After which Flintstones character did Elvis Andrus nickname Iván Rodríguez? Why does Cheryl Miller laugh about supposedly not liking Nancy Lieberman the first time she met her? And how did a man called “Boothead” become an important figure in Sidney Moncrief’s life?
As you can imagine, each of the above nuggets has a good story behind it. And each of those stories makes up part of a larger story. How did Pudge become teammates with another Rangers icon? Why did Hall of Famers Miller and Lieberman end up working together? How did Ron “Boothead” Brewer contribute to some of Moncrief’s finest moments?
Pretty much every sports story is a story about people. We watch sports to see athletes perform (mostly human ones, plus the occasional racehorse or bucking bull). Based on those performances, we want to know more about them. What else can they do besides play? Has their hair always been this color? How did they get to the point where they could play their games at a level that causes us to tune in?
We often discover their stories go way beyond sports. They involve elements we’d find fascinating in any context: drama, perseverance, passion, and sometimes even humor. Flintstones humor.
I learned about the nickname during an interview my Mint Farm Films partners and I did with Andrus for a film we’re working on about Pudge Rodríguez. It’s one of a series of biographical documentaries about transcendent athletes. In addition to the former Rangers catcher, we’re profiling Lieberman and Moncrief from the sport of basketball, ice hockey goalie Ed Belfour, and football’s Bob Lilly. We’re acquiring interviews and footage for them as we simultaneously shop them to broadcast outlets, streaming services, and sponsors.
A biography allows you to tell the complete story of what made the athlete great on the field, court, or ice, while also fully covering the human element. And in today’s world, you acquire a lot of additional stories you can supply to fans outside the base narrative. Digital content, for sponsor channels or OTT platforms, has great value and we gather a lot of it. I don’t know if that particular Elvis story will appear in the long-form film or series, because we haven’t edited it yet. But I guarantee it will appear somewhere besides this blog post.
One of our most important jobs as storytellers is tying these smaller threads together so the viewer can get a complete understanding of how they tie into the larger picture of the person’s life. How are they indicative of his or her values and where do they fit into the themes that permeate a life? In addition, what do they tell us about the larger world in which these athletes, and all of us, exist? How did the Kennedy assassination affect Dallas Cowboy Bob Lilly? What did Nancy Lieberman do to create opportunities for today’s women? Has a northern sport thrived in the Sun Belt because of what Ed Belfour accomplished?
We’ll share a few of these in the coming weeks on Mint Farm Films social media channels as we work to build buzz for the project. To see them, follow Mint Farm Films on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
You might hear someone like All-Star shortstop Elvis Andrus recount how he thought 2009 Rangers teammate Iván Rodríguez resembled Barney Rubble. Even better, in the Spanish-language Flintstones Elvis grew up watching, Betty Rubble calls her husband “Cuchi Cuchi.”
So Elvis began calling Pudge “Cuchi Cuchi.” Word somehow reached Pudge’s wife that Elvis had a special nickname for her spouse, and she eventually wormed it out of him, getting Elvis in hot water with his catcher.
Is there some deeper meaning here, perhaps something about the international appeal of both baseball and cartoons? Or about how Pudge was able to bond with even short-term teammates (he played with Elvis for less than two months). Maybe. But you’re also allowed to take out of it that documentaries can simply be entertaining, too. Enjoy, and we’ll supply more stories soon.
