Baseball Happenings Podcast - The Other Boys of Summer Negro Leagues Documentary

Lauren Meyer, the executive producer and director of the upcoming Negro Leagues documentary, "The Other Boys of Summer," sat down with the Baseball Happenings podcast to explain a journey that has been over ten years in the making.

Meyer, an Emmy nominated director, began meeting with players in 2007, traveling all over the United States to interview the last surviving members of the Negro Leagues. She met with stars of the segregated league including Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, Minnie Minoso, John "Mule" Miles, and Mamie "Peanut" Johnson (all of whom are now deceased), to find out how they persisted in the face of social injustice to play the game they love.

Minnie Minoso / The Other Boys of Summer

With the film 98% completed, Meyer launched a Kickstarter campaign on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to raise the necessary funds to license rare footage and music that are critical to the completion of the project. In the first four days, Meyer has raised over $13,000 towards her goal, putting her in a position to finally be able to tell the stories of these players that she grew to love and cherish.

Baseball Happenings Podcast Interview with Lauren Meyer - 1/18/2018



To keep up with "The Other Boys of Summer," you can follow on social media via the following links:

Twitter - @NegroLeagueFilm
Instagram - @TheOtherBoysofSummer
Facebook - @TheOtherBoysofSummer

Read More

Lou Boudreau Documentary: Covering All The Bases

Lou Boudreau was a rarity in Major League Baseball. A talented shortstop with Hall of Fame credentials, he was the last player-manager to win a World Series, earning MVP honors in 1948 as his Cleveland Indians bested the Boston Braves in that year's Fall Classic. During his 15-year playing career, Boudreau led the American League eight times in fielding at shortstop, while posting a career .295 average with a walk-to-strikeout ratio of greater than two-to-one.

Lou Boudreau (r,) with Satchel Paige (l.) / Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

His granddaughter Jessica Boudreau created a wonderful tribute to her grandfather entitled, "Covering All the Bases: Lou Boudreau Documentary." The video features an in-depth interview with Ernie Banks, personal family photos, and explains how his grandchildren have kept the legacy of his number five alive after his 2001 passing.

Read More

Filmaker Quinlan takes a deeper look at the 1986 New York Mets

Documentarian Heather Quinlan is digging deep to find the untold stories of the 1986 New York Mets championship season. She has recruited a wide cross section of the community to further unfold the tale of the last championship team from Flushing.

Her subjects range from the controversial: Lenny Dykstra, Dwight Gooden, Kevin Mitchell and Darryl Strawberry; to the infamous: Bill Buckner and Mookie Wilson; to the political: Chuck Schumer and Rudy Giuliani.

Signed Mookie Wilson / Bill Buckner photo - Author's Collection

A preview of the behind the scenes work on the documentary was recently featured in the Times-Ledger newspapers.

To help make the documentary a reality, Quinlan has formed a Kickstarter campaign to raise funding for MLB licensing, promotion and further interviews. With two-and-a-half weeks to go, Quinlan has raised $35,000 of her $50,000 goal.

Below is a preview clip of an interview with Buckner and Wilson from the movie.

Read More

Minnie Minoso receives deserved recognition in new documentary

Minnie Minoso / Baseball-Almanac.com

Yes, baseball has been very good to Minnie Minoso. For a man that is nearing 90, the game continues to shower him with gifts.

Earlier this month, he held court with President Barack Obama at the White House, and just this weekend, he was honored by Major League Baseball at the annual Civil Rights Game in Chicago. 

The Cuban-born Minoso, who had his start in the Negro Leagues, represents a narrowing group of the living Latin American ballplayers that faced the indignities of racial and cultural segregation in the shadow of Jackie Robinson in their attempts to play in the major leagues in the 1940’s and 1950’s. He stood tall in the face of Jim Crow segregation, and turned that in to a professional baseball career that spanned seven decades. 

“I gave my whole life to baseball and I don’t have any regrets,” Minoso said.

Documentarian Tom Weinberg has used his almost 40-year-long relationship with Minoso to produce an hour long documentary, “Baseball’s Been Very, Very Good To Me: The Minnie Minoso Story.”

Weinberg effectively captures Minoso’s welcoming and sincere spirit and gives him the recognition that he dearly deserves as a pioneer for Latin Americans in baseball. 

“Minnie was Jackie Robinson for all Latin Americans,” Miami radio show host Jose “Chamby” Campos said during the documentary. 

The program aired on Chicago television station WTTW in December with the hopes that it will be distributed by larger media outlets. With all of the recent attention surrounding Minoso’s role in bridging baseball’s integration, there is a sense of urgency to tell his story to a wider audience. 

As the documentary further investigates Minoso’s career, his place in baseball’s history becomes ever more apparent. When he debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1949, he became the first black Latin to play in the major leagues, effectively opening the door to all Latin Americans in baseball. His ability to persevere in baseball when both the laws and language were unfamiliar makes Minoso’s accomplishments even more impressive. 

During Minoso’s career peak (1951-1961), he was second in the American League in hits, runs scored, extra base hits and total bases, ranking above Hall of Famers such as Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Nellie Fox in those categories. 

Minoso disappointingly missed a chance for redemption when was passed over for induction to the Hall of Fame with the most recent Golden Era ballot in 2012, the voting members only posthumously electing Ron Santo. He wondered if he would meet the same fate as his cross-town counterpart in Santo, receiving his due when he will be not be around to enjoy it. 

“How come baseball forgets the past?” he asked. “They only mention [them] when they pass, they forget about those guys when they’re alive.”

Minoso, who is set to turn 90 in November according to his own admission in the documentary, plans to still be around in 2014 when the Golden Era Committee reconvenes. He still performs 150 sit-ups each morning before leaving for his job at U.S. Cellular Field working in community relations for the Chicago White Sox. He says his work with the White Sox is what keeps his engine going. 

"I don’t think I’m ever gonna go,” he said. “If you have an obligation, you’ll never get old and you’ll never ever get tired to be living. Each day I feel like my life is starting over.” 

Click here to see the documentary trailer. 

Read More