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National team baseball coach Rick Johnston has gone Hollywood. All right, he isn't exactly rubbing elbows with the Barrymores but he did see Drew from a distance last autumn while working on her film.
Johnston leaves April 2 for Bradenton, Fla., to help manager Remo Cardinale prepare Team Canada for the world qualifying tournament, but he may have to pop into a theatre to catch the movie Fever Pitch, which debuts the following weekend.
Johnston, along with Bob Parliament, were the technical baseball consultants for scenes shot at the stadium formerly known as SkyDome and Etobicoke's Connorvale Park.
"We had to find 18 ballplayers and two coaches who resembled the Blue Jays and Red Sox and then set up spring training scenes," said Johnston, who runs The Baseball Zone in Mississauga, manages the Intercounty league's Brantford Red Sox and Ontario's entry in the Canada Summer Games and, tomorrow, is off to run baseball clinics in Croatia for 10 days.
Whomever said a man can't be in two places at the same time never met Johnston.
This was his second foray into the world of stars and starlets, having also worked as technical co-ordinator for the film Angels In The Outfield several years ago.
Actually, the guy who had the toughest assignment might have been Mike McCarthy, Johnston's partner at The Baseball Zone.
One sequence filmed was a rundown.
"Mike was the runner. I asked the guy (shooting the scene) how do you want the rundown to be. And, he said: 'Do a realistic rundown.' So, I said, 'Okay, we'll do the one throw, make the out and boom! We're done!' "
Not in Hollywood you don't.
"The guy says: 'No, no, no, you have to prolong the rundown.' "
This could not be good news for McCarthy.
"It turned into a 12- or 15-throw rundown with multiple runners. The rundown began with McCarthy between home and third. When they got the runner back to third for the fifth time, the runner from second is at third," said Johnston, "so the throw goes back between second and third ... they stop that rundown and go back to a rundown between third and home again ...
"We've got guys laying all over the place," Johnston said. "They're dragging butts; they're gassed and, the guy filming it says: 'That's good.' "
"Now, do it again."
Five dry runs and six takes later, McCarthy and Johnston go home.
"He was drenched in sweat; probably sore for a week. But," Johnston said, "it's the movie business and you try to create what they want."
The film stars Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. And that rundown scene? Johnston's not sure if it actually got into the movie but it might be a good idea if he waits until he's safely in Croatia before he spills that little notion to McCarthy and his breathless cohorts.
OTHER FANTASY WORLDS
Curt Schilling, playing the wounded avenging angel, ripped into Jose Canseco at the U.S. congressional hearing into steroid abuse.
According to Schilling, and many other major leaguers, Canseco broke a sacred bond of brotherhood when he confessed what everyone long ago suspected -- that steroid abuse in baseball was not only condoned but quietly sanctioned.
Mark McGwire takes the holier than thou "I'm not telling" approach in his opening statement. Sounds like a 12-year-old who needs his ears boxed.
Canseco may not be The Innocent in this story but at least he admits it.
CIRCLE THE WAGONS
The rest of baseball seems prepared to circle the wagons and hope the enemy (which apparently is anyone who never has worn a major-league baseball uniform or is named Canseco) goes away.
Baseball doesn't need to rewrite its records and censure its stars. What's done is done and it can't be changed by an asterisk. A thrill is a thrill and watching Canseco or McGwire bust a ball 500 feet into the seats was definitely a thrill.
But, let's at least be honest about how such things can happen.
Baseball doesn't need to beg forgiveness but it does have to face the truth. Only then will the furor die.
SMART 'N' SASSY
"That's a long time to be hitting naked. He doesn't have the most aesthetically pleasing body, either. That's just my opinion." -- Andy Fox on teammate Mike Redmond, who showed up naked at the indoor batting cage last year when the Marlins were in a losing streak and ended up having to do it for eight successive days when the team went on a six-game winning streak.