Without any apparent provocation, another sequal to a movie over ten years old has been made. But what does this have to do with one of America’s most beloved stories of 2004? Plus, more “Star Wars” references than people who liked “Attack of the Clones” Sitting in a sea of brown bristles, my grandmothers den floor never felt so comfortable. School had recessed a couple of weeks earlier, and though you couldn’t tell it by the stale gloom of the rain soaked day, both my cousin and myself could not be happier.
We were seven. We were free. We were watching “The Sandlot”.
Eleven years later, imagine my surprise when while watching the Saint Louis Cardinals lose on a walk off homerun that there was a commercial spot for “The Sandlot 2”. Immeadiately melting away the cold freeze surrounding my heart over the loss, I was out of my marroon armchair and halfway to the ceiling fan when the awful truth hit me. They were actually making a sequal to one of the greatest coming of age baseball stories in cinema history.
As terrible as seeing the once proud James Earl Jones returning as the blind Mr. Mertle is, it has become much worse watching the sequal to last years surprise hit, the Boston Red Sox.
Coming into the day at 11-11, Boston trails both Baltimore and Toronto in the American League East, but the casual baseball fan would never know that the Red Sox are in third place. Every night, turning on the Eastern Seaboard Programing Network, the only thing ever being analyzed in baseball are the Red Sox, or the New York Yankees.
Nevermind that the two best records in baseball belong to teams from the states of Missouri and Illinois, Boston got in a fight with Tampa Bay. Thats right, the Devil Rays.
However, coming to fisticufs with a team that has never had a winning record has been but the comedic portion of this train wreck. For the first month, I have been left to watch almost exclusive coverage of the “evil empire” versus Red Sox, leaving me to ponder. Which is worse, Darth Steinbrenner or a once bright bulb, trying to squeeze every last drop of energy before it finally goes dim.
Unfortunately for anybody not residing in Massachusetts or Long Island, the season is but a month old, and both teams will provide adequate fodder for the media through their rise over the Blue Jays and Orioles and into a perennial two team race that has become as predictable as the reviews for the next “Star Wars” prequal.
And don’t forget, their is still the pending return of Curt Schilling to the Boston rotation, which of course warrants the basic three week media frenzy.
Plus there is the enticing story of David Wells. Memo to Mr. Wells, sports already has a pudgy, pathetic old “athlete”, John Daly.
With but few exceptions, sequals scarcely do better than their predecessors, but they still get made because they will definately bring in a lot of the green stuff, a green monster that will not take away home runs, just the good feeling the viewer may have received after the original.
The 2005 Boston Red Sox are no exceptions.