Millions Flock to See Controversial "Passion of the Boss"
Millions of moviegoers flocked to theaters this past weekend to see the controversial movie “The Passion of the Boss,” which tells the heart-breaking story of the last 12 hours before Yankee owner George Steinbrenner crucified baseball by trading for Alex Rodriguez.
“If you’re faint of heart, or if you’re from a small market, I wouldn’t see this movie,” said Gerald Worth,
Los Angeles Daily News. “The depiction of the heart being torn out of baseball by the ruthless Steinbrenner is something I won’t soon forget. If this doesn’t show the Boss’ inhumanity in its cruelest and most vile form, nothing does.”
The movie, directed by Tampa Bay Devil Ray’s manager Lou Piniella, has caused controversy among baseball fans because of the brutal treatment small market teams like the Montreal Expos, Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins are forced to endure. The Boss appears to take a greedy, almost sadistic pleasure in devastating these teams. At times, the camera lingers over the cruel torment and jubilant reactions of Yankees fans as their mammoth payroll devours that of the Marlins, Brewers, and Devil Rays.
“Although some of the film was in Aramaic and subtitled, you could really sense what it was like for the Minnesota Twins, as their life was sucked away when the trade neared execution," said Gary Thompson,
Philadelphia Daily News. “At another point, you could actually feel the torture experienced by [Expos GM] Omar Minaya when the Boss maniacally dealt for Javier Vazquez.”
Even more agonizing is the way in which Steinbrenner causes Rex Sox fans horrible and excruciating grief by luring away the very player they had coveted.
"This was almost too much to stomach,” said Ryan Berger, a Red Sox fan. “In the film, Ben Affleck is bound and chained, thrown off a bridge, beaten and spat upon, kicked, mocked, has his shoulder ripped out of its socket and is flogged for half an hour. I really identified with the torture the Boss put Affleck through, but man, was that gory as hell.”
Relief from the images of major league baseball suffering at the hands of Steinbrenner comes only in the form of flashbacks that take the viewer back to baseball’s better years. In one scene, Minnesota Twins manager Tom Kelly is seen celebrating his team’s 1991 World Series win. And in another, Florida manager Jack McKeon pumps his fist after the small-market Marlins signed all-star catcher Ivan Rodriguez.
"The Passion of the Boss” follows the basic narrative of the trade first laid out in the Book of Gammons: A-Rod negotiates with his agent and the Rangers to pay part of his contract; Aaron Boone betrays baseball by injuring himself in a pick-up basketball game; the Red Sox deny A-Rod; and finally, small-market fans weep for baseball as the trade is approved by Commissioner Bud Selig.
Despite all the brutality and gore, the film does have its compassionate characters, and their small kindnesses stand out amid the bloody violence and ruthless power-*****ring that pervades the film.
The Boss shows no mercy in his torture of small-market teams
In one scene, a tear drips down Commissioner Bud Selig’s cheek as he has no choice but to sign off on the trade. In another, a woman risks her life to give the Expos a few of her own hard-earned dollars so that they might be able to re-sign Vladimir Guerrero. Later, the Public Relations department of the Pirates consoles its fans after the team folds.
Truly, the film’s most powerful scenes capture the incredible bond between die-hard Twins fans who toil in the obscurity and emptiness of the Metrodome and their once-proud franchise, as what few remain bear witness to their team’s torture. Their reactions become the audience’s reactions, and they feel the Twins’ pain.
“The Homer Dome may be a piece of shit, but it’s our piece of shit,” said Twins fan Kevin Knetsch, wiping away tears and blowing his nose.
In perhaps the movie’s most telling scene, it is the hand of Steinbrenner himself that is shown pounding the last nail into the coffin of baseball, as the rest of the Yankees take turns hoisting the 2004 World Series trophy they win in a four-game sweep of the Cubs. One of the lasting impressions of the film is that of a hopelessness that the Cubs, nor any small market team, will ever again reign over the baseball world.
But in the end, the prevailing message is that, although baseball suffered an intense, horrifying, tragic death, it becomes redeemed - saving the remaining professional sports by showing people that such inequity among teams creates only one real solution, a salary cap.