Matthau, Madison, and Buttermaker

In the 1976 movie The Bad News Bears, Walter Matthau plays Morris Buttermaker, a former minor league ballplayer with the unenviable task of managing a team consisting of loudmouth Little Leaguers.  Matthau’s rumpled persona matches the Buttermaker character like...

The Story of the Tampico Stogies

Based on the eponymous novel by Paul Hemphill, the 1987 HBO tv-movie Long Gone starred William Petersen, Dermot Mulroney, and Virginia Madsen.  Long Gone revolves around the fictional Tampico Stogies, a minor league team in Florida during the late 1950s. At the heart...