Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

The Most Inspiring Home Run You’ll See Today

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Yesterday, the college baseball season started.

Cade Belyeu, a sophomore outfield for Auburn University, lost his mom on Friday morning but, when he called to tell his coach the news, he said that he still wanted to play in that night’s game against Holy Cross.  His mom, before she passed, said that she wanted him to play in the game.

On his third trip to the plate, this happened…

The homerun was the first of both the game and the season.  As Belyeu rounded the bases, he pointed to where the ball had gone out of the stadium.  The crowd, most of whom knew Belyeu’s story, erupted in cheers.  After the game (which Auburn won 4-1), the fan who caught the ball returned it to the team and it was given to Belyeu.

Moment like this are why I love baseball.

I Watched Love Is On The Air (2021, Dir. by Arvin N. Berner)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Adam Smasher (Jason London) is the family friendly version of Howard Stern, an obnoxious shock jock who has just been fired from his radio job and, due to nearly crashing into a cow, finds himself stranded in a small North Carolina town.  He gets a job on the local radio station, co-hosting a call-in show with Eve Cassidy (Lauren Harper).  At first, Adam and Eve don’t mix.  Adam is cynical and Eve actually wants to help people with their relationship issues.  After a few days, Adam learns to appreciate country living and Eve falls in love with him even though she’s dating the station manager, Jamel (Ian Reier Michaels).  Adam shows he’s a soft touch when he buys a bunch of sandwiches for a poor family and Eve starts to loosen up and have more fun on the air.  Eve is offered her own show in Chicago and has to decide between her career and Adam.

This isn’t a Hallmark film but it might as well be.  I enjoyed it even though I knew everything that was going to happen, from the minute Adam first heard Eve on the radio and called in to “smash” her.  (I actually had to check to see when this movie has been made because Adam’s whole act seemed to be from the 1990s.)  This is one of those movies where you know what you’re getting from the start.  If you’re surprised that Adam brings a carousel down to the station for Eve to ride during a commercial break, you’ve probably never seen one of these movies before.  I liked the cozy small town town feel of the location and I think Jason London should be in more movies.  I also think it’s funny that 99% of these movies start with someone having car trouble.  If people knew how to drive, they would never fall in love.

Song of the Day: Centerfield by John Fogerty

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Lisa asked me to pick today’s song of the day and you’ll never guess what it’s about!

Baseball!

If you’ve been to a game, you’ve heard Centerfield.  If you’ve been to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, you’ve heard Centerfield a lot.  This song captures everything that I and so many other people love about the great American pastime!  I can’t wait to hear it again in just a few more weeks!

Well, I beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We’re born again, there’s new grass on the field
A-roundin’ third and headed for home
It’s a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel

Oh, put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine
Watching it from the bench
You know I took some lumps
When the Mighty Casey struck out
So say, “Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio”
Don’t say it ain’t so you, know the time is now

Oh, put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

You got a beat up glove, a homemade bat
And a brand new pair of shoes
You know I think it’s time to give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball and touch ’em all, a moment in the sun
It’s a-gone and you can tell that one goodbye

Oh, put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield (yeah)

Oh, put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Look at me, gotta be centerfield

Yeah

Songwriter: John C. Fogerty

4 Shots From 4 Films: Play Ball!

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Here are 4 shots from 4 films about my favorite sport!

4 Shots From 4 Baseball Films

Eight Men Out (1988, Dir. by John Sayles)

A League Of The Own (1992, Dir. by Penny Marshall)

42 (2013, Dir. by Brian Hegeland)

Everybody Wants Some!!! (2016, Dir. by Richard Linklater)

A Scene That I Love: The End of Eight Men Out

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

It’s almost time for Spring Training and I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite baseball movies!

There are a lot of movies that I like but my absolute favorite baseball movie has to be Eight Men Out, which is about how the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series.  What I like about is that, while looking at the economics and the politics about baseball, it never lost sight of everything that makes the game so special.

In the scene below, fans at a minor league game think they’ve spotted Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the best players to have ever been banned from baseball, at bat.

I Watched Hello, It’s Me (2015, Dir. by Mark Jean)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Hello, It’s Me stars Kellie Martin as Annie, who loses her husband to a freak accident at the start of the movie.  Two years later, Annie is still struggling to accept his death.  She’s a baker who sells her baked goods on the beach and she tries to be a good mother to Ella (Erin Pitt) and Milo (Jack Fulton).  A chance meeting with James (Kavan Smith) leads to an unexpected friendship, though James wants it to be more.  James helps Annie to open her own bakery.  (Why do people in Hallmark movies always want to open up a bakery?)  Even though she is attracted to him, Annie cannot bring herself to move on from her husband’s death.  But then she starts to get messages from her husband, encouraging her to move on.  Just as Annie starts to open up to James, Ella gets angry and starts acting out.  Will Annie and James’s love survive?

Hello, It’s Me was the last movie that I watched for this Valentine’s Day blogathon and it was also the best.  It’s a Hallmark movie but it’s also realistic about the grieving process and Kellie Martin gave a really good performance as Annie.  The movie really didn’t even need the supernatural element to be memorable and to work.  I was cheering for Annie and James all the way.  I could also relate to Ella and understand why she was so upset and worried to see her mother getting close to another man.  Losing a loved one is never easy and I appreciated that, even at the end of the movie, Annie was still learning how to keep moving forward in her life.  There is one embarrassing scene that takes place at a comic book convention, just due to some of the costumes that the movie has the background extras wearing.  But it doesn’t detract from the movie’s effectiveness as a whole.

Some movies really touch your heart.  Hello, It’s Me touched mine.

I Watched Backwards (2012, Dir. by Ben Hickernell)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Want to feel old?  Remember James Van Der Beek from Dawson’s Creek and how he was an aspiring film director who went to high school and thought he knew better than all of his teachers?  In Backwards, James Van Der Beek is the teacher!  He’s not just a teacher but he’s also the head of the school’s athletic department.  He still looks and sounds like Dawson, though.

When Abi Brooks (Sarah Megan Thomas) fails to qualify for the Olympic rowing team and is instead offered a spot as an alternate for the second time in a row, she decides to take a job coaching a high school team instead.  It’s not an easy transition.  At first, Abi pushes her rowers too much and forgets the importance of having fun.  But then she falls in love with school’s athletic director, Geoff (that would be James Van Der Beek), and she starts to loosen up.  Her rowers start to win and soon, they have a chance to go to London and compete in a prestigious race!

Then, Abi is contacted by her former coach (Glenn Morshower).  There’s an opening on the Olympic rowing team and he needs Abi to come to practice immediately.  When Abi asks if she can come after coaching her students in London, her coach tells her that he’ll have to pick someone else if Abi isn’t at practice on Monday.  Abi wants to go the Olympics but James Van Der Beek says she’ll be abandoning her students if she goes.  Abi has to make a choice, her students and her love or her lifelong dream.

I liked Backwards up until everyone started to give Abi a hard time about accepting a spot on the Olympic rowing team.  Abi has spent her entire life working for her chance to go to the Olympics.  She’s nearly 30 so this is probably her last chance to go as a competitor.  Abi took a job coaching because she was told that she wouldn’t be on the team.  Now, out of nowhere, she finally has her opportunity to fulfill her lifelong dream and be a part of the Olympic tradition.  Should she leave her job to start training for the Olympics?  Of course, she should!  Anyone in the real world would understand that this is an opportunity that Abi can’t pass up and no one would expect her to.  True friends would have wished Abi luck and promised to cheer for her instead of guilting her!  Dawson was always guilting Joey about something too.  That’s why I liked Pacey.

Up until that point, Backwards was pretty good.  Sarah Megan Thomas was believable as an athlete and Glenn Morshower had the coach thing down perfectly.  I was happy with Abi and Geoff finally admitted how they felt about each other.  I still think Abi should have gone to the Olympics, though.