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Former Ithacan's 'Baseball Heaven' Throws Scandalous Curves at Romance
By Jay Cox
For many people, creating a book is a project in itself.
For George Atkins, it's only part of a project.
Atkins, a former Ithaca resident and Cornell University graduate, recently published "Baseball Heaven", a screenplay with photographs which he hopes to eventually turn into a 90-minute, black-and-white film.
As Atkins explains it, he wanted to produce a "body of photographs that would hold together in addition to complementing the story."
Atkins' story - which includes black-and-white plates of location stills - centers on a softball coach at a Catholic junior high school, but the tale veers far from the baseball - or, in this case, softball - diamond. Instead, it explores the provocative relationship that develops between a black coach and one of his teenage players.
"I wanted to make a story that was immediately controversial and try to portray it in such a way that people - as they saw the film or read the book - would be less inclined to typecast people," Atkins said in a recent interview.
That, perhaps, is Atkins' objective in "Baseball Heaven," as he takes a taboo subject and weaves a story with likable characters caught up in a controversial matter.
Bruce, the coach, finds himself entangled with Carol, the head coach of the girls' softball team who's also his former girlfriend; and Mary, a 13-year- old whose crush on Bruce brings the pair together.
Along the way, there are parking lot scenes, car rides, a trip to New Mexico for a softball tournament and lots of innuendoes, which leave the reader believing Bruce and Mary are rolling toward romance, but wondering when.
"But love isn't about doing or not doing. It's about feeling," Bruce tells Mary. "You can't promise to *feel* a certain way a certain length of time, least of all forever. Well, you can, but it's not something you can control."
Atkins wants readers to "see them as individual characters," he said. "I see these characters as unique individuals - eyeing them from an emotional standpoint."
And, he also notes, "Film these days tend to skimp on character portrayal."
Atkins hopes his characters are strong enough for the story to evolve into the movie he envisions. Part of his funding for the film - he hopes to raise $16,000 - will come from the book, and he plans to begin production by next August.
"(It will) give them a better idea of what the film is about - the dialogue and the general feel I'm trying to get," Atkins said.
Like many budding filmmakers, Atkins depends on another job to carry him along financially Atkins, who received a BFA from Cornel and worked in the geology department as a photographer, left Ithaca in 1983.
Since then, he has lived in New Mexico, earned degrees from the University of New Mexico and the University of California at Berkeley and is currently working as an electrical engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives.
In producing "Baseball Heaven," Atkins wants readers to discover their own thoughts and draw their own conclusions.
"There are as many different interpretations," he said, "as there are viewers."
Baseball Heaven. By George Atkins. Lux Fiat Press, paper.
A visual experience for the eyes and the imagination. This quaint collection of screenplay and black & white photos celebrates cross-cultural friendships in amateur baseball. The author first envisioned this contemporary story involving a black man and white female co-worker. Its evolution embraces much more. Bruce is a teacher and coach for a Catholic girls' school in the San Francisco Bay area. Mary is a 13-year-old student who flirts with her coach, chiding him about a female coach, a former love. Through changing scenes, poetry and photographs, Atkins moves teenage Mary into the driver's seat - literally and otherwise - until something serious is going on. In and out of drugstores, dormitory rooms, the beach near Santa Cruz, North Beach, Bruce's apartment, even New Mexico on tour... they make funny sounds, funny faces. But Bruce can't forget his former love. Mary needs to understand. "There are many types of love and up to now we've mistaken one type for another." Can Bruce make up his mind, or will he take life where he finds it? Tender but dangerous emotions, accented by skillful, almost surrealistic use of blanc et noir: people, photos, fixtures, scenes. A black and white movie in more ways than one.
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