Dear All, I'm the author of a novel, and adapted screenplay, of UNTIL THE END OF THE NINTH, which is inspired by the true story of a 1946 minor league baseball team that died in a bus crash midway through that season. Nine of the 16 men on the bus died. Eight of the 9 who died had served in World War II. They survived the War only to die in this fateful crash. It is the worst ever professional sports accident in our history. I tell the story as if their spirits could have lived on - what might that have looked like? They were a great group of men, most likely to win in the Ninth if they started the inning behind - it's a special story, and a slice of baseball history, that I feel privileged to tell. The script was a semi-finalist in the last Chicago Screenwriters' Network contest. I learned of the story in Spokane, Washington - the team was the local Spokane team, the Spokane Indians (a team that still exists today). I live in Chicago now, where baseball fever is alive and well! It's time to bring this story to life on screen. Contact me if you have interest in helping, if you have advice on moving forward, or if you just want to say hello! Beth Bollinger www.UntilTheEndOfTheNinth.com
Introduce Yourself : True Baseball Story - UNTIL THE END OF THE NINTH - ready for production by Beth Bollinger
True Baseball Story - UNTIL THE END OF THE NINTH - ready for production
Other topics in Introduce Yourself:
Check out Trending Discussions
Register / Log In
Hi Beth, great to see you here at Stage 32.
1 person likes this
Thanks, Geoff. My first post! Though I've attended an event, and a pitch session. I love this concept, and its broad range of participants.
I love baseball Beth and I love baseball movies, you have an interesting story there, so would this be a movie where we fall in love with the characters, we see them win but then we find out they didn't really get to live that great experience that we watched?
Hi Rafael. That's an excellent question. The answer is no - I didn't write it that way. I wrote it so that you do become attached to the players, who have dreams of playing in the big leagues - some of them are on their way - you love them, and how they play together as a team - you know, from the beginning, that a disaster is coming, and that nine of the players die - you don't know who - when the bus crashes, you find out whether the spirits of those who have died will stay together as a team - just as they did when they lived. I love baseball, and I fell in love with this team, when I found out about them. I hate the thought of them dying. I chose to imagine their spirits living on. It is a sad tale, but hopefully an inspiring one too - with a silver lining about the tenacity of the human spirit, even in the worst of times. One of the survivors of the crash - Ben Geraghty - went on to manage a young Hank Aaron in the minor leagues. Hank Aaron has repeatedly said that Ben was the best manager he ever had, major or minor. They say it was the bus crash that made Ben that way - that gave him the ability to see each player as an individual - perhaps in the name of those who had died. I weave that story in as well, about Hank Aaron and Ben. The Log Line is: The 1946 Spokane Indian baseball players know how to be a team and know how to win, but when their bus crashes midway through the season and nine of them die, their spirits must learn how to die too young and, even in death, stay together as a team.