42

I watched 42 last night. That was the film about Jackie Robinson. It was cliched at times, with John C. McGinley, who was AWESOME as Red Barber, working in an "Oh Doctor!" that seemed forced, and Christopher Meloni, as Leo Durocher, pushing a "Nice guys finish last."

Oy.

But the film, with those few shortcomings, and inaccuracies (the Pirates still wore blue in 1947, not black and there were no interstates in 1945, so "Interstate 24" was incorrect), was very good, with solid performances.

Again, McGinley was tremendous as the Ol' Redhead. His cadence at times was eerie.

However, Bob Ryan (who seems to have a penchant for not walking two blocks to appear at the NENPA conference he was supposed to appear at), disagreed with me on McGinley. Now, I did growl when the movie portrays Barber as cheering. I know - beyond a doubt - that Red Barber never applauded in a booth*. But Ryan found a ton of inaccuracies.

I tried not to, if only to spare Lisa from me droning on about it.

*David J. Halberstam hits the nail on the head with the McGinley/Barber thing here. McGinley was great, but is accuracy that hard to do?

But, mostly, this was a love song to Jackie Robinson. As it should be.