Saturday, Aug. 07, 2004
O's game and The Village, posted at 3:24 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com The Orioles kicked ass tonight, winning 9-1. Miguel Tejada hit another home run, which didn't really help my Tejada vs. Guillen argument much. But, more importantly, it's almost official: I think Jerry Hairston has supplanted Melvin Mora as my favorite player. It's not that Mora has done anything wrong. He still is one of my favorite players, someone I picked out a few years ago (when he hit .237 but walked over 100 times) to be a breakout star. He did, but now everyone knows about him. Hairston, though, is quietly having an excellent season, and Mazzilli is doing just what I did with Irvin on my team - playing him anywhere and getting quality. Tonight the guy played CF and did great.The other thing that became crystal clear for me today was that Lee Mazzilli needs to be fired. First, he's still doing stupid things with the lineup, like hitting Brian Roberts and his horrible OBP at leadoff so the guy that has one of the smallest chances on the team of getting on base gets up to the plate the most, and hitting the ghost of Palmeiro in front of Javy Lopez instead of vice versa. Secondly, he let young left-hander throw 125 pitches today. 125! There was absolutely no reason for this. If Bedard gets placed on the DL by the end of the year, don't say I didn't tell you so. Lastly, the game is 9-1. Why not get some of those reserves out there to give Lopez an inning or two off? Huh? I've been pretty unhappy with his management this year in general (players whining to the press, a very public demotion of Matt Riley), but tonight confirmed that he is not the man for the job, at least for me.
***
I saw The Village today. It was an interesting concept that I didn't feel was developed enough. I was surprised with the twist, but that's not really the point in my enjoyment of Shymalan films. I just think he's a good director; I love his dialogue and long pauses and closeups and his methods of drawing excellent performances from his actors, etc. His last film, Signs, I enjoyed not because of the twist at the end, but because it was this intense meditation on faith and religion and redemption. Same with The Sixth Sense. Sure, great twist, but it was a great love story as well.
This film has some neat ideas, but their execution is somewhat disappointing. I think Shymalan wants the film to be a parable, like The Crucible or something, but it's not fleshed out enough. I did very much enjoy the performances - Joaquin Pheonix and Ron Howard's daughter both are excellent - and was spooked a couple of times. And I liked the premise of the movie. It just felt a bit like a rough draft, with fascinating ideas insufficiently explored.