Creating baseball's version of "Rudy"
Cappy Gagnon
Cappy's Corner
During the 80s, I worked in Hollywood, in the entertainment field. Well, technically, I guess you could say that I provided protective services for people who actually worked in the entertainment field. Anyway, I was reviewing scripts one day. Well, technically, I guess you could say that I picked up a script which was lying on a desk near me. The script was "Rudy." Because "Rudy" showed there is a market for heart-tugging, Horatio Alger-type stories, it has surprised me that Hollywood has not yet found a script to replicate this success. I decided to try my hand at writing one. It's too late for "Rudy II", so I looked for a new angle for the "walk-on" player.
I couldn't use basketball; because we've already had handsome Mike Edwards scoring a basket, on an artificial leg, in an exhibition game against a top team. I couldn't use women's hoops either; because we've already had vivacious Christy Grady changing jobs from team manager to player, during the Final Four and scoring a basket (and becoming ESPN's Player of the Day).
Football is always a good bet for a Notre Dame movie, but we've already had Reggie Ho stepping out of interhall football to kick four field goals to beat Michigan and Pat Heenan coming over from Dillon Hall to start at end, on the 1959 team, before playing a year with the Washington Redskins.
I decided to concentrate on the greatest of all sports ... baseball, about which more movies have been made than all other sports combined.
Here's my premise. We'll feature a local kid, who grew up in the shadow of the Dome. We'll make his father an alumnus; in fact a former baseball player. We'll give him a name which "nominal determinism" would doom to walk-on status (how about Matt Nussbaum).
We'll give him an Ozzie and Harriet family (as a contrast to Rudy's). We'll make his younger brother a Huck Finn type who's very supportive of his big brother. Ditto for the cute kid sister. We'll have the mother look like a prom queen and the dad, although a lawyer, will actually be a really likeable guy. (Hollywood likes that kind of a character twist).
The whole family will never miss a game, even though their boy has little chance of playing and Dad often has to drive up from Indianapolis, where he is one of the top attorneys in the governor's office.
This walk-on will have been a high school second basemen, which is like playing right field in Little League — it's not where you look to recruit college prospects. He'll be average size, with mediocre speed and no power.
We'll have this guy go zero hits for two years. He'll get into a few games because the head coach is one of those inspirational types who rewards scrub players who warm up pitchers; chatter in the dugout; hustle in practice; and volunteer when needed. In fact, we'll even have the walk-on tell a fib and claim he has pitching experience, so he gets put into a game to mop up on the mound. He'll have to borrow a pitcher's-type glove from brother Danny. He'll even get out of a bases-loaded, no-out situation, without yielding a run, but that won't be the story angle. We'll shoot for a stronger ending.
See, all the while this kid is working hard in the weight room, building up his muscles. Suddenly, he's a 200-pounder. For his junior season, those grounders to second base are now line shots into the outfield. Those weak flies to the outfield are now extra base hits. We're going to have this kid start 57 games; hit .314; drive in 33 runs; and score 37, while banging out 10 doubles, a triple and five homers. He's going to hit over .370 with two out and he'll have a 14-game hitting streak.
To complete the story, this Matt Nussbaum guy will be a co-captain for his senior year; get his picture on team promotional materials; and transform himself into a catcher when the All- American backstop injures his throwing arm. While working behind the plate (like he's been there all his life) Matt will raise his batting average to the Tony Gwynn range while increasing his RBI numbers.
How do you like the story? Yeah, just what I thought. Too improbable. No one would ever believe it.
Cappy Gagnon, '66, is proud to sit with the Nussbaums in Frank Eck Stadium. His column appears every other Thursday.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Thursday, April 13, 2000
