some unique traits in the ’70s. Stuff that wouldn’t
fly these days.
If you were able to tell that smoke belonged to Kelly Leak, played by the incomparable Jackie Earle Haley, from the 1976 youth baseball movie, The Bad News Bears, take the rest of the day off;-)
We’re pretty certain there’s no way this movie is Rated PG if it were released today or, for that matter, if it would even be made at all.
That said, the filmmakers from 47 years ago were pretty prescient looking into the crystal about the ongoing state of youth sports: Coaches that were paid to do the job, recruiting of star players to join the team, lawsuits filed just to get the team into the league, allegations of wrongdoing, abusive coaches, questionable sponsors, substance abuse. Anything else we missed?
I remember seeing this for the first time at the Decatur Drive-In with the tinny sounding little speaker in the window of our family’s station wagon. I found it to be funny because, to a not-quite-10-year-old it was. Upon revisiting it as an adult … whoa, plenty of heavy topics throughout.
In terms of actor Jackie Earle Haley, he played the character Moocher in another brilliant 1970’s sports movie, Breaking Away, about the Little 500 on the campus of Indiana University.
Just to review, The Fan Teaser comes courtesy of longtime buddy, Pat Schutte. The cropped photo below and the accompanying clue give you an idea as to who or what the image is of. We invite you to use the Comment option to take a crack at solving the Teaser and, if you’re so inclined, participate in some good-spirited banter with your fellow sports fans. The Fan Teaser will appear each Friday morning with the reveal coming to you by the early kickoff on Sunday.