Hoosiers, Hollywood, Hardball and Hinkle

By Ryan Fagan
Sporting News’ Ryan Fagan is traveling the Hoosier State, watching every D-I team in Indiana over 12 days. He’ll write about all things Hoosier Culture for The Sporting Blog.
My first brush with Hollywood was when I was back in middle school and I somehow wound up at the forest where they filmed part of the movie Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis.
Then when I was a reporter covering independent league baseball, a couple of the Indiana ballparks I visited regularly -- in Evansville and Huntington -- were sites for the movie A League of Their Own. It was pretty cool, what with the signage and such from the movie still up on the outfield fences.
That was a great movie, and not just because there’s no crying in baseball. I’m a sucker for a baseball flick. Major League just might be my favorite comedy of all time. The Rookie makes my eyes water -- it’s somehow always dusty in the room when he gets called up to the majors. Bull Durham was the best Kevin Costner role ever (that’s a really short list). And The Sandlot is just about the greatest kid movie ever.

Baseball on film made the impossible happen. Imagine watched even 10 minutes of a movie with a cast that includes Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna, Geena Davis and Lori Petty. Yikes. But somehow, baseball made them not only tolerable, but enjoyable. I have to stop and watch a spell every time I find if on cable.
Anyway, all that to say the Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University was pretty amazing. We went back there this afternoon for a photo shoot with a couple of Bulldogs players, and stayed a while to watch practice.
It’s not hard to imagine Jimmy Chitwood and the boys suiting up their short shorts and launching set shots into immortality in the film adaptation of the “Milan Miracle.”
It was great to see the Thursday night game, but watching practice in the afternoon with the light streaming through the windows high above the floor was something special.
We should all be so lucky as to spend four years playing basketball there. Jim McGrath, the sports information director at Butler, told me that Brad Stevens, the Butler coach, told him the best part of his job is that he gets the keys to Hinkle Fieldhouse.↵