Scott Erickson: From Post-Season Pitcher To Movie Producer

Written by: jimmyscott on 6th October 2009

Scott Erickson: From Post-Season Pitcher To Movie Producer | read this item

So what do you wanna be when you grow up? A baseball player? A movie star? Scott Erickson, who won 20 games for the Twins in 1991 (and a World Series too), was lucky enough to be a baseball player.

Movie star? Nah, that’s not what he wants. Movie producer? Most kids don’t care so much for the finance and business aspects of film, but Scott? That’s his thing now: Executive Producer of movies. Which means he funded a movie, Which means, had he wanted to, he could have appeared in front of the camera. Lucky for us (probably), he stayed in the background and let the pros do the acting. He’s just out now to promote it.

The film was/is called A Plumm Summer. If you do not speak of word of English, A Plumm Summer will not be enjoyable. Let’s say you were born in the central portion of Zaire. You’re not going to like A Plumm Summer. Hate every film made since the silent era? A Plumm Summer will be loud for you.

But…

If you like movies that are in color, if you don’t mind a soundtrack featuring Bob Dylan and The Foundations (“Build Me Up Buttercup”) and Elvis Presley, and if you collect films that include one or more Baldwin brothers, than A Plumm Summer is the film for you.

“Jimmy, you must give us more. I still know nothing about this piece of cinema,” you say to me, wiping a speck of hardened goo from the corner of your left eye.

Here is the “more” that you so demand. But first, why A Plumm Summer? Is it like Bull Durham? Or Field of Dreams? Or The Natural? No. Completely different, actually, although a baseball does make a cameo appearance inside a dog’s mouth. Beyond that, the only thing A Plumm Summer has in common with baseball – well, two things – are 1) a production company called Home Team Productions that includes a baseball player silhouetted inside a home plate and 2) Executive Producer Scott Erickson. Oh, and we spoke here recently about his career both on the field and behind the camera. So to answer your question, A Plumm Summer is being discussed here because of Scott Erickson and only because of Scott Erickson. So there’s a connection to baseball, it’s just not so obvious that I have to spell it out for you, although I did, in fact, just spell it out for you so there.

Back to A Plumm Summer. It’s a kids movie, but not for babies. If your definition of “baby” is between the ages of “just popped out” and “Mother, I need money to buy books for my pre-law class at Harvard,” you need to make a better definition. But if you have kids, or know kids, or believe kids exist who are 5 years old and above, then A Plumm Summer is a good movie for them. It’s rated PG, so if you’re a parent, you need to sit in the room and watch it with the kids.

“What’s it about, Jimmy?” you ask, trying to pick something unidentifiable out of your hair.

101 minutes. Get it? Oh, I kill me. No, A Plumm Summer, while 101 minutes, takes place in rural Montana (as if there’s an urban Montana) in 1968. It’s based on a true story about a marionette called Froggy Doo, part of a #1 kids show, that gets stolen. Brothers Elliott and Rocky Plumm, about 13 and 5, respectively, decide to try to find out who stole the puppet (it’s not a puppet, which you soon understand). With the help of a new neighbor, Haley, the three use time-proven tactics researched heavily from Hardy Boys mysteries to solve the case.

Meanwhile, there’s the father, played by Billy Baldwin, who’s an alcoholic and thus going through some personal issues that need to be resolved before the 101 minutes winds down. There’s the mother, played by Lisa Guerrero, wife of Scott Erickson, searching for the strength to pack up the kids and leave the drunken Baldwin brother. There’s Henry Winkler, playing the part of Happy Herb, Froggy Doo’s stage partner, who is married to Viv who also plays Happy Herb’s friendly Genie (played by Brenda Strong), and there are more, including the dog who chases a baseball. All of these characters are looking for balance in their lives, although they don’t know it. By the end of the film, let’s just say they can walk across a Montana plain without falling down (that means they get the balance, jeez).

I know what you’re thinking. “I’m hungry.” You’re also thinking, “Is the movie any good, Jimmy? You must tell us because we trust you with our film-going lives!”

Yes, the film is good. The youngest boy, Rocky (Owen Pearce), is as cute as 6-year old Jonathan Lipnicki in 1996′s Jerry Maguire. Billy Baldwin is on the mark, doing his brooding, drunken Baldwin thing. The other two kids – Chris Massoglia and Morgan Flynn – are well written characters, walking the fine line between friendship and young romance. Kudos to screenwriters T.J. Lynch, Frank Antonelli and Caroline Zelder (who also very capably directed).

I watched the movie with a 5 year old and an 8 year old. Sorry, 8 1/2 year old. They were (and still are) both girls and they both sat through the whole movie without complaining. In fact, at one point the older girl said, “When will it be over?” I asked why she wanted to know. Did she not like it? “I don’t want it to end.”

So there you go. 889 rambling words from me to get to the ultimate review of A Plumm Summer from the perfect audience member, an English speaking American who likes talkies. Will you like A Plumm Summer? If you’re a kid, you just might not want it to end.

Back to baseball for a moment. When I spoke to Scott back in August, I remembered he’d been on the 1996 Orioles team that faced the Yankees in the ALCS. “You were at the Jeffrey Maier game,” I said.

“I started it,” he said.

Jeffrey Maier was the 12-year old boy who reached over the fence and caught Derek Jeter’s game-tying home run in the bottom of the 8th.

“It always looked to me like Tony Tarasco didn’t jump for the ball,” I said. “He wasn’t going to catch it anyway.”

“He didn’t need to jump,” Erickson said. Picture a growing resentment in his voice. As he spoke, he was becoming annoyed, first with the memory and then with me. “(Umpire) Rich Garcia was asleep that day.”

I eventually said, “Well, we’ll never know, will we?”

Scott snapped back, “Know what?” In Scott’s mind, we did know. The ball would’ve been caught. I didn’t want to argue, and I didn’t want to argue and lose, so I collected myself quickly and said, “We’ll never know if the Orioles would’ve made the World Series.”

He had a response for that too. “We would’ve had a 2 games to none advantage going back home.” In Scott’s mind, the Orioles would’ve made the World Series.

Old wounds never heal, especially when the stakes are so high. I don’t blame Scott for feeling the way he does. He still has a competitive passion for winning. That will help him in the world of Hollywood, the town where he now produces films instead of throwing baseballs. There’s not much baseball in A Plumm Summer, but that’s okay. The movie’s good enough for this rookie Executive Producer to not blame a movie reviewer for making a bad call.

Jimmy Scott is probably the greatest pitcher you’ve never heard of. Visit Jimmy Scott’s High & Tight to read more from Jimmy and guests Desi Relaford, Eric Valent & Cassidy Dover. You’ll also hear a new interview every Monday morning with former MLB players, agents, wives and others; giving new outlooks on this great game we call Baseball. Go there now to hear Jimmy’s latest interviews with Rollie Fingers, Desi Relaford, Brent Mayne and MLB Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt. You can follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook.

Topics: Baldwin Brothers, Baseball Player, Bob Dylan, Bull Durham, Business Aspects, Buttercup, Cameo Appearance, Central Portion, Elvis Presley, Executive Producer, Field Of Dreams, Foundations, Goo, Left Eye, Movie Star, Nah, Scott Erickson, Speck, World Series, Zaire