Author: Scoop

Debra Winger shows some bush

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Debra Winger in “The Sheltering Sky” (1990)

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If you love alienation and existential despair, this book and movie could be your Holy Grail. If that sounds like your kind of movie, it is done superbly by Bertolucci, although John Malkovich is miscast as a starry-eyed, beautiful idealist. Port is supposed to be a beautiful, spoiled, but sincere rich liberal kid. Malkovich does a lot of things well, but beauty and sincerity are not among them. He brings his usual creepy air of superiority to the part, which adds a mocking tone from the start.

It’s an arty, philosophical movie from a book which is about interior processes. It looks and sounds magnificent, but most people (including me) find it tedious. Ebert and other reviewers suggest following up the movie by reading the book, which many consider the best novel written by an Englishman since World War 2. It was probably meant to remain on the printed page.

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R.I.P Don Larsen

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Larsen memories:

He was the last living St. Louis Brown.

He was an excellent hitter for a pitcher. Over the course of his career he batted .242 and poled 14 homers in just 596 at bats. One year he batted over .300 with an OPS over .900. He got into 75 games as a pinch hitter, and even played occasionally in the outfield.

And I hear he pitched a pretty good World Series game once, a game that ended with one of the most famous baseball images of all time (below).

And he was either drunk or hungover when he did it! Teammate Mickey Mantle said,

“Where was Don the night before he pitched the perfect game? I haven’t the slightest idea, but you could smell liquor on his breath all day. I’ll tell you this: He came to the ballpark feeling pretty good. In fact, to Don, the whole game was a joke. After each inning, guys left him alone, not because of the smell, but because they didn’t want to jinx him, and he’d say with a smile and a laugh ‘You think I’m gonna do it?’”

Here’s his obit at ESPN.

I became a baseball fan in 1957, the year after Larsen’s perfecto, so he seemed like he should have possessed superhuman skills. He always disappointed my juvenile expectations. He was a sub-.500 pitcher for his career and never won more than 11 games in a season. He did lose 21 one season, with only 3 wins. Ouch. That’s not one to tell your grandkids about.

But he had his moment.

And what a moment it was.