The tale of Bob Aspromonte and Bill Bradley is one that deserves to be retold and I'm glad the producers of "Amazing Sports Stories" felt it
worthy to make it into an episode in their series. If you missed the premiere on Sunday, I believe you will get two more chances to see it this week. Check
your listings.
The show relies on dramatizations interspersed with conversations by the main participants of the story as they are today. For background, the show turned to two of the very best sources, Gene Elston and Mickey Herskowitz, to help tell viewers background on the situation.
Overall, it was an enjoyable show although, naturally, I watched as someone who was interested in the history of it and how accurately that had been reflected. I had been contacted by a David Cherella back in April who identified himself as an Associate Producer who wanted to know if I had any additional photos or videos of Aspromonte that I could give him. I told him I had nothing more than what he could find on the site however we had the audio of one game where Aspro hit a grand slam for Billy as Gene and Loel Passe filled us in on how Billy was now able to see. Surprisingly, the producers didn't use that part of the audio clip.
If you listened closely, you could hear authentic snippets from Gene and Loel describing the game events yet two of the home run calls used were Loel who probably wasn't the person who called the actual homers since they were late-inning heroics where Gene would have been at the mic.
I caught two factual errors - one coming from Mickey who said that the Colts finished ahead of Philadelphia the first year. Actually, the Phillies beat our brains in that first year but we did finish ahead of the Cubs. The other error was the dramatization that Billy was listening to the home run calls from his hospital bed. Other sources indicate that Billy (who, by the time he was brought to Houston was healthy other than being unable to see) was taken to the ballpark and given a transistor radio to listen to the game. I realize there is such a thing as "dramatic license" but I'm guessing either the producers weren't aware of this or chose to make it more dramatic by having Billy listen to the games in bed.
I really wasn't aware of the later eye damage that Aspro had suffered after his big league career was over but it does add one more twist to the story.
I was hoping "AstrosDaily.com" would show up in the credits after my correspondence with Mr. Cherella. Oddly, not only did I not see the website in the credits, I also did not see Cherella's name either. Maybe Gene lent them a copy of the same audio clips he gave to Ray Kerby and myself or, more likely, they just took what audio they wanted from the website and gave no attribution. No matter. My point is that without sites like AstrosDaily.com and the willingness of people like Gene to contribute to them, such historical gems would be unavailable to the general public and this, in my mind, is part of the reason I want the site to remain active and vibrant.
One last thought. Since all the old remembrances of the Colts are either in still photos or black and white films, the dramatizations were the first time I'd ever seen a bunch of young men dressed up in Colt .45 uniforms in all their color. Gee, those looked great. Now, I can better understand why some folks lament that the Colt .45 uniforms were ever mothballed.
The show relies on dramatizations interspersed with conversations by the main participants of the story as they are today. For background, the show turned to two of the very best sources, Gene Elston and Mickey Herskowitz, to help tell viewers background on the situation.
Overall, it was an enjoyable show although, naturally, I watched as someone who was interested in the history of it and how accurately that had been reflected. I had been contacted by a David Cherella back in April who identified himself as an Associate Producer who wanted to know if I had any additional photos or videos of Aspromonte that I could give him. I told him I had nothing more than what he could find on the site however we had the audio of one game where Aspro hit a grand slam for Billy as Gene and Loel Passe filled us in on how Billy was now able to see. Surprisingly, the producers didn't use that part of the audio clip.
If you listened closely, you could hear authentic snippets from Gene and Loel describing the game events yet two of the home run calls used were Loel who probably wasn't the person who called the actual homers since they were late-inning heroics where Gene would have been at the mic.
I caught two factual errors - one coming from Mickey who said that the Colts finished ahead of Philadelphia the first year. Actually, the Phillies beat our brains in that first year but we did finish ahead of the Cubs. The other error was the dramatization that Billy was listening to the home run calls from his hospital bed. Other sources indicate that Billy (who, by the time he was brought to Houston was healthy other than being unable to see) was taken to the ballpark and given a transistor radio to listen to the game. I realize there is such a thing as "dramatic license" but I'm guessing either the producers weren't aware of this or chose to make it more dramatic by having Billy listen to the games in bed.
I really wasn't aware of the later eye damage that Aspro had suffered after his big league career was over but it does add one more twist to the story.
I was hoping "AstrosDaily.com" would show up in the credits after my correspondence with Mr. Cherella. Oddly, not only did I not see the website in the credits, I also did not see Cherella's name either. Maybe Gene lent them a copy of the same audio clips he gave to Ray Kerby and myself or, more likely, they just took what audio they wanted from the website and gave no attribution. No matter. My point is that without sites like AstrosDaily.com and the willingness of people like Gene to contribute to them, such historical gems would be unavailable to the general public and this, in my mind, is part of the reason I want the site to remain active and vibrant.
One last thought. Since all the old remembrances of the Colts are either in still photos or black and white films, the dramatizations were the first time I'd ever seen a bunch of young men dressed up in Colt .45 uniforms in all their color. Gee, those looked great. Now, I can better understand why some folks lament that the Colt .45 uniforms were ever mothballed.
