Quickies

First off, I've been giving a lot of space to minor league baseball here lately. But, I think this piece of information might be the most interesting. The movie Sugar is being released in New York and Los Angeles on April 3rd and nationwide on April 24th. Sugar tells the story of a young minor league player from the Dominican Republic as he makes his way from a Dominican baseball academy to the beginning of his professional career playing for a minor league team in Iowa. MinorLeagueBaseball.com has an article about the filming of the movie on location in Iowa here. The page also has links to an interview with film's directors and excerpts from the movie. A review, from after the movie's screening at the Sundance Film Festival, is here and the trailer is here. I am very curious to see how the Dominican baseball academy system is depicted in the film now that the Smiley Gonzalez debacle has hit the headlines.

A while back, Shedd's Spot west coast bureau sent in this link to a recent New Yorker article on Neko Case. I've been meaning to post it ever since. God love a woman who has the nerve to talk about camel toe on stage.

On this day (April 6th) in 1973, the American League began using the designated hitter. Crash Davis' speech from Bull Durham in which he states there should be a Constitutional amendment outlawing the desiganted hitter is here.

Merle Haggard turns 72 today. Here he is singing "Are the Good Times Really Over For Good" from his early 80s appearance on Austin City Limits. It's funny to think the line about building a Ford or Chevy that will last ten years still rings true today.