In the 1985 version of Brewster’s Millions, Richard Pryor and John Candy play struggling Minor League baseball players. To illustrate just how low on the pro ball ladder the team is, the game has to be delayed while a freight train passes through the outfield.
My question is: does (or did) this ballpark really exist? If not, was it based on a real stadium; i.e. has ayone ever built a baseball park on a railroad right-of-way?
Seems to me this would create a horrific safety issue – you’d have outfielders with broken ankles all over the place – so I’m guessing at the outset that it was a fictional contrivance.
But I need the Straight Dope.
Anyone?
(Edit: Not sure if this belongs in General Questions, but I stuck it here since it’s a film-related question. Mods, feel free to move it, of course.)
I’m nearly positive that the ballpark actually existed, but may no longer exist today. My google-fu is weak today, however, I couldn’t come up with anything.
The closest thing today would be [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahconah_Park}Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, MA, where games are suspended for a few hours on some days so the setting sun isn’t in the batter’s eyes (it faces west; nearly all other ballparks face east for this reason).
Thanks for the link, runner pat, it’s an interesting article.
But this doesn’t make clear whether the park was torn town because the railroad decided to build tracks where the outfield was, or if they actually did build the tracks before the park was torn down.
Armed with “Kansas City Blues” and “Association Park,” I’m trying to find out more, but coming up empty so far. I’d love to find a photo of this if one exists.
Reminds me of Spiller Field in Atlanta which had RR tracks just outside the park, but more interesting was a magnolia tree in the outfield.
Modern stadiums are great at throwing in dangerous conditions. Sharp angles and slopes (like in the Astros’ park). I don’t think the current MLB folk would stop an owner from putting in a RR track.
When the Coyotes first moved to Phoenix they played in a building not designed for hockey. Some fans at one end could not see the goal below them at that end. This was a modern building, not an old place. They moved to a new place with clear sight lines a few years ago.
The Stadium was real - Bluebird Field.
It was a “studio set” stadium in Sun Valley, LA, first used for the TV programme Bay City Blues, this is why it was called Bluebird Field. It was later used for filming of Brewsters millions. The property was owned by the Department of water and power and they let local teams use it for free for a while but it was torn down at the end of the eighties to be replaced by maintenance facilities.
If you look at the ballpark scenes, you can see 4 red and white smokestacks in the background, they still exist.
Cant see the statdium in google but you can see the red and white smokestacks. Look southeast from Truesdale St, Sun Valley ( which is off Glenoaks Blvd ). I think the big fuel dumps to the northeast of the smokestacks can also be seen in the film.
The loco in the movie is a green GE 45 Tonner. Note these are similar weights but different details, notably side rods on the 45Ts but not the 44Ts.
If you’re going by the “PINE TREE ROUTE” on the caboose, MEC didn’t paint their cabooses like this:
Realize Hollywood can paint anything they want, like the AmRail train in Silver Streak, actually a Canadian Pacific train.
It’s been a long time since I saw the movie and thought the logo was on the locomotive’s nose. Anyway, the geography is still off. Brewster’s team is supposed to play in New Jersey.
