Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes and clips and puts it all in perspective.
I remember when my dad took me to one of my first games at Fenway (I grew up in Boston, and I promise I won't go on about it like your other Boston friends), Oil Can Boyd was pitching, and my dad said “You'll like this guy! He's crazy!” Which was true. Oil Can danced on the mound. He was nuts. Oil Can was my hero for a long time. Oil Can's eccentric predecessor, Bill Lee, was a little before my time but he would often provide color commentary for baseball news shows, and so I'd watch him say completely out there stuff, and I wished I had grown up on him, too.
Athletes are not typically known for being eccentric, but baseball pitchers are the weirdos of sport, which is why I love them so much. Bill Lee was so out there that his Red Sox teammate, infielder John Kennedy, nicknamed him Spaceman and it stuck. It's a lonely job out there on the mound, painting the strike zone with everything you got, utilizing not only physical gifts but psychological insight, anticipating what the hitter will and won't. do Most of the time, I tune out when athletes give their opinions about things, but not pitchers. Pitchers understand the human condition in ways most of us don't, as it's their job to test people for innings at a time. Bill Lee once said. “I think about the cosmic snowball theory. A few million years from now the sun will burn out and lose its gravitational pull. The earth will turn into a giant snowball and be hurled through space. When that happens it won't matter if I get this guy out.”
Bill Lee is a blast, and Josh Duhamel nails him pretty well in this Spaceman trailer. Before now, I've never held an opinion about Josh Duhamel. I've never disliked him but I've never said to my wife, “We got to see this movie! Josh Duhamel is in it! Load up the car with all our belongings, we're following this Josh Duhamel movie around the country!” That continues to be unlikely, but I like what he's doing here, diving right into the philosopher jock mouthiness of Bill Lee. Sometimes traditionally good looking guys like Duhamel struggle to convince me they can play off center. But I see it here. And I see you, Josh Duhamel. And I'll tell you what, Josh Duhamel, I will watch this movie if your team makes a Oil Can Boyd movie after this one.