I was flipping through the dial (as it were) yesterday — Memorial Day — and came across the final episode of Band of Brothers.
In the final scene, the men of Easy Company are playing baseball. Having watched BoB dozens of times, I knew the actor playing catcher was Neal McDonough, who played Buck Compton. Watching him make a play at the plate and throwing the ball back to the pitcher, you can tell that he’s played the game before, and well. So I decided to do a little digging.
Turns out this was not McDonough’s first time on the screen version of the field.
In 1991, he played Lou Gehrig in the made-for-TV biopic, Babe Ruth. It wasn’t a huge role in a movie that certainly was not good (Stephen Lang in the title role was only marginally better than John Goodman in The Babe which came out just one year later).
There are a couple of more scenes with Gehrig more established in his rivalry with Ruth, but their falling out is never developed here.
McDonough played Whitt Bass, a quirky pitcher in the Disney remake of Angels in the Outfield (1994).
He also appeared as minor leaguer Chucky Myerwick in Quantum Leap (“Play Ball,” season 4, episode 2, 1991). So he has some chops.
According to an interview in Us Magazine, McDonough was offered a minor league contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, considers the knuckleball his best pitch, and is a big fan of the Red Sox.
So, yeah, I guess McDonough does have game.
One last thing: Here’s a great parody of AITO (in which McDonough appears) by College Humor.
is available on Amazon.com,
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