Gästebuch » flyball, but was left stranded when Encarnacio

The year is 1991. The Soviet Union has collapsed, the Dow has closed over 3000 for the first time, and Im at the Providence Civic Center for a classic on USAs Tuesday Night Fight series. The fans -- men in wide-lapel suits and moustaches, women in slinky dresses and teased hairdos -- are all on their feet as Vinny Pazienza readies to fight Gilbert Dele for his WBA junior middleweight belt. Dele is from Paris by way of Guadeloupe and is making his second defense of the title. Pazienza was born and raised in Cranston, Rhode Island -- practically down the block -- and is fighting in only his second bout since vaulting up in weight from 140 pounds to 154. In the center of the ring, the two fighters bounce jauntily on their toes. The crowd goes nuts. The bell rings. Here comes the ...Action! barks a voice.Say what?Okay, I am standing in the Providence Civic Center, but the year is 2014. Punches are thrown, but none land. The stands arent filled with 10,000 ticket holders (like the night of the actual fight), but 1,000 extras have been lured with the promise of free sandwiches, soft drinks and the chance to win a WBA championship belt signed by Paz. The two men facing off arent even Dele and Paz. Instead, a pro Haitian southpaw named Jean Pierre Augustin squares off against 29 year-old actor Miles Teller.Im ringside for a scene from Bleed for This, a feature film based on the life of Vinny Pazienza. A month after the actual 1991 Dele/Paz fight, Pazienza cracked his third and fourth vertebra in a horrific car accident. If he was lucky, doctors said, hed walk again. But he couldnt fight. Pazienza, known for his determination and guts far more than talent, didnt heed doctors warnings. He rehabbed and rebuilt himself with the same maniacal style that earned him the moniker The Pazmanian Devil. A year after breaking his neck, Paz returned to the ring. In their Boxings Book of Lists, boxing cognoscenti Bert Sugar and Teddy Atlas named Pazs return to the ring the second-greatest career comeback in the sports history -- only behind 45-year-old George Foremans 1994 upset of Michael Moorer.The film project began six years ago, when movie producer and Providence lifer Chad Verdi acquired the rights to the Paz story. Angelo Pizzo, whod penned the movies Hoosiers and Rudy, wrote the script. Scott Caan and his dad, James, were asked to play Paz and his old man, Angelo. But the best-laid plans didnt pan out. The Caans found themselves with scheduling conflicts. Names floated around -- Peter Facinelli (Nurse Jackie, Twilight) to play Paz, Al Pacino to portray Angelo. A nagging problem, however, prevented Verdi from pulling the trigger.We had a good script but not a great one, Verdi explains in his heavy Rhode Island brogue. Cant make a great movie with a good script -- and even with a great script, you can still make a bad movie.The tipping point arrived in the form of Ben Younger. The 41-year-old writer/director (Boiler Room, Prime) tossed the original script and started from scratch. His version thrilled Verdi, who then brought it to Martin Scorsese (through Verdis contacts in Rhode Island politics), who jumped on board as executive producer.With Matys blessing (a silent r as Verdi pronounces it), the project quickly gathered momentum. Oscar-winning producer Bruce Cohen (American Beauty) came aboard, and the cast fell into place: Aaron Eckhart (London Has Fallen, The Dark Knight, Thank You For Smoking) as trainer Kevin Rooney, Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones, There Will Be Blood) as Pazs dad Angelo, and Katie Segal (Sons of Anarchy) as mother Louise Pazienza.The final piece of the puzzle? Miles Teller. The Downingtown, Pennsylvania native is blue-collar handsome, as evidenced by his recent breakthrough roles in The Spectacular Now and Whiplash. Teller radiates a raw, physical intensity. Wears his emotions on his sleeve. Burns with a hunger that is far from dainty or precious. In 2007, Teller was in his own near-fatal car crash and still has facial scars to prove it.Still, the film wasnt smooth sailing. What should have been a $25 million dollar movie had less than $7 million for a budget. The actors, according to Verdi, werent in tune at the start, and tensions ran high. Teller, who stands at 6-foot-2, had to pull a Robert DeNiro-esqe move from Raging Bull, dropping from 200-plus pounds to a sinewy 160 pounds for the staging of the Roger Mayweather fight (in real life, Pazs weight loss and subsequent dehydration sent him to the hospital after the bout). And Teller, a sweet science neophyte, had to learn to move and behave like a fighter.Miles is an extremely physical actor, Younger says. And studious. The same way he took on drumming in Whiplash hes taken on boxing. Not just the specificity of boxing but the training.A task harder than it looked.A couple times I told him to stop crying, Pazienza says with a laugh, regarding Tellers training sessions. This is what I did for a living. You only have to do a couple hours a day for a few weeks.Then there was Youngers challenge: making sure the movie magic looks real. Directors such as David O. Russell (The Fighter), Ron Sheldon (Play it to the Bone) and Scorsese have all had to deal with this problem when creating fight films.Id never done a fight sequence, Younger says. Never even had a punch thrown. So the hardest part about that is the choreography and matching camera angles. I learned very quickly how some were great and some simply werent.To ensure the fight-scene authenticity -- of which there are three: Paz versus Mayweather (played by former middleweight titlist Peter Quillin), Dele and Roberto Duran (played by light heavyweight Edwin Rodriguez) -- the producers hired Darrell Foster, a veteran fight choreographer who consulted on Play it to the Bone and turned Will Smith into a believable Ali.Miles had already done training on his own, Foster says. But not the right type. He looked at it as rock em sock em robots, but he lacked the basic foundation. Balance, movement, generating power from the ground up.Foster began schooling Teller, and he asked the actor one simple thing that made all the difference: Can you dance?Miles broke off into James Brown and Michael Jackson, Foster says. I knew Id struck gold. All we had to do was put the two and two together.The most sensitive critic has been pleased with the process.It was a little weird watching someone play me, but Miles has been unbelievable, Paz says. In the ring, hes good! Throwing body shots and rockets -- just like the old Vinny.The 1991 Dele/Paz bout lasted 45 minutes with Paz earning the TKO victory in the 11th round. Todays recreation lasted 10-plus hours, more grueling in some ways than boxing. Yet if all goes as planned, Younger will have made a movie more memorable than the fight itself. Fake Shoes Ireland . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. Cheap Shoes Ireland Online . The defence is doing its part, too. 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Lobaton sent a 2-1 pitch from Brad Lincoln (1-2) with one out into the right-field seats. Lobaton had a game-ending triple in the ninth Friday. "Its different," Lobaton said. "Walk-off triple, that was amazing. Walk-off homer, run the bases like that, is unbelievable. Its something that you want to do all the time. Hopefully its not the last one." Lobatons parents were at the ballpark for both of his key hits. "Seriously, thats pretty cool for him," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Very, very cool." Jake McGee (3-3) struck out one during a perfect 10th. Tampa Bay took two of three from Toronto, which hasnt won a series at Tropicana Field since April 2007. Rays starter Chris Archer allowed one run and four hits over seven innings. Blue Jays right-hander Todd Redmond, a St. Petersburg, Fla., native, gave up one run and six hits over six-plus innings in his first start at Tampa Bay. "We wasted great pitching out there," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "If youre going to play in prime time, youve got to win those games. Weve had so many of them over the course of the season and we havent been able to win them." Evan Longoria put the Rays up 1-0 in the first with his 24th homer, an opposite-field drive to right that resulted in a video review after a fan in the front row caught the ball just above the fence. "One bad pitch to Longoria, one of the best-hitting third basemen in the game right now," Redmond said. "You do that, and you pay the price. (The fan) probably reached over a little bit, but it was probably just far enough to where it didnt matter." The Blue Jays ttied it 1-1 when Edwin Encarnacion connected for his 31st homer this season with two outs in the seventh.dddddddddddd He nearly put Toronto ahead in the ninth, but his two-out drive off Fernando Rodney hit off the top of the left-field wall and the slugger wound up with a double. "Very, very lucky right there," Maddon said. Archer retired nine in a row before Anthony Gose started the fourth with a single. Gose stole second and went to third on Jose Bautistas one-out flyball, but was left stranded when Encarnacion flew out. Gose was the only Toronto baserunner until Encarnacions seventh-inning homer. After the home run, Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie had consecutive singles before Mark DeRosa grounded out. The Rays got a one-out double from Longoria in the fourth and Yunel Escobar hit a leadoff double to begin the fifth, but Redmond worked out of both jams without allowing a run. Redmond also got an inning-ending double play from Wil Myers with two on during the sixth. Tampa Bay also wasted a scoring chance in the seventh with no outs when pinch-runner Sean Rodriguez was caught in a rundown between third and homer after pinch-hitter Jason Bourgeois failed to get a bunt down. NOTES: Tampa Bay LHP Matt Moore, on the 15-day disabled list with left elbow soreness, played catch after being shut down for three days after experiencing elbow discomfort during a 55-pitch bullpen session Wednesday. The All-Star plans to throw again Monday. ... Blue Jays SS Jose Reyes was out of the lineup for the second straight game due to right knee soreness. ... Myers started in right field after being the designated hitter the previous three games. Maddon has said Myers is physically fine, but that he wanted to get the rookie off his feet for a few days. ... Rays INF Ryan Roberts accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham. ' ' '