The phone rang at the Shea residence in Naugatuck and teenage daughter Barbara picked up. Who was calling for her father, former Yankees pitcher?
“It’s Bob Redford,” she heard, not sure whether to be excited or skeptical. She handed the phone to her Dad, Frank “Spec” Shea.
Redford, one of the most popular, respected and consequential actors of the 20th Century, who died this week at age 89, was still a heartthrob in 1983 when he decided to star in a film adaptation of “The Natural,” Bernard Malamud’s classic baseball novel.
This was a passion project for Redford, who had played baseball in high school with Hall of Famer Don Drysdale, because baseball movies by then were defined by epic failures. Silly stories, like the bat-repelling potion in 1949’s “It Happens Every Spring,” biopics laughably exaggerated or corner-cutting effects, like integrating game film of real players with corresponding numbers in 1973’s “Bang The Drum Slowly,” an otherwise excellent film in which Robert DeNiro’s character was represented in game action by Thurman Munson, had soured audiences and Hollywood.
Fonda, DiCaprio, Streisand and more mourn the death of Robert Redford
So when Redford and his Sundance Productions, director Barry Levinson and producer Mark Johnson sought to rejuvenate the genre with “The Natural,” they put a premium on authenticity. Enter Rick Cerrone, who was working in the MLB commissioner’s office, located in the same Manhattan skyscraper where Redford had his office. Johnson approached Cerrone, who was later a Yankees executive and is now editor-in-chief of Baseball Digest, to serve as consultant. When Cerrone told them, for example, that if the movie was set in 1939, all uniforms had to have the baseball centennial anniversary patch, they knew they had the stickler for detail they needed.
“The first thing they asked me was to find someone from that era that could teach Redford the old time windup,” Cerrone remembered. “It turns out, I knew Frank “Spec” Shea, who lived in Connecticut, and Redford lived in Connecticut, so I asked Frank if he’d be interested. And, of course, he was.”
Spec Shea, Naugatuck High Class of 1939, was a rookie sensation for the Yankees in 1947, going 14-5, winning two games in the World Series and earning a sobriquet, “The Naugatuck Nugget,” from announcer Mel Allen. Injuries curtailed his career, which ended in 1955, then he returned home and became Naugatuck’s director of parks and recreation.
“My father got a call from Mark Johnson,” said Frank Shea Jr., Spec’s son. “(Redford) wanted to meet with my father first, see what kind of guy he was before getting together. Redford called and said, ‘Could you come to my house?’ It was down in Fairfield County somewhere and I remembered my father saying, ‘If I didn’t get directions, I never would have found it.’ It was so secluded.”
Spec, then in his mid-60s, showed up at the stately Redford manor. The star came jogging up the leafy road, and invited him in for coffee and breakfast and they talked baseball for a good, long time. The chemistry was there and Redford suggested renting the baseball field at Sacred Heart to have their workouts, but Shea, as head honcho of all the parks in Naugatuck, said “Nonsense.”
Redford and his family drove up to The Valley, meeting Shea at a hot dog stand called Roostie’s. Then they moved to Breen Field, where Shea locked the gates behind them and they started working, undisturbed, on the big leg kick and over-the-head windup that pitchers used in the 1930s.
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If you remember the picture, you know Redford’s character, Roy Hobbs, started as a teenage pitching phenom, became a legend when he struck out “The Whammer,” a character based on Babe Ruth, in street clothes at a rural rail station in the 1920s. After being wounded in a shooting by a crazed fan (Barbara Hershey), Hobbs could no longer pitch and made the major leagues as an aging slugger.
“I always remember my father saying, ‘He was a great athlete, he needed no instruction on how to hit,” Frank Shea Jr. said. “He said (Redford) was a just great guy.”
Cerrone ran into Redford in the elevator at 75 Rockefeller Center and asked how things were working out with Spec Shea. “Redford said, ‘Oh, my God, he’s been great,” Cerrone remembered. “Frank gave him the windup he needed to strike out “The Whammer.”
Spec Shea died in 2002. His son doesn’t remember how many sessions there were; Redford invited Shea to come to the filming in Buffalo and continue advising. “But my father turned him down, he said, ‘I don’t think you need that much instruction.’” Frank Jr. recalled.
At Cerrone’s original suggestion, War Memorial Stadium served as the ballpark where most scenes were filmed. A nearby armory was converted into a set for many other scenes, and the tracks near Buffalo was the site where “The Whammer” (Joe Don Baker) got off the train to be challenged by Roy Hobbs.
“I remember, I asked Spec what he thought of Redford’s performance,” Cerrone said. “And he said, ‘Well, I can’t speak to his acting, but as far as his pitching, he pulled it off.’ And he did.”
Cerrone and Frank Shea Jr. both remember Redford from their brief encounters as down to earth, humble, belying the mega-movie star he was. “He was Roy Hobbs,” said Cerrone, who has has a New York Knights jacket and a framed letter from Redford in his home, thanking him for his help.
In making “The Natural,” Robert Redford, who died this week, put a premium on authenticity and rekindled interest in baseball movies. (Photo by Juergen Vollmer/Redferns/Getty Images)
The film, released in 1984, was nominated for four Academy Awards, but for Cerrone, a connoisseur of baseball movies who has has written extensively on the subject, its impact has resonated ever since.
“I believe “The Natural,” largely due to Robert Redford, is the movie that saved baseball movies,” Cerrone said. “He had a lot of trouble getting a studio to finance and distribute that movie. At that time, baseball movies were box office poison. I remember his and Mark Johnson’s edict to me was, ‘We’ve got to get it right, we can’t do shortcuts.’
“Without The Natural, an iconic movie looking back 40 years later, there’s no ‘Eight Men Out,’ there’s no ‘Bull Durham,’ ‘Field of Dreams,’ ‘Major League,’ ‘The Scout,’ ‘Little Big League.’ Those movies don’t get made if ‘The Natural’ didn’t show baseball movies could be successful.”
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The Hartford Courant’s Bruce Berlet at the Travelers Media Day in 2012. (Courant file photo)
Loss of a colleague
We should all love our jobs, or love something, the way Bruce Berlet loved writing about golf. Berlet, who joined The Courant in 1970, was already a staff giant when I came aboard in 1988. Covering hockey, women’s basketball or golf, whenever we worked together, was a clinic in attention to detail and making the personal connection matter in sportswriting. Whatever he covered, Bruce, “The Bruiser,” treated it like it was the most important story in the world, a lesson any young writer can value. Berlet remained active covering golf events around the state right through the summer, died last week at 77. His passion and his booming voice will be missed in Connecticut Sports.
Young CT golfers to swing for championship
A group of young golfers from Connecticut will compete at the PGA Junior League championships in Frisco, Texas, in November. The Under-13 Team Connecticut all-stars based at Timberlin Golf Course in Berlin, won the regionals at Keney Park on Sept. 14. The team includes Thomas Sullivan, 13, from Watertown; Ava Oh, 10, from Cromwell; Marc Bayram Jr., 12, Maximus Bayram, 11 and Reid Meyers, 12 , all from Berlin; Sophia Potvin, 10, from Newington; Fletcher Utz, 12, from South Kent; and Cole Thompson, 13 from Bristol.
The Under-13 PGA Junior League Championship starts Nov. 19, the match play semifinals and championship the next day. ESPN will cover the event and air player features during the week. Coaches Marc Bayram, PGA pro at Timberlin, and Brandon Funari have started a GoFundMe page to raise $20,000 to help the families get to the tournament. Go to gofundme.com/f/support-team-timberlins-quest-for-a-national-championship for more information.
New London’s AJ Dillon, shown here at Boston College in 2019, is now carrying the ball for the Super Bowl champs. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Sunday short takes
*New London’s AJ Dillon, 27, recovered from injuries, has resurfaced in the NFL with the Super Bowl champion Eagles, who signed the former Boston College and Packers back to help lighten Saquon Barkley’s work load. Dillon, known for his massive quads, averaged 4.8 yards per carry in Philly’s first two games.
*Yale opened its season Saturday against Holy Cross, which had already played three games. That’s the next thing for the Ivy League to fix.
*Isabella Jubrey, senior at Northwest Catholic-West Hartford considered one of the top flag football players in the country, has been nominated for this week’s USA Football Heart of a Giant Award presented by the Hospital for Special Surgery and the New York Giants. Jubrey plays quarterback and D-back, maintains a 4.13 GPA and is heavily involved in community service.
*Simsbury’s Sarah Persons is in Egypt this week, competing in the golf croquet International Championships, Sept. 23-30, with 80 of the top players from all over the world. Golf croquet is a fast-moving, fast-growing sport, the competition is co-ed. “In the U.S., croquet is seen as a backyard game you play at your grandmother’s house or an elitist sport that only the rich play,” Persons says. “I’m trying to break that stereotype.”
*Farmington’s Peyton Miller, 18, who played in 25 games (two goals, two assists) for MLS’ New England Revolution, will be on the U.S. roster for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Chile Sept. 27-Oct. 19.
*The NCAA has begun granting eligibility to hockey players with U.S. pro, even AHL experience if their professional contracts do not exceed necessary college expenses. For example, Quinnipiac has added defenseman Graham Sward, who has played 47 games with Norfolk in the ECHL.
*The Guardians are hanging in the AL wild card race, but shouldn’t it be a much bigger story that two of its top relievers, Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, are still on suspension, pending an investigation triggered by unusual betting activity surrounding pitches they threw? Sure seems like a much bigger story.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver defends WNBA in Connecticut Sun sale saga
Last word
If Adam Silver is going to continue to insist, as he did this week, that Hartford and Uncasville are different markets, and Hartford cannot be home to the Connecticut Sun because the city didn’t put in a bid for an expansion team, then I am going to have to continue to insist that this reasoning is utter nonsense.
