Sugar (2009)

If the players of “The Bridgetown Swing,” a Single-A affiliate of the big league “Kansas City Knights,” took their minds off of their enormous pressures and considered the surroundings, they might note the brutal symbolism. “Bridgetown” sounds like the perfect place to connect a dingy past with a glorious major league future, but for most of the players it is the end of the road. Whether they realize it or not, they are playing in the shadow of a bridge they’ll never get to cross. This movie is a sobering reminder to baseball fans like myself that the major league teams we love are part of a largely invisible system that chews up young talent, takes what it needs, and mercilessly spits out the rest. The fact that Bridgetown sits amidst the cornfields of Iowa feels like a cruelly ironic play on the great baseball story Field of Dreams. Bridgetown is the Field of Harsh Realities.

For the rest of my review of Sugar go to The Rumpus.