How Morgan Neville Turned a Friendship With Baseball Promoter Mike Veeck Into a Boundary-Stretching Tribeca Doc Starring Charlie Day
11.06.2023 - 17:37
/ variety.com
Addie Morfoot Contributor In Netflix’s “The Saint of Second Chances,” Academy Award winner Morgan Neville (“20 Feet From Stardom”) and Jeff Malmberg (“Marwencol”) tell the story of Mike Veeck, the hard-not-to-love son of late Major League Baseball owner Bill Veeck, who gained infamy for his role cooking up the disastrous Disco Demolition Night promotion at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in the late 1970s. The elder Veeck was known for introducing fun to ballparks via giveaways, theme nights, and fireworks.
Mike followed in his father’s footsteps until July 12, 1979. On that fateful day 44 years ago, the younger Veeck organized a promotional event at the baseball stadium, home to the Chicago White Sox, that revolved around smashing disco records.
The event turned into a riot that went down in the history books. It not only damaged Mike’s career, it hurt his father’s reputation.
Neville and Malmberg, who co-directed the 2019 four-part docuseries “Shangri-La,” humorously tell the story of how Mike clawed his way back up from rock bottom — he has owned some minor league baseball clubs — via talking heads, narrator Jeff Daniels, colorful graphics, and actor Charlie Day, who plays a young Mike Veeck. Variety spoke with Neville and Malmberg ahead of the Tribeca Festival premiere of “The Saint of Second Chances” on June 11.Did Mike approach you two about making this doc, or was this film your idea?Neville: Eighteen years ago, I was driving around the south shooting a film, and I heard an interview on the radio with this character talking about his minor league baseball teams.
He was so incredibly entertaining that I pulled my car over and waited for (the interview) to finish and wrote down this character’s name, Mike Veeck. I sent him
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