Wow, I just got this news from Megan (of Megan's Blog
http://jerryoconnell.blogspot.com/ ). According to the Sci Fi Wire,
Jerry will be in the TNT movie "The Winning Season". Even better, he
plays the adult incarnate of a little boy who is magically transported
back to 1909 to suddenly find he's a major league ball player in the
1909 World Series! (Assuming the movie storyline follows that of the
book it's based on - Honus and Me)

I know it's not a big screen role for Jerry, but I'm very excited to
hear he's got this part. When I saw him on TV hanging with the
Oakland A's for "Last Call", I knew he could convincingly play the
part of a major league ball player (he really looked the part - and he
could even hit a few of the balls lobbed his way). To top it off,
Jerry's always been good with these fish-out-of-water parts and I can
really see him as this boy who suddenly finds he's a major league ball
player back in 1909.

Here's the article from Sci Fi:

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-tv.html?2003-07/31/13.00.tv

9:00am ET, 31-July-03

Season Has Values

Matthew Modine?who portrays baseball player Honus Wagner in the
made-for-TV movie The Winning Season?told SCI FI Wire that the
time-travel story is about old-fashioned values. "It's about honesty,
being a gentleman, [and] about manners, how perhaps people had more
manners and were more polite in the past. [It's about] the values of
the past and the game of baseball," Modine said in an interview. "The
idea that a baseball player could make so much money today, all the
[past] baseball players?Babe Ruth and Honus?they're all laughing."

Season, based on the book Honus and Me by Dan Gutman, tells the story
of a boy who finds a valuable baseball card, but his parents will not
let him sell it. Through the dugout of an old baseball diamond, he
travels back to the 1909 World Series and finds himself transformed
into an adult, played by Jerry O'Connell. His relationship with the
classic ball players teaches him that money is not as important as he
thought. "When he says baseball players have servants and they live in
big mansions, they just can't believe any of it," Modine said. "When
he tells them that they make more money than the president, they just
think the kid's lost his mind."

Modine added that he is currently training with an active minor league
team in preparation for the role. "It was an unbelievably difficult
schedule," he said. "They play 76 games and have four days off." The
Winning Season, directed by TV veteran John Kent Harrison (Helen of
Troy), is set to premiere on cable network TNT in the spring of 2004.

-----------------------------

Hum, if Modine is training with an active minor league I bet Jerry is
in training as well! I hope we hear something from Jerry about this
role soon :)

-kedd