We’re No Angels featured a great director (Neil Jordan), two of the greatest actors around (De Niro and Penn) plus some of the best supporting actors (John C. Reilly, Wallace Shawn), and a great screenwriter (David Mamet). And it still fell flat on its face.
Which is to say, sometimes you don’t need to have all your parts being great. Sometimes you look on paper and go, hmm, Beckett’s out and Pauley’s pitching in his place. The bullpen doesn’t have MDC available. Light-hittin’ Kevin Cash is the starting catcher. Ortiz is still hitting below the Mendoza line.
And yet… what a game. Ellsbury with 2 homers and scoring from 1st on a hit to left field. Lord that man is fast fast fast. (I suppose since I was referencing random films, I could’ve gone with this one.) Backup catcher (!) Pedroia is exactly what you don’t expect from a guy his size: power and not that much speed. Between his hit today and his hits into the triangle against the Rangers, how can you not like him? Except that as a fellow 5"7’ man, it makes me sad because I no longer have the “I was the wrong height to play baseball” thing to go by.