A full five years before Dwight Clark made “The Catch” there was this notable grab from an unexpected hero.
OK, OK, so it wasn’t a real competition catch, but Timmy Lupus‘ home run stealing nab in the top of the sixth inning against the hated Yankees in the 1976’s “The Bad News Bears” set up one of the most phenomenal fictious finishes in baseball film history. We can only hope for a similar wild ride when this year’s Little League Baseball World Series wraps up in South Williamsport, PA.
Timmy Lupus’ trading card captured his astonished look after making the catch.
Here’s the clip of Lupus making his improbably catch.
The Bears’ epic response to being league runners up.
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 Sunday.
Smoke ’em if you got ’em! Ballplayers sureexercised 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.
Jackie Earle Haley portrayed Kelly Leak in the 1976baseball flick, The Bad News Bears.
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 Little500on 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.
