Blog Bataround - Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Everyone's favorite Andrew McCutchen super-collector, Collecting Cutch, has opened up another round of blog-bataround.  This one is a pretty unique premise that plays off of a favorite game of film buffs across the world - I'm talking, of course, about Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

In this bataround, Cutch has challenged us purveyors of pasteboard prose to create a link from the acting tour de force known as Kevin Bacon, using six degrees or less.  The twist here is that instead of linking the Footloose star to another actor, we must connect the dots to our favorite baseball player.  At first glance, this seems like an almost impossible task; however, after giving it a few minutes of thought, I realized that it wouldn't be nearly as difficult as first anticipated...  at least in my case, anyway.

You see, many a former Chicago Cub has taken their talents from the diamond to the silver and/or small screen, in various capacities.  In fact, I've covered this topic, on this very blog, ranking the greatest Cubs actors of all-time... and there's really more eligible parties than you might expect.  So many that my favorite ballplayer didn't even make that initial countdown, despite appearing in a major potion picture in 1990.  That man was Mark Grace and that movie was a Jim Belushi vehicle titled Taking Care of Business.

According to IMDB, this box -office bomb tells the story of Jimmy Dworski (James Belushi), who, "after winning tickets to the World Series, walks out of his minimum security prison and starts hitchhiking to the big game. While in an airport, he discovers a leather datebook that belongs to... a wealthy corporate businessman..." and hilarity ensues.

Of course, Belushi is a major Cubs fan in real-life and so too was his character - thus, the movie was written so that Grace's Cubs would be one of the World Series participants.  Grace makes a cameo in simulated game action:

Now, Jim Belushi has been in a ton of movies (regardless of their quality), therefore, I knew it would be relatively easy to draw a connection to Bacon after that first degree was established.  However, seeing as my movie knowledge does not match my baseball trivia abilities, I had to resort to the online service known as The Oracle of Kevin Bacon to do the heavy lifting for me.

Here is what the Oracle came up with:

Contrary to my expectations, the connection wasn't drawn through the less funny of the Belushi brothers; rather, the chain was linked via Annie De Salvo, who makes her appearance in TCB as Belushi's neurotic and overbearing high-school sweetheart, Debbie Lipton.  Speaking of comedic actors who have made a lot of Razzie-worthy movies, she also appeared in Burt Reynolds' Starting Over.  That flick also featured a young Kevin Bacon, who was making just his third credited film appearance.  I didn't see that one coming.

Additionally, if I'm being completely honest, I also expected this exercise to come a lot closer to six degrees that it ultimately did.  Life is full of surprises, eh?

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Mark Grace is far from the only Cub to ever make the transition from the stadium to the studio.  Just for yucks, let's figure out the Bacon number for a few more of those would be Hollywood stars, shall we?

First up, Tim Stoddard, who appeared as a surly Dodger hurler in 1993's Rookie of the Year:

Wow - Tim the underwear snitcher has Gracie beat by one, with a measly Bacon number of two, courtesy of the hilarious John Candy.  Both of the movies in this chain were staples of my childhood - I truly should have put this connection together for myself.

Alright - who else have we got?

How about Jay Johnstone, who donned a Seattle Mariners jersey to play in the very same game where Reggie Jackson attempted to assassinate the Queen of England:

Wow - another two and Mystic River makes it's second appearance in this blog post.  Maybe I should pop that into the Netflix queue...

Speaking of queues, next in line is Leon Durham, who starred as one of Billy Heywood's chargees in Little Big League:

Yet ANOTHER Bacon score of two... this is apparently a much easier exercise, overall, than I could have ever anticipated.

Sidenote - how cool of a name is Wolfgang Bodison?  He may be best remembered for his role as Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson in the 1992 drama A Few Good Men; but, he also appeared as Spencer Hamilton on those fictional 1994 Twins.

Before I call it quits, there are two more names that I definitely want to run - when it comes to Cubs connections and acting, they are the two premier names.  First, the ultimate baseball player/thespian combo, the Rifleman himself, Chuck Connors:

Another two... big surprise, huh?

Lastly, let's run what is easily the most recognizable name on this list.  That said, he really isn't best remembered for his stint as a Cubs broadcaster in the thirties or for his Hollywood A-list career in the mid-20th century.  Rather, you might know him best as the 40th president of these United States:

The Illinois native even starred as Cubs legend Grover Cleveland Alexander on the silver screen in 1952's The Winning Team - the same movie from which the picture used on the RBI oddball (seen above) sources from.

Now, what's his Bacon number?

Two.  Funny how the cookie crumbles sometimes, isn't it?

With that, I'm concluding this Kevin Bacon-centric exercise.  Who knew that Bacon's lengthy and varied film career would not only make it easy to link him with any fellow actor, but with a myriad of professional athletes, as well?  He's truly a legend of our time.

Thanks to Collecting Cutch for coming up with this unique blog bataround and inviting us all to play along.  I hope to see a few more of these posts popping up along the blogosphere - I know that I had fun drafting this one up!  How many degrees of separation do you think exist between your favorite baseball player and the one and only Kevin Bacon?