04/25/24
March 26, 2020
SportsFilter: The Thursday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Today I watched the highlights of Ben Stokes putting England on his back last Summer and the Cubs win game 7 vs the Cleveland baseball club to win their first World Series in 108 years.
posted by NoMich at 10:43 PM on March 26, 2020
I watched Up Periscope (1959) with Edmond O'Brien, James Garner, Alan Hale, et al. I'm a fan of submarine movies. This one is good because it doesn't depict the interior of a WW II US sub as being roomy and commodious the way some other films do. It's properly cramped and stifling. But still less cramped than a U boat, which is appropriate.
If you watch a bunch of old sub movies and watch the director's cut of Das Boot, you can see all sorts of nods and references to the old films. I think Wolfgang Petersen watched every sub movie in existence while doing the research for Das Boot.
I'm also a fan of Dutch, German, and Nordic marine engineering, so I watched the raising of the Kursk in the Barents Sea. That was the damndest thing I've seen in a while, and the bigger the challenge and tighter the timeline, the more those guys wanted it. The shit they do in the shipyards and out at sea is unreal. The calm confidence and teamwork is inspiring. It's a job, and they know they can do it. If they're willing to crank day and night and endure all sorts of hazardous and adverse conditions.
posted by beaverboard at 11:59 PM on March 26, 2020
I love almost any film about Navy matters, but I too often find myself picking them apart for historic accuracy. After my father-in-law died, I went through his papers, and among them were copies of the 5 war patrols of USS Hawkbill in WWII. Fred (my father-in-law) was her Executive Officer. Even in the dry language of an official US Navy document, they could curl your hair. Fred never said much about it, but it got rather scary down there at times. You can find the patrol reports of Hawkbill and nearly every WWII boat at Historic Naval Ships Association.
posted by Howard_T at 01:35 AM on March 27, 2020
This is where Howard meant to send us.
posted by NoMich at 10:15 AM on March 27, 2020
Also, here is the page to the War Reports for the USS Hawksbill. Accessed from this page.
posted by NoMich at 10:21 AM on March 27, 2020
We were on Oahu a couple of months ago (hey @ufez!) and of course visited Pearl Harbor. While there we toured the docked sub from WWII and let me tell you I have no idea how anyone even my 5'8" height could manage in these tight spaces.
I watched The English Game (https://www.netflix.com/title/80244928) on Netflix last weekend, very interesting short series from Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) about the turning point in football when payers started getting paid.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:27 AM on March 27, 2020
Side note for Astros fans: in the movie I watched, when frogman James Garner was trying to find his way back to the sub, the men inside guided him home by rapping on the hull with a wrench.
posted by beaverboard at 12:51 PM on March 27, 2020
This is where Howard meant to send us
Thanks for the correction, NoMich. I'm not always at my best at 1:30AM. The narrative account does not appear in the papers I have, and I don't remember seeing it in the hnsa site before. I will say that Frank Scanland, Hawkbill's CO, understated the history; there were some memorable moments that were alluded to but not detailed. Some day I will relate a great anecdote about Capt. Scanland.
posted by Howard_T at 03:46 PM on March 27, 2020
I watched The English Game (https://www.netflix.com/title/80244928) on Netflix last weekend, very interesting short series from Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) about the turning point in football when payers started getting paid.
I just started watching this week. It's a bit plodding, and the characterisation is weak, but it does combine two of my favourite things: the beginning of the labour movement and football.
posted by owlhouse at 08:08 PM on March 29, 2020
So where are we getting our sports fix these days? Yours truly is currently watching game 3 of the NHL East quarterfinals (Montreal vs Boston) from 2011. The hockey was good, but Jack Edwards was at his manic best. Before that it was ALCS game 2 (Detroit vs Boston) from 2013. This is the game where David Ortiz hit an 8th inning grand slam to tie the game at 5. It is best remembered for Torii Hunter going head first over the bullpen wall as he leaped to try to make the catch. The memorable picture is the police officer in the bullpen with his arms raised in celebration completely ignoring the injured Hunter. Fun stuff to awaken some old memories.
This afternoon, with nothing else to watch, I spent time watching black and white episodes of western TV series from 50 or 60 years ago. Jack Kelly as Bret Maverick and Clint Walker as Cheyenne Bodie brought me back to the days of the family gathered in front of the 19 inch black and white.