If you've been listening to my "30 With Murti" podcasts since this pandemic put sports on hold, you know that I've advocated watching sports movies to fill the void. I actually came close to being in a sports movie once. Alas, it didn't happen.
In September 2004, the Yankees were in Toronto and I was on the field watching batting practice when I happened to meet Marc Fischer and Kris Meyer, producers who worked with the Farrelly Brothers. They were in town filming Fever Pitch. That, of course, is the movie starring Jimmy Fallon as a crazed Red Sox fan and Drew Barrymore as the unaware-how-crazy-he-is-girlfriend.
I chatted up Fischer and Meyer during BP, exchanged business cards, and about two weeks later Meyer called me and asked if I could get to Toronto to be in a scene. Unfortunately for my acting career, the Yankees had advanced to the ALCS against the Red Sox and I was going to be covering the series, so I couldn't make it.
Which scene you ask? The one where Fallon and his buddies are dividing up the season tickets and Jimmy makes them all dance to show themselves worthy of the Yankees tickets. There is an Indian fella in the back, the one who brought the cold cuts. Yup, that was going to be me.
As my reward for missing my big break in showbiz, I got to watch the Yankees become the first and only team in MLB history to blow a 3-0 series lead. And the guy who was in the scene instead of me? Never heard of him.
But this story is always my reminder of where I fall in the media/celebrity landscape: Peter Gammons is in the movie and plays Peter Gammons. Steve Levy is in the movie and plays Steve Levy.
If I was in the movie, I would have played the Indian guy who brought the cold cuts.
