game jersey right off his back! I had a Number 17 Pittsburgh Pirates visiting team jersey. That was the first time I met Dock, but I saw him and hung out with him several times over the years after that.


How did Dock become an inspiration to you, leading to a dedication in the first printing of your book Fuck You Heroes?

Dock just being who he was to me, a pro ballplayer who was so friendly and mad cool, giving me not only the time of day, but the shirt off his back, literally. He took me into the clubhouse over the years, down on the field, breaking in my glove during batting practice. But most of all, what he signed in my autograph book and on a ball, after I actually knew him, stuck with me the most "Glen - Believe In Yourself. I Do. Dock"

Go to the KickStarter page and check out the full piece Five Questions with Glen E. Friedman .