Almost immediately after seeing “Captain America: The First Avenger” a couple of weeks ago, I tweeted Larry Granillo from Baseball Prospectus and gave him a task…find out what game it was that Steve Rogers (no, not THAT Steve Rogers) was talking about at the conclusion of the movie.
And why Granillo?
He’s the guy who broke down “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” to find out which Chicago Cubs game the titular character attended.
But, let’s get back to “Captain America” and that game that Steve Rogers says he attended at Ebbetts Field in 1941. Richard Barbieri from The Hardball Times listened close enough to the movie’s audio to figure out what game it was.
Suffice it to say, if you don’t want the last couple of minutes of the movie spoiled…don’t read ahead.
Waking up in “a recovery room in New York City,” after crashing the Red Skull’s Valkyrie Death Ship into the frozen north, Cap hears a Brooklyn Dodgers game being described on the radio. The Dodgers are playing the Phillies, and as he comes to, he hears Pete Reiser hit an inside-the-park grand slam, giving the Dodgers a lead.
Putting the mental part of his Super Soldier skills to work on the play-by-play, Cap recognizes it as this game, which took place in 1941, two years before Steve Rogers became Captain America. As such, he quickly realizes the situation is a sham, which soon leads us to Cap in Times Square, talking to Nick Fury.
I don’t know why, but stuff like this fascinates me considering Hollywood constantly takes liberties to re-write the history books (“Inglourious Basterds” anyone?). I mean, why go the extra mile to include an actual game?
What are some historic moments included in some of your favorite movies?
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