From the fans in the theater seats to the filmmakers themselves, there were enough smiles to fill an entire big screen at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Baseball Film Festival Sept. 25-27.
The Museum’s Bullpen Theater played host to the three-day affair in which a dozen baseball-related movies, this year ranging in length from 18 minutes to almost 90 minutes, were presented to near full houses. With subjects ranging from Moe Berg (Spyball), a former catcher turned spy, to Hall of Fame southpaw Eddie Plank (Sidewinder), an early 20th century star, attendees had numerous options.
Fans of baseball during the period between World War II and the Korean War had the opportunity to watch Ballfield to Battlefield and Back: From FDR to JFK, a documentary of made up of the candid home movies shot and narrated by former big league stars George Case and Mickey Vernon. Among the more than 80 players featured in these rare color moving images are such Hall of Famers as Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx and Bob Feller.
“It’s quite an honor to have our film selected for this festival. I think my dad, who passed away in 1989, would be thrilled, “ said George W. Case III, a producer for the film and the namesake son of the former outfielder who spent 11 seasons in the majors between 1937 and 1947, mainly with the Washington Senators, where he was a four-time All-Star and six-time stolen base champion. “The last time I was here with my dad was in 1975 when Bucky Harris was inducted. Bucky was my dad’s manager in Washington.
“To be in Cooperstown, this is mecca for me. I’ve been around the game ever since I was a baby, so to be up here, where a lot of the Hall of Famers were my dad’s friends, is really a thrill,” Case added. “As far as viewers of the film, I hope they come away with a sense of history. That’s what the Hall of Fame is all about, baseball history, and my dad’s films are all about the history of the game as it was played during the 1940s and ‘50s.”