I watch movies differently than other people. In fact, I don’t often watch movies because most just don’t hold my attention. On the rare occasion that I sit down with my DH to watch a movie I end up either: 1. Falling asleep or 2. Doing something else while I’m watching and usually that something else involves a computer.
Tonight he brought home the Brad Pitt movie Moneyball. A recovered baseball fan, I had actually wanted to see it.
And almost from the beginning I was researching facts from the movie on my new kindle fire. I tried not to pick it up off the table because I knew once I started surfing, it would be tough to stop. I have some kind of compulsion to gather trivia.
By the time the A’s start to turn their season around I was in a surfing frenzy. The movie talks about real players and events so I was curious what the characters were doing now. What ever became of Mike Magnante? (He was cut just before he qualified for retirement and is now a high school math teacher.) Did Jeremy Giambi ever turn it around? (No) What kind of career did Scott Hatteberg have after that season changing home run? (A pretty long one–he played until 2008 and, according to the A’s website, he’s now working in the front office. Through the power of wikipedia, I was able to answer these questions.
By the time the A’s start to turn their season around I was in a surfing frenzy. The movie talks about real players and events so I was curious what the characters were doing now. What ever became of Mike Magnante? (He was cut just before he qualified for retirement and is now a high school math teacher.) Did Jeremy Giambi ever turn it around? (No) What kind of career did Scott Hatteberg have after that season changing home run? (A pretty long one–he played until 2008 and, according to the A’s website, he’s now working in the front office. Through the power of wikipedia, I was able to answer these questions.
My research about Hatteberg led me to a story about one of my favorite Baltimore Orioles. In a kind of six degrees of separation, the draft pick for Hatteberg was compensation for free agent Mike Boddicker in 1990. An interesting coincidence. When I mentioned this to my DH, his response was “So?” and I knew he was not amused that I wasn’t devoting my full attention to the movie. Grrr.
I looked to see what Boddicker was doing in retirement. (I’m nothing if not loyal.) His wikipedia page was a little outdated and said that he was currently a broadcaster for the Orioles and my first thought was “Hmmm, I might have to actually watch some games this season.” Turns out that happened during the 2010 season. Instead I found a blog post from this past November that mentioned that Mike Boddicker had been treated for tonsil cancer but that he was expecting a full recovery and, in fact, was planning a hunting trip. A bad news, good news story. I’m hoping he makes that full recovery and gets to enjoy many more hunting trips.
So movie watching…it isn’t really my thing.
P. S. More trivia–Mike Boddicker and Rick Springfield were born on the same date (August 23) eight years apart. I’m still a dedicated Rick fan too.
P.P.S. Looking at Boddicker’s stats, he had 10 complete games in that 1983 season. Ah complete games by pitchers…a time when men were men.