I had read some good stuff about this documentary (now airing in mlb network) about the behind the scenes work of the Fenway Park workers. I was pretty happy to sit down and watch given that baseball season can't come soon enough.
Some pretty good stuff, mostly about how the clubhouse kids work silly hours to basically clean the spikes of the players and unpack their bags when returning from a road trip.
My real problem with the show was the complete fictional timeline the producers create. Granted, I am nitpicking here. The real story is about the dedicated employees who are probably underpaid, overworked,etc. But if the producers are going to pretend that this is a "real" timeline, then make it a real timeline.
The documentary starts with rain coming down and the tagline "2:32:Red Sox due home from West Coast trip any minute."
Then they proceed to tell how the guys work all night to get ready for the game the next day. Cut to Fenway park "the next day." And they show pregame coverage of the game. Batting practice, fans mulling about the Stadium. In the footage, the CF scoreboard clearly shows the date as July 15, 2010 (more on that later). The "game" proceeds. Wake takes his warm ups, their is a rain delay, and the Sox win in the 11th.
All good, except
Returning from a West Coast trip? July 15 was the first game after the All Star break.
July 15 was started by Wake. But the Sox lost.
The Sox did win a game vs TEX on the play they showed (a Youk walk off Sac Fly), but that was July 17. There was even a fan in the pregame coverage carrying a Cliff Lee sign, which makes since as Lee was the pitcher in the Saturday the 17th game.
So why did the producers have to take liberties with the facts? Did they not think people could check this stuff? Silly.
Other than that? Decent stuff.
Oh and why is mlb2K11 showing Longoria as this big time HR hitter? I mean, you had, what 22 HR. Same as JD Drew.
How do you find time to play xbox?
ReplyDeleteYeah, documentaries bend the truth. I can't stand that. Even worse is when the news does it. But you don't really have to pay to watch the news.
ReplyDeleteAnd, did it matter whether or not the Sox won or lost? Sounds like it was produced by NESN. This sort of goes to my last post of overplaying the "positive" and milking dollars through marketing. Can't have negative stuff about the Sox. This started with Nomar. I can't remember a HUGE player from Boston that left the team (or was shipped out) without a bunch of crap being thrown around in the press about them.
Documentary was actually produced by two of Mike Barnicle's kids. Nothing to do with NESN, except maybe the rights to some footage.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, you could tell they wanted a W in the show. they even had a quote from one of the workers sayings its all good if they win.
It appeared they really wanted to make it all seem like it happened in 24 hours. Starting w the fake "return from the west coast." It wouldn't have mattered one bit if they just were honest about. But even more silly was the staging of win. With clearly footage from two separate games. Maybe I'm just a grumpy, cynical douche bag (okay, there's no maybe about that, I am), but why take those liberties when anyone with a computer can check.
I guess Beltre and Victor Martinez would have been cast in a more negative light had the Sox not added Gonazalez and Crawford.
Just wait till Paps leaves next year. Or this July....