Robert De Niro (left) and Michael Moriarty
August 26, 1973: Bang the Drum Slowly premieres, directed by John D. Hancock, and based on the 1956 novel by Mark Harris. It was a sequel to the 1953 novel The Southpaw, and it stars Michael Moriarty (himself the grandson of a former big-league ballplayer and umpire) as New York Mammoths pitcher Henry Wiggen, and a young Robert De Niro as catcher Bruce Pearson. Even though The Southpaw explicitly explains its title by saying Henry is lefthanded, Moriarty pitched righthanded in the film.
The fact that Henry, a big-league ballplayer and a very good one, has a second job should also tell you how long ago this was; no free agency in those days.
Like real-life New York baseball legend Lou Gehrig, Bruce feels ill, and goes to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and finds out he has an incurable terminal disease. In his case, it's Hodgkin's disease. Bruce is a backup, and Henry is his only friend on the team.
Henry is holding out for more money, but he agrees to drop his demand and accept the salary that the Mammoths are offering him, with one condition: Bruce gets the difference between their offer and his demand, which is still more than Bruce would have gotten if he had made the team.
Eventually, Henry accidentally blurts out Bruce's secret. Everyone begins to treat him better, something Bruce wanted, but not on those terms, because he knows that they would still be treating him poorly if he wasn't sick. He plays through most of the season, but has to bow out near the end.
Henry leads the Mammoths to win the World Series, but Bruce is too ill to even attend, and has gone back to his rural Georgia hometown to spend his last days with his parents. Henry is the only member of the team to attend the funeral.
Although some scenes were filmed at the pre-renovation old Yankee Stadium, most of the game scenes will filmed at Shea, with each ballpark being used while the team that played there was on the road during the 1972 season. Early 1970s Yankees like Bobby Murcer, Gene Michael and Thurman Munson can be seen in game action, as can Hall-of-Famers Brooks Robinson and Tony Pérez.
The film includes a demonstration of TEGWAR, a card game mentioned in the book. The acronym stands for "The Exciting Game Without Any Rules." The game designed to separate a sucker from their cash. Similarly, another 1950s pop-culture adaptation, the TV show M*A*S*H, used "Double Cranko," a (pardon the choice of words) mash-up of chess, checkers, poker and gin rummy. B.J. (Mike Farrell) accuses Hawkeye (Alan Alda) of cheating, and Hawkeye says, "How can I cheat when there aren't any rules?"
De Niro's contemporary, Al Pacino, has called Bang the Drum Slowly his favorite film.
There was a retroactively sad foreshadowing in it, though: A catcher for a New York team, wearing Number 15, dies young. In 1979, Thurman Munson died in a plane crash.
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August 26, 1973 was a Sunday. Troubled NFL player Barrett Robbins was born. And these games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Oakland Athletics, 1-0 at the Oakland Coliseum. Ken Holtzman pitched a 4-hit shutout, outpitching Mel Stottlemyre, who took a no-hitter into the 8th inning. With 1 out, Joe Rudi singled. He was sacrificed to 2nd base by Ray Fosse, and singled home by Vic Davalillo for the only run of the game.
Reggie Jackson went 0-for-3. He, Holtzman, Bert Camparneris, and Jim "Catfish" Hunter, who did not appear in this game, would all eventually become Yankees. Deron Johnson, who played for the A's in this game, started his career as a Yankee. The only Yankee baserunners in this game were singles by Roy White, Jim Ray Hart, Gene Michael and Mike Hegan; and a walk by Thurman Munson.
* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at Shea Stadium. Ron Bryant outpitched Ray Sadecki. Dave Kingman and Dave Rader hit home runs for the Jints. Willie McCovey did not play. Giants legend Willie Mays, playing out the string with the Mets, went 0-for-3 with 2 walks.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Montreal Expos, 4-2 at Jarry Park in Montreal.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Don Sutton outpitched Steve Carlton. After going 27-12 for the Phils the season before -- Carlton used to tell his teammates, who seemingly couldn't win any game he didn't start, "It's Win Day" -- he fell to 11-16 with this game, and finished the season 13-20. Joe Ferguson and Ron Cey hit home runs. Rookie Mike Schmidt went 0-for-4, his batting average falling to .205. He got better.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 10-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jim Palmer outpitched Paul Splittorff. Paul Blair and Andy Etchebarren hit home runs, but Brooks Robinson went 0-for-5.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-6 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Davey Johnson hit a grand slam. Hank Aaron, with 705 career home runs, got the day off. For the Pirates, Al Oliver hit a home run, and Willie Stargell went 1-for-5.
* The Texas Rangers swept a doubleheader from the Cleveland Indians, 9-0 and 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jim Merritt pitched a 3-hit shutout in the opener.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 2-for-4 with a walk. Johnny Bench went 1-for-4. Lou Brock went 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base.
* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Detroit Tigers, 4-1 and 3-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Carlos May went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBIs in the 1st game. Over the 2 games, Al Kaline went 0-for-8.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins, 3-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of
Bloomington, Minnesota. Jim Slaton outpitched Bert Blyleven. Pedro García hit a 2-run home run for the Brew Crew. Rod Carew, uncharacteristically, went 0-for-4. Harmon Killebrew did not play.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 4-2 at the Astrodome in Houston.
* And the California Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 1-0 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Bill Singer pitched a 6-hit shutout, outpitching Luis Tiant, who allowed only 3 hits. One was a single in the 3rd inning bringing home Mike Epstein, by Lee Stanton -- the other guy the Angels got when they traded Jim Fregosi to the Mets for Nolan Ryan. Frank Robinson of the Halos and Carl Yastrzemski of the BoSox both went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.
