http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=a ... &type=lgns
........
OK, so what if he really didn't play on the last day of the 1922 season, as in the movie? Or that he batted left-handed, rather than righty in the film? Or that he got sent down after his one big league game and spent three more years in the minors?
Those blue hats he bought for his wife, Alecia? ``Absolutely true,'' Ponikvar said. And the way he patted children to clear food stuck in their throats? ``He did it to me,'' she said.
Oh, another fact: His younger brother, Frank Porter Graham, was a U.S. senator from North Carolina.
In all, it's a story that fans everywhere embraced. Well, most everyone.
``I didn't see 'Field of Dreams.' I don't watch movies about what I do,'' San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds said.
On the other hand, Los Angeles Angels star Darin Erstad estimated he's watched it 20 to 30 times.
``It's a special thing because it's a dream of a lot of kids out there, to have the opportunity to put on a big league uniform for just that one time. And that part of the movie really summed that up,'' he said.
``When you see guys who are career minor leaguers who get an opportunity to come up -- and even if they're not up for a long time -- they can always say that all that hard work they put in was worth it.''
[ June 25, 2005, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: UFS ]