The late-night/early-morning spot for Cubs fans asks if you are still interested in the Cubs acquiring the the former Cy Young Award winner.
It’s another Monday night here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the heat and join us. There’s no cover charge. The dress code is casual. There are still a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
The Cubs were off today. They are in Minneapolis against the Twins starting tomorrow. I once saw the Cubs play in the Metrodome in the eighties. It was an exhibition game before the start of the season. Andre Dawson and Ryne Sandberg played.
Last week, I asked you how many saves you thought Daniel Palencia would finish the season with. In first place, 42 percent of you said he would save between 20 and 24. He’s at ten right now, but he’s only been the closer for 41 games. So 20 to 24 would be a bit conservative. Another 33 percent said Palencia would finish with 25 to 29 saves.
Here’s the part with the music and the movies. You’re free to skip that. You won’t hurt my feelings.
I’m told that Oasis got back together and that this is a big deal. I’m close to the right age group to be an Oasis fan, but I was just starting to drift out of pop/rock music at the time that Oasis hit it big, so they don’t mean all that much to me. Plus, the Britpop movement of the mid-nineties sort of wiped away the college alternative and shoegaze/dream pop music of the early nineties that I did like, so in a way you can say that Oasis pushed me into jazz by playing music that I wasn’t overly fond of. At least I didn’t hate it.
I am familiar with their hits, however. So is pianist Brad Mehldau, as this is his version of “Wonderwall.” Larry Grenadier is on bass and Jeff Ballard plays drums. If you’re an Oasis fan, I hope you like it. If you’re not, I still hope you like it.
Native Son, the novel, is one of the most influential American novels of the twentieth century. A stunning indictment of American Jim Crow wrapped in the trappings of a hard-boiled crime novel (or maybe the other way around), the Richard Wright-penned book was a sensation from the moment it came out.
Native Son, the 1951 film directed by French/Belgian filmmaker Pierre Chenal and financed by Argentina’s biggest film studio, is a bad movie based on terrific source material. Unlike most bad movies based on good books, the film doesn’t actually change the plot very much. The sex is removed and the violence toned down a bit, but Wright and Chenal wrote the screenplay themselves, so it’s pretty true to the book. The problem is that Wright himself stars as Bigger Thomas and Wright is no actor. Despite being one of the most expensive Argentinian films ever made at the time, the whole thing looks rather cheap and amateurish much of the time. The film was nearly lost in complete form for over 50 years, but a recent restoration has restored it to its original form. Despite the film itself being bad as a movie, it remains fascinating as an artifact of its time and the efforts that went into making it.
As noted above, Richard Wright’s novel Native Son was a sensation when it came out in 1940. Wright loved the crime fiction and true crime stories of the thirties and Native Son is very much a product of that. But he also wanted to say how the American system of Jim Crow was a cage in which the African-American was trapped, both physically and psychologically. Wright drew on his own experiences growing up in Mississippi as well as those after his move to the South Side of Chicago as a teenager. He was also influenced by “protest” literature like Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Orson Welles and John Houseman turned Native Son into a Broadway play in 1941 which starred the great Black actor Canada Lee. Wright and Houseman wrote the script. The play was a hit. Hollywood was also very interested in turning Native Son into a movie. It had all the makings of a great film noir, which was just coming into vogue in the early-forties. What the studios didn’t want, however, was all the race stuff that was in the book. I’m not sure exactly how Hollywood expected to make Native Son without any of the race stuff in it. I’m sure that at least some studios wanted to make Bigger Thomas Irish or something.
Now to be clear, Richard Wright loved the movies and very much wanted to work in Hollywood. But he was not going to let them gut his novel about what it felt like to be Black in America and turn it into just another run-of-the-mill crime picture, even if they let Bigger be played by a Black actor. So despite Wright very much wanting a film version of Native Son, he refused to allow any production that would change its message.
Wright had been a communist before World War II (and honestly, he had been won when he wrote Native Son), although he quit the party when he realized that most communists were just as racist as most non-communists. But his communist ties and left-wing beliefs left him in a precarious position in America after the Cold War broke out, so he fled to a self-imposed exile in France. There he met Chenal, a Jewish French director who had fled to Argentina after the fall of France and had made a few movies in exile there. Chenal was willing to make Native Son the way Wright wanted it made and suggested going to Argentina to film it, where they would probably find a more receptive audience. Argentinian strongman Juan Perón, you see, had no issues calling America a racist country.
What Perón did have a problem with was communism. I’m not sure how Wright got into the country, except that I know that he was forced to live in an artists’ colony outside of Buenos Aires and he didn’t comment on Argentinian issues. But Canada Lee, who had played Bigger Thomas on Broadway and whom Wright and Chenal wanted for the film, had also been blacklisted in the US for his ties to the Communist Party. Lee was denied entry into Argentina to make the movie.
So Chenal’s solution was for Wright to play the part himself. Wright may have been a great writer, but he was a bad actor. Despite it being an Argentinian production, the film was to be shot in English, both to accommodate Wright and to make it more accessible to international audiences. (There also just weren’t many Black Argentine actors.) So the rest of the cast were American actors who were desperate enough to risk getting put on the blacklist to travel to Argentina to make this subversive movie, or Argentinians who would learn their lines phonetically and have them dubbed into English by Americans. The effect is something akin to a high school production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
They did spend some money on the sets and such and the crumbling tenament where Bigger hides out looks pretty good. The film crew did sneak into the United States to shoot some B-roll scenery of Chicago and the South Side that runs at the beginning and the end of the film. But the few other times that the film leaves a soundstage, Buenos Aires is left to unconvincingly stand in for Chicago.
Native Son was a big hit in Argentina, but international audiences proved more tricky. No major American distributor would touch it, of course, but eventually a small independent US distributor agreed to show it. But they did exactly what Wright didn’t want—they cut out about 38 minutes of the 108-minute film to remove all the “racial stuff” to make America seem less racist. What was left was an incomprehensible mess. Wright and Chenal kind of expected that in the US, but what shocked them was that European distributors followed the American lead and showed the bastardized American edit. The film was met with withering reviews throughout Europe and North America. Audiences outside of Argentina mostly ignored the film.
Native Son was believed lost when a fire destroyed the original negative in Argentina in the 1969, but a 16mm copy of the complete film was found in the archives of an Argentine collector in the early-nineties. A 35mm negative with just four minutes removed was found in Puerto Rico a few years later. The two versions were then used as guides for a restoration that was finished in 2016.
I’m going to admit that the story of Native Son is better than the film itself. But despite the film’s many flaws, it’s still important as the only filmed version of the novel that Wright had control over. This is the film made the way Wright wanted it made, although with a bigger budget and better actors. The plot of the novel is mostly intact, although certainly a few things were toned down for the screen. And no, Wright didn’t think he gave a very good performance as Bigger either. While Bigger Thomas is in many ways a manifestation of Wright himself, it’s of a younger version of himself. In the novel, Bigger was over 20 years younger than Wright was when he made the movie. Even a great actor would have struggled with the age difference, and Wright was not a great actor.
But if you’re a fan of the novel, it’s definitely worth seeing. If anything, you get to see the author on-screen for most of the film. If you’re interested in the history of film, Argentine film or especially film noir in this period, it’s also worth seeing. Just don’t expect to see a great performance out of the actors.
The trailer for the restoration of Native Son.
The restoration looks good, certainly.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
Tonight I’m getting back to the trade deadline and the Cubs obvious need for starting pitching. That need became even more obvious when Jameson Taillon went down with a calf strain. The Cubs are saying how long Taillon will be out other than to say it will be “significant,” but it seems like six-to-eight weeks seems reasonable for this type of injury. That would put Taillon’s return sometime in late-August or early-September.
Although Shōta Imanaga has returned from his hamstring strain and looks as good as ever and Matthew Boyd is deservedly an All-Star, I’m pretty sure I speak for most of you when I say I would like the Cubs to get another top-line pitcher for the playoffs. The Phillies could throw Zack Wheeler, Christopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez as the first three starters in a best-of-five series. The Cubs would hope to be able to match something like that.
There’s no question that back in 2022, Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcantara was one of the best pitchers in the game. He won the Cy Young Award that season, after all. But he went down with Tommy John surgery in 2023 and missed all of 2024. But he’s back and pitching this year and he’s often mentioned as the one true ace that could be available at the trade deadline.
The problem is, of course, that Alcantara hasn’t been pitching like an ace this year. Some of that was to be expected. Many pitchers struggle with control and stuff after returning from Tommy John. Alcantara was terrible to start the season with an 8.47 ERA at the end of May. Control was an issue, of course, but Alcantara’s stuff was just very hittable.
But then the month of June rolled around and Alcantara began to look like his old self. Maybe not as good as he was in 2022, but much better. In his first four starts in June, Alcantara turned in three quality starts and the fourth only wasn’t one because he only lasted five innings. He had a 2.74 ERA and 19 strikeouts and only five walks in 23 innings.
But over his last two starts, Alcantara has been hit hard again. Against the Diamondbacks in Arizona, Alcantara gave up seven runs on ten hits over six innings. Maybe you can excuse that because the game was in Arizona. But the last time out, Alcantara got hammered for five runs on five hits over six innings at home against the Brewers. The improvement we saw earlier in June may possibly have been an illusion.
So on the season, Alcantara is 4-8 with a 7.01 ERA. Hardly the stuff that you would want starting Game Two of a a playoff series.
If you’re looking for positive signs, Alcantara’s Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is “just” 4.55. That’s not great, but his FIP since June 1 is a nifty 3.34, compared to an ERA of 4.89. That combines the four good starts with the two bad ones. It does indicate that maybe Alcantara has been pitching better than that ERA would indicate. Maybe he’s just been getting a bit unlucky.
On the other hand, that’s a lot of bad luck. And remember that while Tommy John surgery is a modern miracle, somewhere around ten to twelve percent of pitchers never return to their old form after undergoing it.
It should also be noted that Alcantara is under contract next year for $17.3 million and there’s a team option for $21 million in 2027. So if the Cubs traded for Alcantara, it wouldn’t just be for this season. But right now, I would say the Cubs need someone to win in the playoffs this year and the front office should worry about next year this winter. Also, that contract means the Marlins don’t have to trade him this summer or lose him for nothing. If they don’t get an offer they like, they can try to trade him again this winter. So the Marlins won’t deal him for the proverbial bag of balls.
So do you still want the Cubs to trade for Sandy Alcantara? A lot of lists of players expected to be traded still have Alcantara at or near the top of the list. He may be the best pitcher dealt at the deadline. There has been some talk of the Royals dealing Kris Bubic, but right now that’s just speculation and he would cost a lot, even if the Royals decide to trade him, which doesn’t seem all that likely at the moment. Otherwise you’re looking at guys like Mitch Keller, Andrew Heaney, Seth Lugo, Aaron Civale and Zac Gallen. Sure, it’s possible that some better becomes available like Bubic or Edward Cabrera, but there’s no guarantee there.
So do you want to trade for Sandy Alcantara? And do his recent two starts change your mind?
So there is a bonus second poll tonight. And as far as the “Change your mind” poll goes, I hope it’s clear that I mean “this year.” If you wanted the Cubs to trade for Alcantara in 2022, that doesn’t count.
Thanks you for stopping by. It’s been a big weekend and we’ve got a big week coming up. Please get home safely so you can spend it with us. Tell your friends about us. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow evening for more BCB After Dark.