As difficult as it is to admit it, I confess that we do occasionally miss something that we weren't aware of like, for instance, the baseball television documentary Harvard Park.
Produced by Sony Television and broadcast last year, in April 2012 on BET, it seems that we never wrote anything about the show on S & A. It completely slipped under this radar.
But now the documentary will be available starting tomorrow, on DVD, through Sony Home Video's DVD-on-demnd specialty label, Sony Screen Classics, and is now also available to watch as a download through You Tube.
The film, which was produced by 8-time MLB All Star, and four time World Series champion Darryl Strawberry, chronicles the history and importance of Harvard Park, a small baseball park located in South Central Los Angeles, which became the breeding ground for many future major league players, such as Strawberry and others, including Eric Davis (who co-produced the film with Strawberry), Frank Thomas and Barry Larkin.
When interviewed last year about the film, Strawberry was asked why he was inspired to produce the film, to which he responded: "When you look at what Harvard Park really meant to me… and really meant to the community of Los Angeles area South Central and African-American kids growing up, it just brought a lot of hope and inspiration….It was because it was not about us; it was about everything that was around there. The hope that she brings alive, that you made it but you don’t leave. You want them to know that this is where you came from and that this is home; this is real home. I never got too big for real home, never said: "Hey, look at me, I live up in the hills somewhere."
Here is a short (and I mean short) trailer for the film: