Phillies Fans Receive Special Treat At The Bryn Mawr Film Institute

The Phillies rule the current sports landscape in Philadelphia. October is fast approaching and that means playoff baseball and more emphasis on the local baseball team. Fans gobble up anything Phillies, and almost anything baseball related.

A handful of fans got a special treat Thursday night of a little of dose of the Phillies and unique measure of baseball in the form of a classic movie. The showed The Natural, with a special guest, Phillies’ chairman Bill Giles, taking questions from an informed, curious group of baseball and movie lovers.

It’s the second sports-themed event BMFI has held, since the 2008 visit from NFL Films’ President Steve Sabol.

“This idea came from the fact that there are a lot of great movies about baseball and Bill Giles is a wonderful man who lives on the area,” said Juliet Goodfriend, president of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. “Bill and his wife, Nancy, are supporters of the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and we approached him about this late in the spring. He was very accommodating.”

As Giles was with the small but passionate group that arrived.

“Nancy and I love the job Juliet has done and we’re happy to help out,” Giles said. “I’ve seen The Natural two or three times and loved it. So when this was mentioned to me, I thought it was a great idea. But what a lot of people don’t know is that the movie is based on a former Phillie, Eddie Waitkus, who was shot in a Chicago hotel, like the Roy Hobbs character in the movie. This is a great event, and it’s for a great cause.”

Jack Rutkowski, a BMFI member and volunteer at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., couldn’t miss the event.

“There are a lot of great baseball movies out there—you have movies like Bang The Drum Slowly, with Robert De Niro, and that’s certainly in the category with The Natural, and Robert Redford’s performance in that,” Rutkowski said. “I grew up in Cleveland, but I’ve lived 35 years in this area, and right now, you can’t go wrong on a night with the Phillies, Bill Giles and The Natural. This is the first baseball-themed event they’re holding here, and on top of that, you get to ask Bill Giles a few questions and get his insights.”

The most intriguing part of the evening was the question-and-answer session between Giles and the group. Giles relayed a few interesting stories about past Phillies’ teams, one that was particular humorous involved a story of the fabled renegade 1993 team.

Jim Fergosi, then-manager of the Phillies, was making the rounds in the hotel where his players were staying, and out popped girl-magnet Darren Dalton decked out, looking sharp. Seeing Fergosi, Dalton closed his eyes and stuck his arms out, pretending to be sleep walking. The tale received a hearty laugh from the crowd.