When he steps on the field, Shoeless Joe is surprised to see lights, asking Ray, "What's with the lights?" but Shoeless Joe would have been well familiar with the concept of night baseball. Joe Jackson died in 1951, sixteen years after the first major league night game.
sharebut did he ever play under them? lights in the eyes freak me out too.
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It's okay, honey. I...I was just talking to the cornfield.
No, he retired/was banned from the game long before MLB instituted night baseball. But he was very much alive when they started playing night games and was familiar with the concept, unlike the movie, where he is portrayed as dumbfounded by their presence around the field.
sharenow i see the light.
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"
Yes, Joe's career ended years before night games. He had been a day player.
shareI never flew the space shuttle but I still know what it is.
shareBut all the players have vague, or at least inconsistent, memories of who they "will be". John seems to know something's going on, but isn't sure who Ray is; Doc Graham acts like a kid until his medical training is needed, etc. None of them are ever completely aware of the fact that they've been zapped 70 years into the future.
Stepping from purgatory into Iowa for the first time would probably be a little disorienting too.
The character of Chick Gandil (played by Art Lafleur) seems pretty sharp though. He even knew what year he died.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
I liked when Ray said all the stadiums have them, even Wrigley Field. The Cubs only played day games at home until 1988, the year before the movie. It was a tradition. I wonder why they did it and on another note, I wonder why they strayed from it.
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
Maybe he was just wondering why the biggest horse's ass in three counties would not only plow under is crop for a baseball field, but would also have the foresight to install lighting for night games, all based on "if you build it..."
"Atlas Shrugged- Part 2"- Coming in 2012! --The saga continues!
if ray wanted to stay true to the ideals of baseball? only day games.
Oh, and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Exactly! I mean if you're taking your family on a trip to Iowa City, finding it boring so you go out to this cornfield with a baseball diamond for ghosts, plunk down $100 for your family to sit on the bleachers, I'd imagine you're not really concerned about going to work during the day and watching the ghost-players at night.
Day games only, I say. If you schedule it during the day, people will come.
"Atlas Shrugged- Part 2"- Coming in 2012! --The saga continues!
yes. very good points!
Oh, and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
This might be a stretch, but I don't believe all the stadiums had lights even at the time of Shoeless Joe's death. Maybe Joe's reaction was to Ray's statement that "all the stadiums have them" and to the fact that this small field in the middle of a bunch of corn had them installed.
Regardless, if it is a historical goof, I'm willing to overlook it for the sake of the movie as a whole.
Losers always whine about doing their best; winners go home and "eff" the prom queen
right. all of them is a bit much. i agree.
"It's for the pain. Rarely touch the stuff...Can I have another?"
I liked when Ray said all the stadiums have them, even Wrigley Field. The Cubs only played day games at home until 1988, the year before the movie. It was a tradition. I wonder why they did it and on another note, I wonder why they strayed from it.The Cubs went "lightless" for decades after the other teams simply because Philip Wrigley, who owned the team, wanted to keep up that tradition. Ironically, he had planned to install lights at Wrigley Field for the 1942 season, but World War II interrupted those plans, and the idea was just dropped.
I always took it that the ghost players would act and react as they were in their baseball prime. That is why I would cut the anachronistic "I'm melting" gag when all these players are from an era well before 1939.
CB
Good Times, Noodle Salad
It is kind of funny that Ray even bothered to put up lights. The voice was just saying build a baseball field, it didn't say anything about making it fully functional for major league games. Plus the lights were probably the most expensive thing for him to buy and install, possibly accounting for half the total cost. Not to mention what it must have done to his electric bill.
"If I'm wrong, I'll pay for it. But if I'm right you're gonna hear about it."
It was the (pre-popularity) hot dog stand that ultimately bankrupted him.
share