With an 89% rating over at Rotten Tomatoes, “Straight Outta Compton” is one of the higher rated movies out there in theaters right now.
But regardless of how good or accurate the movie is, some fans were turned off right from the start…and it had nothing to do with the language, violence or even the portrayal of the iconic rap group N.W.A.
People were upset about something else…that post-1990 Chicago White Sox hat Easy-E is shown wearing in the movie’s opening scene set in 1986.
Straight Outta Compton was great, but Eazy-E wearing the black White Sox cap that didn’t yet exist in a scene set in 1986 drove me crazy.
— Evan G. (@erg79) August 15, 2015
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Dear Straight Outta Compton, Eazy-E could not have worn the 1991 White Sox hat in 1986. Thanks. — RJ’s Fro (@RJsFro) August 16, 2015
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The inaccuracies in Straight Outta Compton were small but that White Sox hat slapped me dead in the face.
— Wavy Crockett (@WhtWudJacksonDo) August 16, 2015
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Compton review tomorrow. Biggest problem? Eazy E wearing the Black White Sox hat in 1986 in opening scene. Logo didn’t debut until 1991. 🙁 — Bob Sturm (@SportsSturm) August 17, 2015
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My only complaint about Straight Outta Compton is the fact that the black/white Sox logo didn’t exist in 1986.
— fleudiddy (@fleudiddy) August 17, 2015
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All that aside, let’s be real. If the movie’s costume designer Kelli Jones doesn’t seem to care…should we?
I mean, Eazy-E wearing a White Sox hat nearly half a decade before it debuted is (by far) not the worst baseball-related error to occur in a movie.
Check these out.
“Straight Outta Compton” wasn’t the first movie (baseball-related or not) to get headgear incorrect. One of the biggest mistakes of late happened in 2013’s “42”. The Jackie Robinson biopic includes a scene where his Brooklyn Dodgers take on the New York Giants in what we’re to believe is 1947. However, the movie seemingly got their Giants wrong. The team’s hats have orange bills that were not used until 1972. And the jerseys? The ones shown were not used until the 1980s.
Probably one of the most popular inconsistencies in any movie is the factual error that buoyed “Field of Dreams” when it hit theaters in 1989. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson batted left-handed, not right, as shown in the film. In the field, his handiness was a mirror image as well as Jackson was a righty…not a lefty.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFxClnvbVsE]Proving no one really knows whether or not Babe Ruth’s “called shot” was real or a thing of fiction, Hollywood can’t even figure it out. In “The Sandlot”, Smalls describes it as happening at Yankee Stadium in the bottom of the ninth inning during Game 3 of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs whereas baseball historians have it happening in the top of the fifth. And to complicated matters more…Game 3 was in Chicago.
Speaking of the “called shot” and Wrigley Field. In 1992’s “The Babe”, you can see the ballpark’s iconic ivy vines lining the outfield wall. The problem with that? The ivy was planted until 1937…five years after Ruth’s mythical blast.
Remember the scene in “Moneyball” when Billy Beane is frantically working the phone and hammered out the deals that sent Jeremy Giambi and Carlos Peña packing? One problem, they weren’t dealt on the day…much less in the same month. Giambi was traded on May 22nd and Peña six weeks later on July 5th.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n09EyMHAjOE]Transactional transgressions didn’t originate with “Moneyball”. In “61*”, Billy Crystal’s love letter to the 1961 Yankees, Bob Cerv was shown chumming it up with roommates Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris on Opening Day. One problem, Cerv didn’t end up in the Bronx until May 8.
How about another? Jim Morris made his debut for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1999, yet, for some reason, in “The Rookie” you can clearly see Alex Rodriguez as a member of the Texas Rangers. You guessed it, A-Rod didn’t call The Lonestar State “home” until 2001, the same year the Morris biopic was lensed.
Lastly, for the “fontheads” out there (is that a thing?), a banner reading “Catch A Foul – Get A Kiss” is printed in the font Banco…which was created in 1951. You guessed it, eight years after “A League of Their Own” was set. Okay, okay, that might be a little bit of a stretch…but I bet you never look at it the same again.
What baseball-related movie mistakes have you noticed? Sound off in the comments!
(h/t @moviemistakes)
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