Kingman Lives

[Guest Edgy DC]

Michael Imperioli (Chrissy from the Sopranos) stars Sunday night in the extensively titled Oprah Winfrey Presents: Mitch Albom's For One More Day. Yeah, so what? Feel-good movies for your mother to watch Sunday night, right?

http://media.charlotteobserver.com/smedia/2007/12/06/17/186-TV_LOOKOUT_02.standalone.prod_affiliate.57.JPGWell, Imperioli plays "Chick Benetto," a washed-up boozy old ballplayer looking back at his life. Significant is that, to judge from the picture, the team he has washed up from is the Mets.

There are temporal issues, as he was supposed to be a ballplayer in the early seventies, but the Mets uniform has the orange and blue piping which characterized the eighties uniform, rather than the orange and blue cuffs which characterized their seventies look.

Well, maybe it's the end of his career in that shot. If it is supposed to be the seventies, I'll give them a pass on the colors of the seats, but not on the dimpled bat. And I hope not too many spectators ruined shots by pulling out their digital cameras.

Has there been a ballplayer named "Chick" since 1929? Has there been an American male named "Chick" since 1929? That name kind of went down with the Great Depression, didn't it?

[Farmer Ted]

I think the Mets were going with the blue smurf cleats with those unis, not black.

[HahnSolo]

Those look like 21st Century Cops, too.

[Guest sharpie]

I know a guy named Chick or at least that's what he's called.

[Farmer Ted]

And what's that guy doing with a mini digital camera/camera phone in the front row?

The wardrobe director for this flick blows.

[soupcan]

I believe that 'Chick' is supposed to be a catcher.

[Fman99]

He should go home and get his fucking shine box (I know, right movie, wrong character).

I guess Marco Scutaro was unavailable for this role.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I disapprpove of the undershirt as well. Oprah suxxxx.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think of Chick and I think of Chick Gandil and Chick Hafey.

I'm sure if I search that name at baseball-reference.com, there'lll be two dozen others, but probably none post-war.

[stevejrogers]

I was about to say about that guy with the cell phone camera!

Also the piping is incorrect, it was blue in the center with orange sides, like the text on the uniform.

[Guest themetfairy]

Edgy DC wrote: I think of Chick and I think of Chick Gandil and Chick Hafey.

I think of Chick Correa, whom I saw in concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival in July.

ON EDIT - LOL, if I had remembered that I had a Sacred Seaver Post coming up, I would have planned my 41st post more carefully.

[Valadius]

HAIL!!!

[metirish]

Not a ball player but Chick Corea is cool, I might actually watch this because of the Mets angle and I just love Mitch Albom.

[soupcan]

HAIL!

I think of Chick Hearn

[Guest Edgy DC]

Anybody watch the Dave Kingman movie last night?

[metirish]

I caught the last scene, it sucked.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The newspaper reviews were pretty awful.

[G-Fafif]

Watched the whole damn thing for the Mets scenes, of which there were two that didn't show up 'til 10:30 or so. Will be blogging about it later, but let's just say Michael Imperioli displayed range not seen at Shea since Mo Vaughn was cashing Sterling Equity checks.

Worst sin of this telepic? The half-assed uniform situation. They had Imperioli in something that more or less looked like 1973 home duds except the numbers on the back were rather road-ish (more square than the home tops). And for his Old Timers Day appearance circa 1991, the racing stripe was blue-orange-blue when in real life it was orange-blue-orange. It's something you stare at, know something's wrong, can't put your finger on and then it hits you. And it annoys you more than the movie itself. Which was highly annoying.

Also, Imperioli told Sports Illustrated, when asked "is playing a Met heresy for a Yankees fan?" responded, "In acting, everything is O.K. If it's all right that I put someone's head through a window, then I guess it's O.K. to wear a Mets uniform." For the record, M.I. was invited to throw out a first ball at Fenway Park (movie was filmed in Mass.) but "I said I would do it only if I could wear a Yankees uniform."

Gracious, too!

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

mumbling stuttering prick

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah! I'm glad Tony pinched his nostrils!

[soupcan]

My wife wanted to watch it (thanks Oprah!) so I did as well.

Agree with Greg about all the Metsian inconsistencies.

I did like what they did with the scenes at Shea though. It was obviously filmed after a significant portion of Citifield had been built and there were a few shots of the outfield wall.

They did some visual effect stuff and all you saw when the view was toward the scoreboard was clear blue sky. It looked a bit odd but I give them credit for actually filming at Shea and having enough attention to detail to address that.

[Guest Kid Carsey]

Didn't watch it, but saw some tv blurbs about it. Soprano's for me is one of
those shows where the actors should just retire or go into directing or writing.
I don't see Imperioli or any character he might be protraying, I see Chrissy.

It's like Happy Days characters, Potsie will always be Potsie.

Is there anything Oprah doesn't have her fingers in?

[Vic Sage]

]Is there anything Oprah doesn't have her fingers in?

Stedman's vagina?

[Valadius]

I could never believe that Imperioli was a cop when he did that brief stint on Law & Order. I was always expecting him to whack Dennis Farina.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Farina has whacked his share of stooges in his day.