MAKING HEADLINES AND MOVIES AT THE HOT CORNER

Off Base with Al Pacino

We were on an unavoidable collision course

Photo by author. Me and Al at third base during a softball league game.

Sometimes, if we’re very lucky, we’re destined for greatness. I was a good actor, but my credits were sparse. I needed some kind of unorthodox strategy to bring attention to me and to convince casting directors that I was a viable actor worthy of recognition.

My time arrived in the mid-70s when I had a chance to do that with Al Pacino in the Broadway Show Softball League, where I played left field for My Fair Lady.

The moment called for some kind of incident to get me noticed, like maybe a body check into Al that would knock him to the ground and make news.

Pacino played Pavlo Hummel on Broadway, eight performances a week. But on Thursday afternoons you could find Pacino manning third base, where he played to standing-room-only crowds for the Pavlo Hummel softball team in Central Park.

The inevitable showdown would come on June 30, when Pavlo Hummel met My Fair Lady on the field of battle.

The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel was the first play in David Rabe’s Vietnam War trilogy that continued with Sticks and Bones and Streamers.