Come for the baseball, stay for the romance. I must have seen Pride of the Yankees at least a hundred and fifteen times before I actually handled a girl. The cinematic Lou Gehrig is a heroic, simpleton, mama’s boy who falls for the first girl that really turns his head, and she’s charmed by his awkwardness. Theresa Wright, all playful smiles and good humor, the perfect girl you are dying to come save you from yourself.
The Irving Berlin song Always has er always been the epitome of love for me ever since. Oddly, the guy who leads the orchestra here has the same name as the father of the girl who broke my heart. Which I suppose for me is sort of like jumping into the movie and being kicked back out by a humbling sense of reality.
