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If you don't know, today, April 15, is Jackie Robinson Day in Major League baseball, where several ballparks ask all uniformed players to wear the number 42 in honor of the first black baseball player in the modern "era" of Major League Baseball (italic emphasis for those of you that like technicalities), Jackie Robinson, who was started as a first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

There have also been several movies about his career, including a 1950 biopic, The Jackie Robinson Story, in which he portrays himself, a couple television movies in the 90s made for both TNT and HBO, and most recently, the movie simply called 42, released last Friday, and which I saw Saturday.

The movie is exactly what you'd think it is, provided you think it's a sports movie where the music swells under the inspirational moments to tell you how to feel. It's also impeccably acted, often funny, genuinely affecting, and despite being far from the best sports film I've ever seen, worth watching for anyone who's a fan of sports, or the progression and drama of human rights in general.

Chadwick Boseman is excellent as Jackie Robinson, showing us the fear, anger, sadness and triumph of a black baseball player in a setting where he is unwanted and constantly harassed. His wife, played by Nicole Beharie, does an excellent job of portraying his support and inspiration, and Harrison Ford steals any scene he's in as the gruff-voiced, cigar-smoking, and devoutly religious Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey. In fact, this movie was just about as much about Rickey as it was about Robinson.

"I'm a Methodist, Jackie's a Methodist, God's a Methodist, and I've had this cigar in my mouth the past twenty-six years, so I can meet God quicker, and speak to him with a kick-ass voice"

The rest of the supporting cast is great, too. In fact, the supporting cast is so good, it often feels like an ensemble piece, rather than a dedicated Robinson biopic. Almost. Because Robinson clearly has the most to deal with, is the centerpiece and driving factor of the story, and the movie deals with the ups and downs of his first season from a very personal perspective at times; I'm hoping no one shows up to see Alan Tudyk performing comedy and thinks he was playing himself, cause the stuff his Phillies manager character, Ben Chapman says to Robinson is like Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld)'s racist rant a few years back times ten; you definitely root for him the most out of all the characters, at least.

Still, that doesn't mean you always focus on him. As previously mentioned, Branch Rickey is in this movie a lot, but actors like Christopher Meloni (Law & Order detective, Leo Durocher in the movie) and John C. McGinley (Dr. Perry Cox on Scrubs, announcer Red Barber here) have a tendency to draw attention, and there are characters like reporter Wendell Smith (played by Andre Holland) and Ed Charles (child actor Dusan Brown) the movie points out were also important pieces of the Robinson story, but despite the historical significance of their involvement, thanks to the movie's direction, feel a bit like afterthoughts.

Also an afterthought: press boxes for black reporters in the 1940s...

we (U.S.) have a very douchey history in some aspects, don't we?

The movie, from what I've heard from baseball fans like my dad and other sports/baseball people, does a good job not going too far with "based on a true story" liberties and keeping things fairly grounded in reality. This is good, but I think it may have led to trying too hard to get everything about Robinson's first season in there, as scenes can sometimes seem to jump too quickly from one even to the next. Like "okay, that was important, so cue music, then cut, and we'll move on to the next thing."

But though it may have a few too many moving parts for its own good, some of the dialogue can get a bit cornball (I didn't touch on that as much, cause it feels like spoiler territory), and the music really lays it on thick, the movie does ultimately succeed in its goal of telling a compelling and inspiring story of what it took to break through the race barrier in Major League Baseball, with one man leading the charge, and both a literal and symbolic triumph being its core.

I definitely recommend it. If you're like me, you will root for Robinson all the way through, enjoy the all-around great acting, and you'll leave the theater feeling good, even if you roll your eyes at some cornball moments, and want to know more about Robinson himself than the movie tells you.

And as a special way of bringing baseball to a gaming website, here are some baseball games I recall playing:

Baseball Simulator 1000 was a fun, but simple game for the NES I have vague memories of playing. I also remember thinking somehow the game would feature the Silver Surfer at-bat, as the guy on the cover looked like he was surfing in space to me.

I remember playing this N64 Ken Griffy Jr. game a lot through rentals. I think I grew to be a big fan of the guy as a kid, knowing barely anything about him but that he hit a lot of homeruns. I probably based my love of baseball players on their home run records growing up, so I liked playing his game to hit homeruns in, too. There was even a game called Ken Griffy's Slugfest, also on N64 I believe.

Finally, I thought this was a game named after Pudge Rodriguez (I grew up in Texas, with the Texas Rangers), but nope, that's definitely what the cartridge looked like, and it definitely says Piazza. I don't remember much else about the game, though....

Anyway, while I rarely play any sports games now, I did occassionally like the feeling of hitting a home run or perfectly catching for an out in some of these. I think. It's been a long time.

For music today, let's go with the two songs I've heard used in trailers for 42, first being Jay z's "Brooklyn We Go Hard"

then Macklemore's "Make the Money"

And finally, not used in the trailer, but it is about baseball, Seattle (I did mention Griffy today), and is also a Macklemore song, which you should know I'm a big fan of. This actually pays tribute to Dave Neihaus, an announcer for the Mariners, but the end is more of a metaphor for life using baseball. Enjoy.

Once again, happy Jackie Robinson day! I might see if his 1950 biopic is on Youtube. Have a good one!

Edit [5:01AM CST]: More music about Jackie Robinson.

 Apparently, his favorite song was "Oh Happy Day" by The Edwin Hawkins Singers, but my source on that is Wiki Answers so ... sounds right, but I essentially have no reliable source on that.