Author: Travis J. Cook

Thought from the Dugout: The Mendoza Line

Leave a Comment

 

(Courtesy The Mendoza Line Facebook page)

(Courtesy The Mendoza Line Facebook page)

Normally, I write about movies and baseball here on the Recorder. More often than not, these two fields exist independently of each other. (Side-note: after all these years, I still misspell independent from time to time. Just thought I’d share, none of us are perfect.) On rare occasions, these fields intersect.

(For the record, I’ve still yet to see Million Dollar Arm, which seemed to showcase a little too much racism for comical intent in its previews for me to really want to sink my teeth in. I’m also still behind the curve – so to speak – on seeing Moneyball and 42. Sue me.)

As a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, it is occasionally my pleasure to survey the work of other members. Usually, that’s in written form. (See my review of John Rosengren’s latest book here) On this occasion, I was privileged to be invited to screen writer/director Nathan Kaufman’s independent feature film The Mendoza Line. By screened, I mean set up with a laptop in a certain chain coffee shop across the street from Wrigley Field. (Nathan, if you’re reading this, you might be happy to note that I tilted my laptop towards that most hallowed of stadiums, so that Wrigley got to see a piece of your movie. Unfortunately, the Cubs are in San Diego, so no thoughts from Anthony Rizzo will be found here. I tried, man. I tried.)

[Read more…]

King of the Monsters: A Godzilla Primer

Leave a Comment

Godzilla-2014-Teaser-Trailer-Poster

Way, way back in kindergarten – somewhere around 1992, if my memory doth serve – I distinctly remember a journal entry I was asked to write. (Go ahead, try and remember what you were writing about in kindergarten. I’ll wait.) The topic was “What games do you like to play at recess?” In these journals, our teacher was looking for a minimum of one (1) word, which could be accompanied by pictures to better illustrate the nature of the physical activities we were getting up to for fifteen minutes a day five times a week. Many of my colleagues wrote simple entries about the joys of playing kickball, tag, or the legendary game of “slide”, which involved a stick figure standing halfway down a right angle triangle that would have given Pythagoras nightmares for millennia. My teacher, poor Mrs. Richards, went around the class, reading them out loud for everyone to share. Naturally, a fair shake of trouble-makers had not participated, which led to much laughter and consternation amongst the class.

Finally, she arrived at my desk. I proudly/simply handed over my journals – I had been unable to decide upon a single game that would accurately define how I spent my time at recess, and so I had provided not one, not two, but three journal entries. (This indecisiveness would become greatly reflected in my extracurriculars and career choices for years to come.) Mrs. Richards took them up, cleared her throat, and prepared to read them out loud.

Then she stopped.

“Travis?”

“Yes, Mrs. Richards?”

“What’s this?” She showed me the second – already out of order! – of my highly detailed journal entries, utterly baffled by what I had created.

[Read more…]

Only Cheating If You Get Caught: Thoughts From the Dugout

Leave a Comment

The baseball season is well underway. The Milwaukee Brewers are in 1st Place (HOLY JEEBUS, YOU GUYS), Albert Pujols is hitting like Albert Pujols again, Billy Hamilton is slowly learning the art of hitting (slowly…), and Wrigley Field has turned 100 years old. While it’s still early, we’ve got nearly a month of great games under our belts, without a care in the world.

michael pineda pine tar

Ah.

[Read more…]

The Best of Friends: Thoughts from the Dugout

Leave a Comment

fight of their lives

Spring training is rolling right along. Players all across the major leagues are fighting for roster spots, Ryan Braun apparently can’t not hit the ball (hmm, suspicious…maybe…PED’S?!?!?! *cue screeching violins*), and yours truly is equally focusing his attention between baseball, his own outside projects, the final month ever of How I Met Your Mother, and trying to decide which NBA team he should root for. (I mean, Stephen Curry is awesome, so Golden State? Or the Bulls, even though they’re perpetually doomed?)

What this means is that there’s not terribly much for yours truly to write about. Fortunately, I have made promises, promises that I intend to keep. Thus, a book review.

[Read more…]

Rumor-Mongering: A Few Brief Words on “How I Met Your Mother”

1 Comment

I don’t watch much TV. This is partly because my schedule is so out of whack with normality that it’s difficult for me to regularly keep up with any television show. I will marathon the shit out of TV series when I am given the opportunity – which is what shows like Breaking Bad and True Detective are destined for…one day. The other factor is that it’s hard for me to put that much emotional investment into a serialized form of media – I end up caring way, way too much about what I’m watching – and don’t deal well with not knowing what’s going to happen. (I’ve already had ONE Lord of the Rings series in my life, thank you very much. I don’t need it twenty-four times a year for five to seven years running)

How_I_Met_Your_Mother_1

Which is what’s caused me to feel such immense outrage over How I Met Your Mother today.

[Read more…]

A Tale of Three Rosters: Thoughts from the Dugout

Leave a Comment

Philadelphia Phillies v Atlanta Braves

Good afternoon.

As the Addison Recorder’s resident baseball columnist/editor/self-appointed scribe, I’m making a resolution this year to bring you the weekly baseball column I’ve always wanted to write. I’ll continue to write about movies, theatre, and whatever other events cross my path, but after joining the IWBAA, I feel it’s my personal duty to live up to the standards that membership in such an organization calls for. (I.E., more baseball writing) Hence, consider this my first column from the Dugout across from Wrigley Field (otherwise known as Bag End). It is my hope to be the closest baseball writer of residence next to the greatest ballpark in America (and possibly any ballpark, unless someone can tell me that they live closer to a stadium than I do. The challenge is out!).

Having said that, I am aware that Spring Training has just begun. Which is awesome, but far from a wealth of immediate topics to write about.

[Read more…]

Growing Up Jeter: Looking Back to Look Ahead

Leave a Comment

jeter

I’m getting this column out a little early. It would normally be posted some time in October/November, but I’m predicting that I’ll have…something going on then that would prevent me from giving this particular piece the due attention that it deserves. So we’re running it a little early.

Derek Jeter announced this week that this upcoming MLB season will be his last playing the professional sport of baseball. No more October glories. No more leaping throws to first. No more singles dumped into right field with scientific precision. No more articles about his lack of defensive prowess. Well, actually, those aren’t going anywhere. In fact, they’ll breed like roaches after the apocalypse. Sorry, Internet.

It would appear that Jeter saw the season-long hero’s tribute that Mariano Rivera received last season (rightfully so; the man was hands down the greatest closer the game has yet seen), where as the Yankees traveled from city to city, Rivera was treated like Napoleon passing through the Arc D’Triomphe, receiving gifts of plenty and beneficence from dignitaries and opposing teams alike. It was particularly unreal, something that seldom happens in sports because of our tendency to vilify everyone and everything under the sun. (The NFL season is too short for a farewell tour, basketball’s greats tend to hang on until the last minute before retiring (three times), and hockey is apparently a sport that’s popular in Canada.)

If you thought last season’s six-month tribute to Rivera was crazy, wait until you get a load of what Jeter’s farewell is gonna look like this year.

[Read more…]

Playing the Part: Acting and ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

Leave a Comment

Dallas_Buyers_Club_poster

As this Oscar season has rolled on, there’s been a semi-contentious debate amongst many of those on staff here at the Addison Recorder. This is nothing new to the website (ask Alex and/or myself about the merits of baseball if you have an afternoon that you absolutely have nothing better to waste it on), and is one of the benefits of working on a culture blog: everyone is sure to have an opinion. One of the arguments this year has been the relative merit of performances in regards to a film’s whole. Some of us reside in a camp that appreciates good acting on its own as a way of validation for a film, while others believe that outstanding performances are useless if the film has nothing to say or is nothing more than a rote recitation of familiar tropes. The film that has most come under fire is the biopic, a telling of a single character’s life story that often has a fairly simplistic underlying message.  More often than not, these are films that are highly praised for their lead performances come Oscar-time, but seldom have a lasting impact upon popular culture. (Think Jamie Foxx in Ray, or Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line, a remake of Ray with white people.)

This year is no exception to bringing forth another film to add to the list. Dallas Buyers Club is a movie that has spent several years getting tossed around Hollywood in a nonstop quest for funding, taking shape in the early 90’s with Woody Harrelson attached to the lead role of Ron Woodruff. Over the years, actors such as Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling have been tied to the part. It wasn’t until Matthew McConaughey signed on that the film gained any real traction, debuting last year to universal acclaim.

[Read more…]

Revenge of #ManningDerp: The Superb Owl Doobie Bros. Smoke-A-Bowl Live Blog

Leave a Comment

superbowl-2014-logo

Welcome back to the Annual tradition that nobody at all ever asked for, but is getting out of the sheer kindness of my heart: The Addison Recorder live-blog of the Super Bowl! (I realize that I’m a baseball, theatre, and film writer, but, like most Americans with a pulse, I have watched a game of football before. In Internet terms, this qualifies me to write anything and everything about the NFL. You’re welcome, Earth.)

This year’s combatants are the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, two teams from the only two states in the union where marijuana is (mostly) legal. (Hence the title) It pits the fantastic offense of Peyton Manning against my current favorite NFL player, Richard Sherman, and the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom defense. In the meantime, you have Russell Wilson, the Rich Man’s RGIII, against whatever the Broncos have going on defense. I hear Champ Bailey is a thing that’s happening.

[Read more…]

Lions Among Men: Why I Love Richard Sherman

Leave a Comment

richard sherman

By now, I’m sure everyone is aware that the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos won their respective conference title games yesterday, and will be playing in the Super Bowl in two weeks time. During those two weeks, the Internet (and media in general) will be swamped with an overabundance of reporting on topics ranging from the use of “Omaha” in Peyton Manning’s cadences to the quest for the Seahawks’ first title in franchise history. Most people will be sick of this, yet will continue to click upon every link offered to them because…well, football. (You can also look ahead with relish and anticipation for my annual liveblog of the Super Bowl, because football.)

[Read more…]