Florida
Long Gone
April 19, 2010
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Long Gone is a 1987 tv-movie that first appeared on HBO.
Based on a novel by Richard Hemphill, it’s a tale about baseball, corruption, and sex centered on a minor league baseball team in Florida in the late 1950’s.
At the heart of the Tampico Stogies baseball team is Cecil “Stud” Cantrell, a long-time minor-league pitcher, manager, and slugger who almost made the big leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals.
He competed with Stan Musial. Cantrell says that he hit the ball harder but Stan the Man had a prettier swing. It was at the dawn of World War II. Cantrell served his country, but war injuries prevented him from going farther than minor league ball.
William Petersen of CSI fame plays Cantrell.
His protégé is Jamie Don Weeks, played by Dermot Mulroney. At first a naive player who simply wants to play baseball, Jamie transforms into a grown man and emulates Stud’s mannerisms.
He also gets his girlfriend pregnant -- Esther Wrenn, played by Katy Boyer.
Cantrell’s girlfriend is the young but world-wise Dixie Lee Boxx, played by Virginia Madsen.
Henry Gibson plays Hale Buchman, owner of the Stogies. Teller of Penn and Teller plays his son in a rare talking performance.
Larry Riley plays Joe Louis Brown, a catcher with tremendous power. In one scene, the KKK stops the Stogies’ team bus in the middle of the night. The Stogies chase off the Klan with baseball bats and Brown knocks a burning cross to the ground with a powerful swing.
The Stogies’ chief rival is the Dothan Cardinals. J. Harrell Smythe, the Cardinals’ owner, makes Cantrell and Riley an offer. Throw a decisive game against the Cardinals. Brown gets a brand new car. Cantrell gets a contract with the Dothan Cardinals. An enticing offer for Cantrell considering he never gave up his dream of working in the Cardinals’ organization after losing a spot to Musial.
To see how the story ends, check out Long Gone if you can find it.
Long Gone may be long gone, but not forgotten.
david@davidkrell.com
Long Gone is a 1987 tv-movie that first appeared on HBO.
Based on a novel by Richard Hemphill, it’s a tale about baseball, corruption, and sex centered on a minor league baseball team in Florida in the late 1950’s.
At the heart of the Tampico Stogies baseball team is Cecil “Stud” Cantrell, a long-time minor-league pitcher, manager, and slugger who almost made the big leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals.
He competed with Stan Musial. Cantrell says that he hit the ball harder but Stan the Man had a prettier swing. It was at the dawn of World War II. Cantrell served his country, but war injuries prevented him from going farther than minor league ball.
William Petersen of CSI fame plays Cantrell.
His protégé is Jamie Don Weeks, played by Dermot Mulroney. At first a naive player who simply wants to play baseball, Jamie transforms into a grown man and emulates Stud’s mannerisms.
He also gets his girlfriend pregnant -- Esther Wrenn, played by Katy Boyer.
Cantrell’s girlfriend is the young but world-wise Dixie Lee Boxx, played by Virginia Madsen.
Henry Gibson plays Hale Buchman, owner of the Stogies. Teller of Penn and Teller plays his son in a rare talking performance.
Larry Riley plays Joe Louis Brown, a catcher with tremendous power. In one scene, the KKK stops the Stogies’ team bus in the middle of the night. The Stogies chase off the Klan with baseball bats and Brown knocks a burning cross to the ground with a powerful swing.
The Stogies’ chief rival is the Dothan Cardinals. J. Harrell Smythe, the Cardinals’ owner, makes Cantrell and Riley an offer. Throw a decisive game against the Cardinals. Brown gets a brand new car. Cantrell gets a contract with the Dothan Cardinals. An enticing offer for Cantrell considering he never gave up his dream of working in the Cardinals’ organization after losing a spot to Musial.
To see how the story ends, check out Long Gone if you can find it.
Long Gone may be long gone, but not forgotten.
Recount
June 04, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
HBO's 2008 tv-movie Recount dramatizes the events surrounding the controversial Florida votes in the 2000 presidential election.
The docudrama faces an enormous challenge because we viewed the real-life drama day after day on 24-hour cable news channels.
Recount takes us behind-the-scenes of the respective Gore and Bush campaigns, showing us the conversations, strategies, and debates that emerged in the post-2000 presidential election confusion concerning Florida's electoral votes.
Tom Wilkinson plays Bush team leader, Bush family friend, and former Secretary of State James Baker, a street-smart, no-nonsense, bottom-line politician.
John Hurt plays his counterpart, Gore team leader Warren Christopher. Christopher was also Secretary of State.
At the center of the controversy is Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State and Co-Chair of the Bush Presidential Campaign in Florida.
Laura Dern plays Harris, a woman who must navigate through the pressures of Republican politics, sudden media attention, and jokes about her hair and makeup.
At the heart of Recount is Kevin Spacey, an acting force on stage, film, and television.
Spacey plays Ron Klain, a Gore insider once aced out of his pole position by an internal campaign competitor in the fast track world of presidential campaign politics. Now, Klain is back in the eye of the storm joined by Michael Whouley, a Democratic operative, genius political analyst, and brother-in-arms. Denis Leary plays Whouley.
Recount may take liberties with the behind-closed-doors conversations, but the subject matter is relevant.
And the factual scenario doesn't change.
Gore did concede to Bush, then called back to retract the concession.
And that's when things pretty much started to transition from a snowball to an avalanche.
Protests.
Lawsuits.
And pundits around the clock on CNN and the relatively fledgling cable news channels MSNBC and FOX News Channel. Both channels debuted in 1996, just four years prior to the Bush-Gore presidential contest.
Recount is somewhat nostalgic. Though the events in the story took place less than ten years ago, the time seems like another era.
Since the 2000 presidential election, we've seen...
...the horror of the September 11, 2001 attacks,
...the war in Iraq,
...new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees,
...Must See TV sitcoms losing exalted status to filmed comedies without a laugh track or studio audience -- My Name Is Earl, The Office,
...the first African-American President of the United States,
...and the last of a Clinton wanting to be President of the United States.
Well, maybe not everything changed.
david@davidkrell.com
HBO's 2008 tv-movie Recount dramatizes the events surrounding the controversial Florida votes in the 2000 presidential election.
The docudrama faces an enormous challenge because we viewed the real-life drama day after day on 24-hour cable news channels.
Recount takes us behind-the-scenes of the respective Gore and Bush campaigns, showing us the conversations, strategies, and debates that emerged in the post-2000 presidential election confusion concerning Florida's electoral votes.
Tom Wilkinson plays Bush team leader, Bush family friend, and former Secretary of State James Baker, a street-smart, no-nonsense, bottom-line politician.
John Hurt plays his counterpart, Gore team leader Warren Christopher. Christopher was also Secretary of State.
At the center of the controversy is Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State and Co-Chair of the Bush Presidential Campaign in Florida.
Laura Dern plays Harris, a woman who must navigate through the pressures of Republican politics, sudden media attention, and jokes about her hair and makeup.
At the heart of Recount is Kevin Spacey, an acting force on stage, film, and television.
Spacey plays Ron Klain, a Gore insider once aced out of his pole position by an internal campaign competitor in the fast track world of presidential campaign politics. Now, Klain is back in the eye of the storm joined by Michael Whouley, a Democratic operative, genius political analyst, and brother-in-arms. Denis Leary plays Whouley.
Recount may take liberties with the behind-closed-doors conversations, but the subject matter is relevant.
And the factual scenario doesn't change.
Gore did concede to Bush, then called back to retract the concession.
And that's when things pretty much started to transition from a snowball to an avalanche.
Protests.
Lawsuits.
And pundits around the clock on CNN and the relatively fledgling cable news channels MSNBC and FOX News Channel. Both channels debuted in 1996, just four years prior to the Bush-Gore presidential contest.
Recount is somewhat nostalgic. Though the events in the story took place less than ten years ago, the time seems like another era.
Since the 2000 presidential election, we've seen...
...the horror of the September 11, 2001 attacks,
...the war in Iraq,
...new stadiums for the Mets and Yankees,
...Must See TV sitcoms losing exalted status to filmed comedies without a laugh track or studio audience -- My Name Is Earl, The Office,
...the first African-American President of the United States,
...and the last of a Clinton wanting to be President of the United States.
Well, maybe not everything changed.