At The Baseball Movies, #2

[M.S. Burton]

In honor of the All Star Game and the sterling new motto of the fans at
the Jake ("Vote Early, Vote Often") we present another installment of
'At The Baseball Movies' -- we watch 'em so you don't have to...

The Kid from Cleveland, 1949. Republic Pictures.

Black & white programmer, written by John Bright (best known for the
series of early Cagney films he wrote in the 30s), and directed by Herbert
Kline, a respected documentarian trying to make it in feature films. A
movie with far too much plot and not enough baseball, especially as it
actually has the guys right there who could make the baseball look good.

It stars George Brent (a wooden leading man of the early 40s, whose real
life was far more lively than any of his film performances), Lynn Bari
(who usually played leading ladies in B-movies, and the other woman in
A-list pictures) and 'introduces' Little Rusty Tamblyn as Johnny Burrows

Rusty had already made several other films at this point and worked on the
stage & radio for years. You may recall Russ from his fine later work in
West Side Story, Twin Peaks, and (my personal favorite) his cameo
appearance as Chocki the Sharkman in Cabin Boy.

The film also features "His 30 Godfathers" a.k.a. Bill Veeck, Tris Speaker
and the 1948 Cleveland Indians -- shortstop/manager Lou Boudreau, Hank
Greenberg, Bob Feller, Gene Bearden, Satchel Paige, Bob Lemon, Steve
Gromek, Joe Gordon, Mickey Vernon, Ken Keltner, Ray Boone, Dale Mitchell,
Larry Doby, Bob Kennedy, Jim Hegan. The guys are actually pretty relaxed
and natural, and Boudreau, Feller & especially Veeck come across very
well.

As the credits end, we see Little Johnny Burrows cut across a field
through the day-for-night twilight, vault lightly over a fence (betraying
the fact that by age 14, Tamblyn was already a trained dancer & tumbler)
and run across the empty street towards Cleveland Stadium. Over a shot of
an enormous cutout of the 1948 version of Chief Wahoo a title card tells
us that:

"This is the story of a city, a kid and a baseball team."

Johnny vaults another fence and hunkers down behind a car in the Indian's
office parking lot as radio broadcaster Mike Jackson (Brent) pulls up in
his cool Pontiac convertible next to the hiding boy. Mike adjusts his
snap-brim fedora, pauses to light a cigarette (illuminating his pencil
thin mustache) and in voiceover tells us that he'll "never forget that
night, the night it all began. It was just before the 5th game of the 1948
World Series between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Braves...."

Mike heads into the offices to track down Veeck & Boudreau to arrange some
gameday interviews, and Johnny sneaks into the stadium behind him. Racing
down through the stands, he jumps the barrier and sits down on the dugout
bench looking about with happiness and awe. Finding a bat left behind, he
runs fleetly out to home plate, chokes up on the bat and takes some
invisible pitches. He singles, and is dancing just off 1st base harrassing
the pitcher, when caught on the field by Mike, Bill Veeck, Hank Greenberg,
and Lou Boudreau.

Lou asks Johnny who they should pick to start game 5, and Johnny, after
being assured they aren't just kidding him, votes for Feller "cause he
only gave Boston two hits in the opening game." Veeck (ever the careful
owner) wants to know how Johnny got into the stadium, and Mike (caring
Play-by-Play man that he is) points out that it is a little late for a boy
to still be up, and won't his folks be worried? It turns out that Johnny
is an orphan, and he'd hitched up from Columbus to see the Indians win,
planning to sleep in the dugout... Mike volunteers to put him up for the
night... "if my wife hasn't locked me out already!", he joshes. Lou
suddenly recalls he has to head on home to the wife as well, and Hank says
he's promised to stop by and see Tris. Cut to Hank and Tris Speaker
walking out into the parking lot, Hank gently holding Speaker's elbow and
telling him that he wishes that Tris was going to be out there on the
field for them tomorrow.

Mike drives young Johnny home, where his wife Katherine (set designer,
mother and "the most understanding woman in the world") is waiting.
Katherine appears to be a set designer solely to introduce the plot point
that Johnny's dad was an architect before he was killed in the war. She
heads off to put their two little girls to bed, and Mike comes back down
to find Johnny sitting disconsolately in the living room, clutching Mike's
souvenir baseball, signed by all the Indians. Turns out good old Mike was
also an orphan, and as he tucks Johnny in on the sofa, he tells him that
he understands just how he feels. Upstairs, Katherine is waiting up in the
chair beside their twin beds. Putting her hand on Mike's arm, she tells
him dispairingly that one of their girls should have been a boy-- "or I
should have be able to have another child, so it could be a boy and you
could give him everything taken away from you..." (um, just a little
intense, here)

With the series at 3-1 in favor of the Indians, the fans in Cleveland are
anticipating their first series win since Speaker's 1920 team took it all.
We get a nice tour of Veeck's stadium (Katherine leaves the girls to play
in the free child care) and Mike heads down to the field to give us the
play by play, having put Johnny in the stands with a bunch of other boys.
The game doesn't start out well, Feller gives up a first pitch single to
the leadoff man, a grounder that the 3rd baseman can't handle, and then a
fly ball out over the fence (which is literally a wire fence in the
outfield corner, with hundreds of people standing directly behind it)
Three Braves in their away-greys with the snappy striped socks trot across
homeplate, shaking hands with the batter on deck. The Indians take the
lead in the 4th on a homer by catcher Jim Hegen. Veeck, tie-less as usual,
announces on the PA that the day's attendance of 86,288 has established a
new all-time baseball attendance record, and Mike chimes in that the
Indians have drawn over 3 million that year, more even that the Yankees in
the heyday of Ruth ever drew in a season. That darned Bill Veeck <g>

In the 7th, with the game all tied up, Feller gives up a single that
scores a Brave and (cutting away from the authentic series footage we've
been watching up to now) Lou comes over from shortstop to take him out of
the game ("Tough luck Bob, they've hit you pretty hard. I'm gonna make a
change.") Feller hands him the ball, Lou pats his butt and Feller heads
off on the longest walk in baseball. The game ends up with Warren Spahn
striking out the last Indian, winning the game for Boston, 11-5.

In the press room Mike is chatting to a couple of the writers as Veeck
wanders up and flops against a pillar. One of the writers asks Bill how
it's going. "What is there to say, we just got out brains knocked out, and
you know I don't like to lose", says Bill, still holding up the pillar.
Mike asks Bill who'll pitch game 6, Lemon or Beardon, and Veeck answers,
"Better ask Boudreau if you can find him. He runs the club when we lose."

Just then a hotdog guy hauls Johnny into the room, having caught him
swiping some money 'right outa my coat!'. Bill smooths it all over, and
send the vendor off, and asks Mike to handle it as they have headaches of
their own. All Johnny asks is that they not tell Lou what he did... In the
car, he tells Mike he did it to pay for the bus ride back home himself,
not wanting to take nothing from nobody... "Well, I can understand that",
says Mike sternly, "Nobody likes charity, but..." "I know", interupts
Johnny defensively, "I let everybody down."

Mike drive Johnny to Juvenile Hall, figuring they'll put him on the bus to
Columbus, and Johnny is forced to confess-- he isn't really an orphan, he
lives in Cleveland with his mom. Mike drives him home, and ruminates in
voiceover one more ("Johnny seemed like such a clean-cut kid. I couldn't
understand his stealing and lying. Something was wrong. And as we got to
Johnny's house, I felt the answer might be inside.")

Before they go up, Johnny confesses that he took the money to buy his mom
a toaster he'd promised for her birthday. Mike loans him the $20, and
Johnny then produces Mike's signed baseball which he'd also swiped, asking
that Mike not tell Mrs. Jackson. Mike thanks him for returning the ball,
as it was a gift that he treasured. They head on upstairs, and Johnny's
mom turns out to be a weepy soul in a crisp apron, who is remarried to a
tense man named Carl Novak who just wants to know where Johnny was the
night before. He then apologises tiredly for his testiness, as he'd taken
the night off from work to deal with it all, and been up for a day and a
half. Mike smooths things over and rapidly exits to avoid the family
upset.

Novak asks his wife to go make coffee and then tells Johnny the truant
officer had been there for the 3rd time that month... Johnny throws the
$20 at Carl ('This is for my rent and food. I don't owe you anything.')
and when Carl tells him to pick it up, hollars back 'You pick it up.
You're the one who cares about money". Novak slaps his face, then pauses,
looking horrified. Johnny runs out, smacking Carl's pipe rack to the
floor. His mother rushes into the room as Carl kneels down to pick up the
pieces and cries "Oh Carl, you shouldn't have struck him." He replies
heavily, "Don't you think there is an end to a man's patience, Emily?"

Johnny locks himself in his room, goes to his dead father's service trunk,
and pulls out a gun. He is looking meaningfully at it when an older kid
(with Hoodlum written all over him) whistles to him from outside the
window. Johnny tucks the gun away and climbs out the window to join him.
Turns out that Johnny was supposed to have been helping Dan with a freight
office robbery the night before for somebody named Mac... but Johnny cut
and ran. Hoodlum Dan roughs Johnny up a little, and Johnny runs off again,
winding up where a bunch of kids are choosing up sides for a game of
baseball and he joins in ("I get to be Boudreau." "No you don't, it's my
bat and ball") Why gosh, you just know he's gotta be a good kid, down
deep.

Game 6 in Boston; Bob Lemon on the mound gets the first one over for a
strike. "I want you folks back home to know the Indians are really
hustling today", says Mike earnestly. All of Cleveland listens in around
town, from the cabbie and window washer to the mayor of Cleveland and the
Governor of Ohio. Boudreau turns a nice 4-6-3 double play to end the 3rd,
gets a double (& RBI) in the 5th and then comes home on a Joe Gordon
homerun. In the bottom of the 9th (4-3 Cleveland) relief pitcher Gene
Beardon walks Eddie Stanky, the pinch hitter pops up a bunt and the 2-3
double play makes it just one out to a World Series win. Tommy Holmes
flies out to Mitchell and the Indians win the series. Much hugging ensues
as they carry Beardon off the field in triumph. The town goes crazy,
Indian crazy, as they celebrate the first championship in 28 years.

"I hadn't seen anything of Johnny for several weeks after the series
victory" intones Mike, standing off stage at the Cleveland Playhouse where
Katherine is working on a Shakespearian production. Johnny walks up and
tugs on his sleeve as folks move about for the rehearsal ("Guess you'd
rather watch Shakespeare than read it in school" jokes Mike.) Johnny has
come by to repay the $20 loan, which he has earned selling magazine
subscriptions. Katherine walks up and puts her arm around his shoulders as
they watch a bit of the gravedigger's speech... there is a quick cut to
the Browns running downfield. "My job changed with the seasons, and since
Johnny Barrows began dropping in after selling his magazines, I developed
the habit of taking him along on my assignments" They go see the Browns
(Bill Veeck tags along), basketball, hockey ("Johnny got the thrill of his
life as a junior sportswriter")

Spring rolls around and Mike and the family get ready to head off to
Tucson to cover spring training. Johnny helps carry the typewriter as they
pile into the car, and as the get set to leave, Mike hands him his
treasured signed baseball. Johnny says goodbye to the little girls and
gets on his bike as they drive off, pausing to look significantly at the
signed ball in his hand.

"Spring training at Tucson was really rugged. After a winter of rest the
Indians certainly needed that hot desert sun to work the kinks out of
their muscles and put their legs and arms in mid-season form. Those early
morning practice sessions also helped; the boys worked out as if they were
a basement club trying for the 1st division, instead of world champions
determined to make it two in a row. There wasn't one member of the team
who didn't take his work seriously, with every veteran always aware of the
fact that some flashy rookie could could come up and take his job. Manager
Lou Boudreau was taking nothing for granted, either. Those pepper games
may have looked like play, but they were hard work."

(FX: shots of BP, Satchel soft tossing, pepper being played as Lou wanders
across the fields conscientiously performing his managerial duties. "How's
the arm, Bob?" Coming along fine, Lou.")

Lou is opining to Mike that barring injuries the Indians have a chance at
the pennant again, when a clubhouse guys walks up with (who else) Johnny.
Johnny tells them he hadda come as his stepfather had beaten him because
they had an argument. "Couldn't I be batboy on the team, Lou?" "Well,
Johnny, you wouldn't want to take the regular batboy's job, would you? you
see, Maxie's father was in the marines and he didn't come back." Feller
peers over Boudreau's shoulder and tosses in, "Why don't you ask Maxie,
he's boss of the bats" before wandering off. Young Maxie agrees, and takes
Johnny off for some breakfast.

Lou says 'I wish all my problems were that easy, Mike, like getting rid of
Ted Williams for example, without the Boston Red Sox putting me in jail
for it." "Cut the kidding, Lou," says Mike, sighing in his hideous
Hawaiian shirt. "We haven't solved a thing and you know it. That kid ran
away from home. Of course, I've seen his stepfather and I can't say I that
blame him, but..." "You've only got one play to make, Mike" "I guess so,
but its going to be tough."

Johnny hangs around getting pitching tips from Satchel, who demonstrates
the hesitation pitch for him ("Took me twenty years to get that right"
"Satch, some folks say 30 years" says Feller. "Confidentially Johnny, I
think it's more like 40 years" chimes in Lemon, laughing heartily. Paige
smiles politely.) He also gets some batting instruction from Lou during
his BP cage time (Lou hits one out as Gene Beardon tosses BP). At a picnic
in the Jackson backyard, one of Mike's little girls hands him a hotdog
('cause you're my fella'). Johnny heads off to get more sodas as the
doorbell rings. Lou, Veeck and Tris talk about Satchel ("Said he wanted to
pitch the opener" "Might not be a bad bet, then we'd at least draw some
people") as Mike comes back into the yard with Johnny's stepfather who has
come to take him back to Cleveland. He tells Mike that he didn't beat the
boy, he just works long hours to provide for him and can't take him to
meet exciting ballplayers, and that maybe Mike influenced the boy to run
away. Johnny hearing bits and pieces of the conversation decides that Mike
not only squealed on him, he doesn't want him around.

He goes back to Cleveland with his stepfather (carefully leaving the
signed ball behind) and takes back up with Dan the Hoodlum, helping him
pull off petty thefts until the night he is appalled to see the kid beat
up a drunk to steal his station wagon. Cut to smooth customer Mac (played
by former Indian second-baseman turned actor John Berardino) selling the
wagon to another crook behind Mac's roadhouse. They settle the deal and
then go back inside to chisel the kids out of their cut for stealing it.
Dan treats Mac & Jake like Johnny does the Indians ("Tell me about San
Quentin, huh Jake?") and is eager to tell them about a bakery payroll he
thinks they can take, the bakery where Johnny's stepfather works. A young
woman is trying to get Mac's attention and failing, when whistles shriek
and the place is raided.

A detective pats down Mac and removes the car sale money; Jake hands over
the car keys, and then points out Mac as the fence and Dan as the thief--
for he is really Dawson Joyce, Undercover Juvenile Probation Officer (who
knew?) and the car buy was a sting. Mac swings at Joyce, and Johnny stops
Dan from knifeing the battling Joyce in the back. Joyce flattens Mac in a
manly fashion, then announces "I'll probably get in trouble with Juvenile,
but I've got a daughter at home not much older than this rat's protege".
Oh, did I mention that Joyce is played by one K. Elmo Lowe, perhaps not
coincidently also the associate producer?

"The 1949 season was tough sledding for the Indians and when they returned
to Cleveland at the end of May after a disastrous road trip the champions
were in seventh place. Katherine brought Marcie & Evelyn to the game and
there were 65,000 other loyal Cleveland fans present. But there was one
fan who didn't show up."

Mike is home, fretting not only about Boudreau & Feller's mutual slumps
but also about Johnny not coming out to the ballpark. (we know because he
picks up that damned signed ball and starts rolling it around in his
hands) Katherine tells him he can't keep blaming himself about letting
Johnny down in Arizona, and suggests calling Johnny. Mike mutters "After
the way I lost my temper with Novak, I'm not surprised he wouldn't let the
kid go to the game, doubt if he'll even let him talk to me on the phone"
He does call, though, and gets Mrs. Novak, who clutches the phone tightly
and tells him that Johnny is.... uh, visiting his Aunt Frieda downstate
and that she doesn't completely agree with Mr. Novak about everything and
she is sorry about what happened in Tucson and that she'll write Johnny
and tell him that Mr. Jackson called and sent tickets. Mike buys the story
wholesale, and hangs up happily.

The Indians play much better the next day (nice shot of Larry Doby beating
the tag into 2nd, and dusting off as the Athletics 2nd baseman complains
to the Ump) In the clubhouse after the game (great shots of the guys and
the trainer working on Boudreau) Mike and Veeck come down with a request
for Lou- a command performance. The kids at Juvenile Detention Home have
sent a letter asking that the Indians come sooner than the scheduled June
visit; of course, it means skipping morning practice-- Feller ambles over
and says it's ok with him; Lou says fine, he'll line up the guys. Bob adds
to Lou, "I'll never forget the eyes of those kids when you hit that homer
through the window last year."

Dawson Joyce meets Tris & Mike at the door of Juvenile Detention, his hand
artistically bandaged ("I ran it into a fence, a fence named Mac...") they
chat as they move through the hall ("Lou must be terribly worried about
the team's slump" "Sure is but he's a fellow who never shows it") and meet
a nice couple taking home a boy they've adopted ("Taking him home so soon?
but the Indians are coming!") They meet a juvenile court judge ("The
Indians are a great tonic for the boys. Last year they walked and talked
like the ballplayers for months") who heads off for a cozy chat with Tris
Speaker.

Mike and Joyce wander about and pass the girl from the road house ("Mainly
a question of a bad home environment. Especially her mother who's the kind
that lets her run around loose"), Dan ("I was wondering if you'd give us a
chance to help you, Danny") who blusters that he won't talk to nobody and
hollars into the next room, "here come's our pal the stoolpigeon. Don't
tell him nothin' ya hear" as Mike walks on through and is the only one
watching who is surprised to see Johnny there in Juvy Hall. Joyce tells
Mike that Johnny won't see his parents, won't even talk to Joyce ("though
he did keep his pal Dan from sticking a knife into me') Mike tries to talk
to him ("Don't you want to see the Indians, Johnny?" "I don't want to see
anybody!" he cries, averting his gaze.) Mike, being the guy we've come to
know, immediately gives up trying and leaves the room. Joyce asks Johnny
(as a favor to him) to come on down and see his friends the ballplayers.
Johnny agrees.

Down on the asphalt exercise yard the guys have their gloves on and are
having a pickup game with the kids (with the wonderful sight of Tris
Speaker and Larry Doby in nice suits, standing out in the 'outfield'
together) Feller wins the game by picking an eight year old off 2nd base,
Feller & Beardon compare fastball grips, Speaker, Mitchell & Doby show off
their batting stances, Mickey Vernon talks playing first base, Jim Hegen
shows how to give signals to the pitcher. Lou and Joe Gordon show off the
signals for a pick-off (Lou casually drawing Johnny into the circle) and
for a steal.

After the visit Joyce suggests Mike make another try at talking to Johnny
("the Indians broke the tension, but remember, he's been in nothing but
trouble since Tucson, so he's ashamed to face you"). Mike sits down next
to Johnny and says "you don't have to talk to me, but I'd like to talk to
you". Johnny flings himself at Mike and sobs.

Mike at home is clumsily messing about with the drapes. Katherine figures
out that Mike is attempting to fix them because he wants to broach the
subject of taking in Johnny as a foster child. She wonders aloud if they
really know him-- "would you trust him alone with the girls?" Mike says
that over at the home they're giving him a lot of psychological tests, and
Katherine brightly suggests they wait for the results. "Ok", Mike
smiles agreeably.

"What does this picture make you think of, Johnny?" asks the sweet-faced,
silver-haired psychologist.

She tells Mike that Johnny stole the baseball (again with the baseball)
not as a sneak thief, but instead indicating his love for Mike by taking
something that symbolized Mike-- but that they'll never be successful
until Johnny's hatred for his stepfather stops taking the form of
admiration for the Hoodlum Dan... Mike takes Johnny on an outing to the
museum and they figure out Dan never did anything to earn Johnny's
friendship, it was just that he was sore at the world, too. When they get
back, Joyce tells Johnny that he will get to go to the Indians game that
night for his good behaviour, and help Maxie with the bats. Johnny races
off, and Mike tells Joyce that if it is ok with Katherine, he would like
to take him. "It looks like I might have a son", he crows. "I don't want
to be a killjoy", warns Joyce, "but it is still a matter for the courts-
and we haven't finished our investigation of the Novaks side of the
picture." (oh, yeah, the parents. I guess they might still want him.)

Back at the stadium Mike is still brooding about getting Johnny, and Bill
points out that Johnny'd not only be getting Mike, but 30 godfathers as
well ("Yeah, you can count me in!" "Me too!" cry the fellas) Comes the day
of the court hearing, and the Novaks and the Jacksons (oh, and Bill Veeck
too <g>) all come before the Juvenile judge we met earlier. Joyce reports
that the psychologist says the boy has great hostility directed at his
stepfather and at his mother, and that it was his job as juvenile officer
to look into why the hostility. He found that the stepfather was baffled
as the boy hated him from the very first day; he didn't want to lose him,
having felt he got such a gift of a ready-made son when he married his
mother. The mother was evasive during the interview, and mentioned a
secret...

They take a recess and as Johnny wanders about, he sees Dan being loaded
into an ambulance; Joyce walks up and tells him that Dan has had a
breakdown, being unable to handle the world he was never allowed to be a
child in -- "it didn't have to happen to Dan, but he'd never let anybody
help him... won't you let me help you, Johnny?". Johnny then tells Joyce
that he thinks it all has to do with The Secret; the day Novak came to
live with them, about a year after they'd moved out of their nice home,
the one Dad had built. He came home after playing ball and mom had taken
down Dad's picture, and moved it and his Army trunk into Johnny's room,
along with his uniform ("worn by the finest man who ever lived, son"),
along with all the little gifts he'd given her in high school and she
wanted him to lock up the trunk and keep it for both of them, as their
secret.... because "something happened today, dear, that's going to make a
little difference in our lives. Mother got married."

It turns out that in her attempt to explain why she had moved his father's
things out of the bedroom she gave Johnny the impression that she'd only
married Novak for his wages and that she still only loved his father... so
he had never accepted Novak and all his deliquency dated from that point.
"Oh, honey, I never had a chance" says Novak brokenly, as she sobs into
her hanky that she loved him when she married him, but didn't know how to
tell the boy.

Joyce recommends that the boy be sent home with his parents, but be
allowed to see the Jacksons and the Indians as they were such a good
influence on him. Mike agrees it is the right choice, now that he knows
the truth about the situation, but as the judge points out, the boy is
sitting in his chambers expecting to go home with the Jacksons and still
feeling hostile towards his stepfather..... At this, Veeck steps up to
the plate. "Your honor, I have a suggestion if you don't mind my butting
in." The judge twinkles at him, "I thought we agreed once that I'd stop
telling you how to run the Indians, if you'd allow me to run this court in
my own way." "Fair enough," says Bill "But Johnny thinks so much of Mike
that I think he'd understand better if you let him tell him." Mike
agrees, if Bill comes along too.

Mike and Bill try to tell Johnny he has to look at it differently, but
Johnny stubbornly refuses to admit he ever liked Novak, and that he never
could like him. Bill says "Johnny, you like Joe Gordon, don't you?" "Sure
Bill, he's great." "Well, I want to tell you a little story about Joe
Gordon and Larry Doby. When Larry first joined the club, he was kind of in
a spot, something like Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers, do you
know what I mean?" (cut to shot of Larry at bat) "Larry was nervous when
he first came up to bat. Very nervous. Much more nervous than your average
rookie, for you see he had the additional load of some 15 million people
riding on his back, and that's quite a load." (shot of Lou on the dugout
step looking worried..."strike one") "Larry wasn't just batting for
himself he was batting for 15 million people." ("strike two") "And there
was a lot at stake (shot of Bill looking worried as we hear "strike
three")

"When he struck out, he felt he'd let all those people down on his team.
After Larry struck out he made that long trip to the dugout, and went down
the dugout steps, and walked the entire length and sat down in the extreme
corner. He was the picture of absolute dejection. The kid was heartbroken,
he'd failed all his people. The next batter up was Joe Gordon, one of
baseball's really great hitters ("strike one" as Larry sits, shaking his
head. "strike two" as the ball goes past Joe) "He takes a huge cut at the
next one, and misses by maybe six inches more than Larry did. I don't say
he did it intentionally, but I know he's never missed a pitch by that much
before. and Joe too made that long trip to the dugout, and didn't stop at
the usual place, but walked all the way to the end, too sit next to this
heartbroken kid near the end, and he too sat in the exactly same position
to prove to this boy that here at least he was just another ballplayer."
(Joe slyly looks under hat brim at Larry, Larry smiles shyly at Joe) "See
what I mean, Johnny? Your stepfather is in kind of a special spot, like
Larry was, so why don't you give him a break, like Joe gave Larry..."

"well....." says Johnny.

Back home, Mom tries to explain her mistake and asks him to give Novak a
chance, just now pointing out that Novak had been saving two years to send
Johnny to Carnagie Tech to study architecture just like his dad, if that
was what Johnny wanted.... Johnny says he wants to apologize now to Carl
for breaking his pipes, and goes up to Carl to shake his hand... and then
throws his arms around him. awwww.

Mike assures us (once again in toneless voiceover) that although we may
not know if Johnny will graduate from bat boy to bigleaguer, or more
likely follow in his father's footsteps, we do know he isn't likely to go
back to the boy he was. The end.

----

Frankly, I wanted to see more of the Indians... not something I often
find myself saying. I'd say, worth taping and then fast-forwarding through
the plot. Pause when Veeck is there, as he is a unique screen presence
(I'm not sure I see Bill Murray in the role though, whenever they finally
get around to actually filming 'Veeck as in Wreck' <g> ) and also pause
during the footage of the guys-- there are some nice shots at spring
training, and around the clubhouse.

The Kid from Cleveland can be seen next week on AMC, July 15th at 1:00 pm.

It is preceeded at 11:15 pm by 'The Winning Team', a dramatic biographical
study of pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander (played by that noted
ballplayer Ronald Reagan) in which we discover that contrary to all those
stories down through the years, Alexander's problems didn't stem from a
crabby temperment and a tendancy to imbibe, but from a slight vision
problem caused by an unfortunate accident. His loving wife (Doris Day)
stands by him, of course, through his triumphant return.