"Sugar"- great new baseball movie

I was going to write up a movie review of Sugar, a movie that I saw recently and absolutely loved, but instead I will share a well written overview from Jorge Aranguré. Jorge writes for ESPN and covers Latin baseball. He shared a conversation he had with Robinson Cano, which provides great insight into this amazing movie.

I also included the movie trailer to watch at the bottom of this blog.

If you search online, you'll find numerous glowing reviews about this movie. It is a scripted film, but comes across almost like a documentary because the characters and the way it is filmed are so accurate. Sugar is playing in smaller theaters currently in New York and Los Angeles. I hope it will be distributed everywhere, so all of us who love baseball can see it. Keep an eye out for Sugar in your local theater or definitely get a copy when it comes out on DVD. You'll be glad you did. This quickly went to the top of my all time favorite baseball movies.. but it's much more than a baseball movie because it shows so many other life lessons.
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A talk with Robinson Cano about "Sugar"

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Posted by Jorge Arangure Jr.

Robinson Cano was sitting comfortably in a lounge chair in front of his locker at Yankee Stadium this week when I approached him for an interview.

"Robinson, do you have a moment?" I asked.

"Sure," he said, lazily nodding his head. He didn't even bother turning his chair toward me. The tone of his voice remained barely past a whisper.

"I was just wondering if you had seen the movie 'Sugar'?" I asked him.

Cano quickly raised his head, sat up straight and, as if struck with a bolt of electricity, said, "It tells the whole story. It's exactly what we go through."

Cano's reaction demonstrates the potential that "Sugar" has. Filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have created the first genuine motion picture about the lives of Dominican players as they rise from raw prospects in the Dominican to professional baseball players fighting their way through the minor leagues in the United States. It is a beautiful movie, even while it details the hardships of the journey: the alienation, the boredom, the difficulties of the game that are compounded by the difficulties of learning a new culture.

The movie is shown through the eyes of protagonist Miguel "Sugar" Santos and his experience is striking. There is Santos' unrequited crush on the white granddaughter of his host family in Iowa. There is the fight at an Iowa bar because Santos is dancing with a local. There are the meetings with Santos' minor league manager, who can't communicate any advice because he does not speak Spanish.

And, of course, there are the scenes were Santos eats French Toast every day for breakfast because he doesn't know how to order anything else.

"I think we've all been through that stuff," Cano said. "I remember eating only at McDonalds, Wendy's, Burger King and Subway. I mean we had the money for something else, but you can't get what you really want, which is Dominican food."

If the movie has a flaw perhaps it's that it doesn't go far enough examining the somewhat exploitative side of the recruiting process.

After Boden and Fleck's previous film "Half Nelson," the story of a heroin-addicted Brooklyn school teacher, you almost expected "Sugar" to focus on the underside of the Dominican baseball business: the ruthless trainers, the predatory scouts, the age manipulation, and of course steroid use. But this aspect of the film seemed a bit anesthetized.

Within the first 10 minutes of the movie we see former Washington Nationals executive Jose Rijo playing the role of a scout who is in charge of Santos' baseball development while he plays in the Dominican summer league.

If you don't already know, Rijo was recently fired from the Nationals for his relationship with a prospect who lied to teams about his age. Rijo has also been linked to a federal investigation concerning scouts skimming signing bonuses from foreign players. In fact, one Dominican man in the theater where I saw the movie, said out loud, "Hey that's Jose Rijo!" when he first appeared on screen.

Rijo's uncanny presence in the movie (which was produced before his firing) is an inspired bit of casting. It's an interesting glimpse at just how deep the corruption has gone, even though it would have gone over viewers' heads unless they knew who Rijo was.

Cano, who loved the movie, said, "You can't really blame them because these are people who aren't involved in baseball so they don't really know everything."

Then there's the drastic plot twist during the third act; it's believability is debatable. I won't ruin it, but Cano chooses to see that final plot twist as a lesson for all those Dominicans who make their living in baseball: Baseball is a beautiful game, but it's also difficult and cruel as well, so nothing should be taken for granted.

Cano said he knew nothing about the movie when he was invited for a special screening in Santo Domingo this winter. He was shocked when at the beginning the Santos character says his favorite player is Robinson Cano. "To have a kid say that, even though it's in a movie, there's a high level of satisfaction," Cano said.

Cano realized he had finally made it not when he broke into the big leagues, or when he got his first hit, or played in his first playoff game (plenty had done those things already) but when he was referenced in the movie "Sugar." That gave him the most satisfaction, and in a sense, the feeling that he had left his mark. It was a realization that all those difficult days in the minors, when he experienced the same struggles that befell the fictional Santos, had meant something. And there is beauty in that as well.