Pitching Topher Grace around MLB

OK, I want to get through this while it's still on my mind and there's still some sort of All-Star hangover, especially for those of us who tried to stay up and watch the whole thing...

Anyway...


The Wizard of Ozzie - Grace stars as a media/public relations director for the Chicago White Sox and comedy ensues as he tries to contain Ozzie Guillen
(played by either Freddy Rodríguez or John Leguizamo) while the White Sox battle with the Twins (and their PR guy played by Bill Murray) for the AL Central crown.







How about an animated feature for Pixar?

Cursebreakers - Grace voices Loyd Christopher, who despite growing up in Redmond, CA was always a Cub fan. He made his pro debut with the 1945 team and didn't get a hit, not until two years later with the White Sox. He bounced around the minors, but never made it back to his adopted home, Chicago, where he died in 1991. At the gates, he's given a chance to go back and get that first hit with the Cubs, only now its 2008.
There's some alternate plot with Joe Black, a New Jersey native who missed his chance to shine for his hometown friends with the Brooklyn Dodgers when Bobby Thompson hits his home run in 1954. Both are dropped back into bodies of late-season callups that make the playoff roster and eventually face off in the NLCS with a trip to the World Series on the line.
This needs a little more work, but you get the drift...

Now the coup de grace, Mindbender.

Grace played Ryan Church and the movie starts with his second concussion, this one in Atlanta when he takes Braves shortstop Yunel Escobar's knee to the head and goes black. We come back to Church in a hospital bed, his wife Tina (played by Maria Bello) looking down and asking him to "Open his eyes and see his son Mason." He notices that Brett Farve is announcing his retirement and then sees video of his first concussion, when he collided with Marlon Anderson in the outfield in March.

The movie moves back and forth, sometimes going back to Church in high school where he's complained of "migranes", other times we come back to present-day and the timeline can be judged by Farve's activity. Sometimes he'll see Farve retired, other times he'll be with the Pack. We're also watching the standing and the Mets and Flithies are neck and neck.


Church comes back in August and plays well for a couple of weeks, but after hitting a two-run double gets dizzy at second base. He scores the run and takes himself out, going back on the DL for two weeks and back again to the head doctor, played by Gary Oldman who looks slightly different each time Church sees him.

The movie ends with Church waking up in his own bed, Tina telling him to open his eyes because he's late. Whether he's late for batting practice, the World Series parade or another doctor appointment is never made clear. This would be pitched to IFC Films and would likely include him talking with football and hockey players about concussions and the modern athlete.

So whadda think?