Looking for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the grind of minor league baseball with an added twist of Omaha intrigue?
Well, even if you aren't, there is a film out there showing just that.
It's a documentary done by an Omahan that follows an Omahan with some Omaha scenes.
Now if people in Omaha — or elsewhere — are interested in seeing it, well, that would be just fine with the documentarian.
He is Tony Okun, a UNL journalism grad, and the player is Tony Schrager, a former Omaha Westside star who spent nine years bouncing around pro ball. It's all chronicled in Okun's documentary released in October, “Time In The Minors,” a testament to dogged determination in following a dream.
Here's a glimpse:
After seven years of minor league baseball, Schrager's big break had arrived. In spring 2005, he had been told he was one of five players in Class AAA who could be called up to the Los Angeles Dodgers later that season.
Then it happened: Not one, but two Dodgers infielders got hurt, presumably clearing roster space for a Class AAA call-up. Would Schrager get the call?
That spring and all of Schrager's pro career are chronicled in the documentary. The film also juxtaposes Schrager's career with that of John Drennen, a pimple-faced high school All-American entering the minor leagues as Schrager's career nears its end.
Okun uses game footage and interviews with the players and family members to document the ups and downs of the minor leagues, where players can toil for years — cozying up on a bus for 20 hours, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to catch a plane and living on the road for five to six months out of the year — all in the name of reaching their childhood dreams of the bright lights and passionate crowds of the majors.
The film finds its conflict in the dramatically different paths that Schrager and Drennen took to pro ball.
Schrager: The Stanford-educated dark-haired married man who speaks eloquently, turned pro after his junior year of college and was picked in the sixth round of the 1998 draft.
Drennen: The high school educated blonde-haired single dude who talks slowly, turned pro after his senior year of high school and was selected in the first round of the 2005 draft.
But on the field, their stories slide together.
Schrager struggles to have consistent success in the minors. He slowly ascends through the Chicago Cubs organization, then gets traded and even plays on an Independent League team in spring 2006 until the Florida Marlins sign him to their Class AA affiliate.
Drennen faces similar challenges.
The film drives home the point that it's how players deal with the inevitable disappointments and failures that determine their ultimate success.
Okun, who narrates the film, sees this as an important point.
The mental part of the game, he says, hindered his own prep career, which ended unceremoniously after his sophomore year at Westside when he didn't make the team. “I was a great practice player,” Okun remembers. “Come game time if I messed up, I couldn't let it go.”
As sports psychologist Kenneth Ravizza says in Okun's film, “You don't play against the opponent, you play against the game.”
It's a hard lesson to learn. Most never do.
In 2006, Schrager did well, hitting .302 with three teams.
“I had a few good years,” he said. “But it would always be, I'd have a good year then follow it up with a not so good year.”
While Drennen also has his struggles, Okun shows him facing different challenges than those of Schrager, including adjusting to the professional schedule and trying to meet the high expectations of a first-round pick.
At times while making the film, Okun said he felt like a minor league filmmaker. After shooting and collecting about 250 hours of footage for his first feature film, he whittled it down to 85 minutes in fall 2008. He started working on the documentary in November 2005, edited it himself and shipped it off to film festivals.
But the festivals, including Omaha's, largely rejected his work. So Okun deleted about 12 minutes of footage, re-cut some parts and finally found a company to distribute it after he compiled a stack of rejections.
It's now out on DVD through Landmark Media. The film aired in Japan a few times over the summer. Okun is now trying to find a U.S. broadcast opportunity.
His career also has been like that of a minor leaguer at times. A long-time fan of sports biographies and NFL Films, Okun moved to Los Angeles when he was 24 to work in the film industry. After two stints in San Diego around a 10-year stay in L.A., Okun moved to Boise in 2007 with his now wife.
He runs Oh! Show Productions, his documentary film company that he started in 2003.
Schrager, 33, has moved on as well. He lives in Atlanta and develops apartment complexes with his cousins. Drennen, 24, batted .300 last season in Class AA, his best season yet. He continues to play professionally.
The film has other Omaha connections. Long-time Westside baseball coach Bob Greco makes an appearance. And Okun included footage of Schrager playing at Rosenblatt Stadium during the College World Series and while in AAA ball.
But it's not Omaha that Okun wants you to remember; it's the journey, the trek those we cheer for have gone through to continue playing.
“My goal of the film was to show the process,” he said.
He had a personal interest in the film's topic. His dad has played cards with Harley Schrager, Tony's father, every Monday night for years. And Okun has been following Tony Schrager's career since Schrager was drafted.
Contact the writer:
444-3106, jonathon.braden@owh.com
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