Too much TV, Too much LeBron

That's what I was telling my son, John, as we watched the St. Ed vs. St. Ignatius basketball game in Sullivan Gym last Friday. The St. Ed Eagles had a terrible first half. Missing about 10 of 15 free throws was only part of the problem. They also lost the ball with careless no-look passes in the chaos underneath the basket more than once.

"They watch too much television. They see LeBron do that and because he makes it look easy, they think it's easy," I said to John.

It's not easy. What they don't see are the hundreds of hours of practice and teamwork necessary to perfect the behind-the-back one-bounce pass to Varejao for the easy back door layup. Other NBA teams can't do that, much less high school kids who are captivated by the way it looks on television. LeBron is unique. Before they try to emulate his style, they should emulate his work ethic.

Bang the Drum Slowly

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That's the 8 o'clock movie Wednesday night on TCM. It's on most people's top 10 list of all-time favorite baseball movies. It's an oldie, 1973, starring a very young Robert De Niro as a dying catcher and an equally young Michael Moriarty as the ace pitcher of the New York Mammoths. It's a sappy, corny tear-jerker and you'll love it.

It was De Niro's breakout role. He won the New York Film Critics award for best supporting actor. Vincent Gardenia, who played the Mammoths' manager, won an Oscar for best supporting actor.

Here's a little backstory. De Niro had no baseball skills whatsoever. He never played the game, not even on the sandlots or street ball when he was growing up. As an actor, he was very good, but as a baseball player he had no business getting the role. He needed coaching and the man hired to tutor him in baseball was Dell Bethel, who was the baseball coach at City College of New York (CCNY for you old time basketball fans).

Dell later lived in North Ridgeville when he coached baseball at North Ridgeville High School and Lake Ridge Academy. He died on June 26, 2008, at the age of 78. For years he was a regulr visitor to Indians games. We miss seeing him around the batting cage.

Dell told me that in May and June of 1972 he worked with De Niro in Central Park in New York. He would teach him catching and throwing in the early mornings. In the afternoons the actual scenes were shot in Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium. Dell wound up getting a bit part in the movie as the third base coach.

De Niro must have been a willing pupil. Years later he played Al Capone in the "The Untouchables" and he knew how to swing a baseball bat when he battered in the head of one of his gang members who went astray.

One other side note. "Bang the Drum Slowly" was first presented to great acclaim as a live one-hour drama on television's "U. S. Steel Hour" in 1956 with Paul Newman in the starring role as pitcher Henry Wiggen. The original novel by Mark Harris came out in 1955.

This reminds me that Newman has played more sports roles than any other actor. He was boxer Tony Graziano in "Somebody Up There Likes Me," a race car driver in "Winning," a minor league hockey coach in "Slap Shot," a pool shark in "The Hustler" and "The Color of Money," a horse racing scam artist in "The Sting" and a football coach in a TV movie.

(That's all for now.)