Daily Archives: December 30, 2008

Clint Eastwood is a throwback in the best possible sense. He is a product of the old Hollywood and he works–a pro’s pro.  Like John Huston, he’s one of the rare directors who continue to make good movies late into their career. 

In his latest film, the winning and often subtle melodrama, Gran Torino, Eastwood pulls off a neat trick. He plays a variation of his Dirty Harry persona without lapsing into camp. He knows the audience is aware that they are looking at Eastwood the Icon, but like an old fashioned movies star (Spency Tracy or Bogart come to mind), he doesn’t let that trip him up. He’s able to play off his previous tough guy roles with a great deal of humor but without sacrificing the credibility of this character or the movie. He’s completely believable and authentic.

And I don’t think I’ve ever seen Eastwood ever look more physically relaxed as an actor. He moves with sure, unhurried confidence. I used to find his acting empty and hollow.  I never got the joke, or if I did, never really appreciated it. But now there is a complexity and warmth to his acting.  The grunts and mumbles are used to great effect.

Gran Torino isn’t as heavy or somber as Mystic River though it is often a sad, melancholy film.  But I think it is more satisfying.  Eastwood’s direction is fresh–I wouldn’t say playful exactly, but it is loose.   There is nothing stodgy about it.  In fact, there is a quiet joy about the filmmaking here. Almost everything is underplayed. There are a few missteps–some of the actors seem to be amateurs and they come up short in a few scattered scenes (though on the whole they are endearing), and Eastwood himself sings over the final credits, and sounds vaguely like Fozzie Bear–but they are minor.

I expected to enjoy Gran Torino but I wound up liking it even more than that. It’s not a big movie, but it is an fine entertainment, made with a sly sense of humor and an open heart.  This is Eastwood at the top of his game.

I explore the similarities between the Yankee and Red Sox rotations in my new piece analyzing Boston’s deal with Brad Penny for SI.com. Check it out.

Before we get into today’s topic, I would like to relay an update to the community on Todd Drew’s progress. His wife, who is keeping up his e-mails for him while he recovers from his surgery, said he’s in stable but serious condition, and has turned a corner. She added that he was “touched” by the response all of his “baseball blog friends” had to the “Baseball and Me” post on December 22. As of this writing, she hadn’t yet given Todd the news of the Mark Teixeira signing.

It may be a couple of weeks before he is online again, and contributing here.

On behalf of all of us here at the Banter, Mrs. Drew, if you’re reading this, Todd’s baseball blog friends hope the corner he’s turned allows him to coast into home without a play at the plate.

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It’s winter in New York. The Giants are in prime position for their third Super Bowl trip to Tampa in 18 years, the Jets are the Jets, the Rangers and Devils are in another dogfight for metro area bragging rights and playoff position, and the Knicks, although they still have a long way to go, are at least more entertaining than they’ve been in years past. But even with all the other sports jockeying for backpage headlines, the main attraction is baseball. If there was ever a doubt about this, look no further than last week, with the acquisition of first baseman Mark Teixeira.

Leave it to the Yankees to lie in the weeds, swoop in and land another big free-agent fish. Since the inception of free agency, no team has played the game better, with more fervor, or worked the system to its favor, than the Yankees. This mindset, the relentless commitment to spend whatever it takes to get the necessary pieces to win, has defined the Yankees organization, even before Free Agency (remember the old joke that the Kansas City A’s were the Yankees’ Major League farm team)?

As a result, the Yankees make sports editors’ jobs very easy.

Tex’s migration to pinstripes brought unleashed the haters from all walks of the media landscape. (Again, credit goes to Diane Firstman for her link work here at the Banter, keeping us apprised of all the Yankeecentric goings-on in cyberspace. Diane, I hope your back doesn’t hurt from all the heavy lifting. Tip: Use the legs and hip flexors.) That was to be expected; the Yankees are arguably the most galvanizing organization in professional sports. The analysis through all walks of the Internet coverage, both for and against the signing, and the stories that relayed the ancillary effects of the signing, was excellent. Best of all, it was entertaining.

That’s not always the case. Events like the Teixeira signing tend to bring out a mixture of the best and worst in terms of reporting, fact-checking, story construction, and follow-up. Few stories fall into the mediocre gray area. In my opinion, the resultant coverage of CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett signings and press conferences elicited throwaway pieces (my own blog in this space included). There was little beyond the obvious.

With Teixeira, though, something clicked. The local beat crew and columnists, as well as the national group — FoxSports.com’s Dayn Perry in particular — brought their A games. The blogosphere has been especially prescient. Cliff Corcoran’s work on this site, particularly on the economics of the 2009 Yankee roster compared to 2008, has been spot-on. Baseball Prospectus stalwarts Joe Sheehan, followed Cliff’s lead. Steve Goldman has done his typical yeoman’s work at YESNetwork.com. Replacement Level’s straight-up numerical analysis on the recent signings and the effect Andy Pettitte would have on the ’09 rotation has been educational and necessary. Pete Abe got sabermetric in his disgust at the Yankees’ treatment of Chien-Ming Wang.

If all the scribes maintain this level, we are in for a tremendous year on the baseball writing.

What’s going on now is true information sharing. No longer is there an “eyes and ears of the fan” for the press. More often than not, the fans, or as I like to call us, the “outsiders,” are as educated, if not more so, than the people employed by the major media outlets holding BBWAA cards.

The only thing they have on us is access.

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Powered by Pandora Internet Radio, here’s the news:

• Add Astros’ owner Drayton McLane to those who see what the Yankees are doing, and then voices an interest in a salary cap:

“We would love to have a salary cap, but the (players’) union has been very resistant to that,” McLane said last week. …

“The Yankees are the Yankees and are always going to be in a
position that is unique to the game from the standpoint of the revenues and what they’re capable of doing,” Astros general manager Ed Wade said. …

“Our revenues jumped going into a new park (in 2000), but nowhere in the league of the Yankees,” McLane said. “They will certainly generate more revenue in their new stadium. We still have tough, tough economic times, and I hope they allot for that.” …

… the club is bracing to be hit hard as corporate sponsors rethink how to spend their advertising dollars in a troubled economy. The Astros lost one of their major sponsors earlier this year when Landmark Chevrolet went bankrupt.

“These are challenging times for banks and car dealerships,” McLane said. “None of us have knowledge of what the economy is going to do, and that’s a concern for everyone.”

• SI.com’s Frank Deford rails against the Yankees spending, and will henceforth refer to them as the “Antoinettes”:

Now, let us give the devil its due. The Bronx Bombers play by the rules. They pay their luxury tax on time, without whining. One of their executives even says that the team’s fans view the Antoinettes as a “sacred trust,” and that part of the attendant liturgy is that the club will pour profits back into inventory —- even if it means bidding against itself.

But still, there is a point, whether the economy is boom or bust, when one team’s extravagance is so gross that it tarnishes the sense of competition. New York’s dominance a half-century ago severely diminished the whole American League. It was the Yankees and the seven dwarfs. The financial spectacle that the Antoinettes have put on display this off-season really does come close to trampling on the spirit of the game. In sport, the prime idea should be to root for our team —- not against the other fellows. The Antoinettes, by their excess, imperil that emotional equation and risk doing damage to the very thing they seek to dominate.

• Also at SI.com, Ben Reiter has a brief analysis that seems to stress that even with the three major additions, the Yanks may not be as good as some people think.
• ReelSportsFan.com offers this video clip of an interview with Andy Pettitte, conducted prior to the signings.

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