Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [317]
But the first thing we do is that Barry and I sit down to discuss what his expectations would be and what sort of—the level to which I’d have free rein, and what kinds of control—I mean, yes. The point I was trying to make was that I’m intrigued but I’m skeptical, and it’s all going to depend on the dynamic between Barry and me. So it wasn’t really necessary to discuss it with Rachael. It was important to discuss it with Barry. Right? He’s the one that’s either giving me the keys to the kingdom or not.
If you’re a celebrity and you’re shy, it’s perceived as arrogance, aloofness, or superiority. But what I found was a guy who was almost desperate to come out of the shell and reintroduce himself to the world, which is what, as a filmmaker, you would hope. The discussion didn’t really take place on a pragmatic level, like, “Do we do this?” or “What limitations would be imposed?” or “What are the expectations?” It was really Barry telling his story. It’s almost like he was auditioning for me.
So I’m thinking, with Barry, there are a lot of surprises, and there are going to be a lot of discoveries for an audience to make, and so I’m intrigued. At which point I started talking to ESPN.
A documentary, first of all, is one film. You have the opportunity to collect material, spend the time necessary to massage it, nurture it, and shape it, and the ability to reflect and really live with the material and essentially write the script in the edit room—to tell a story that will stand on its own. A reality series, by definition, or by convention at this point, is following reality as it unfolds and spitting it out immediately.
But I’m sort of passionate about telling this story and, as we were getting closer and as Barry was proving to be very agreeable every step of the way, I got excited about the challenge as a filmmaker. And now ESPN’s putting a whole other kind of deal on the table, a seven-figure deal for multiple episodes. It’s pretty lucrative, and I start lining up all the things that I would need.
There was reluctance everywhere, and incredulity, like, “What are you doing?” and “Are you sure you want to do this?” and “Are you crazy?”
But it was going pretty well in spring training, and I really was getting the access. An excerpted Game of Shadows came out. And everything kind of changed.
PEDRO GOMEZ, Reporter:
If you remember Barry Bonds’s first day of spring training, he tended to have a press conference—kind of a “state of the Bonds,” so to speak, and this was the infamous day when he walked in and called every reporter a liar. “All y’all are lying.” He walked by, and I’m sitting there on the aisle, and I’d covered Bonds in the past because I’d been a baseball beat writer and I worked in the Bay Area, so he definitely knew who I was, but we didn’t have any big interaction at that point. I’m sitting on the edge right there, and he walks by and looks down at me and says, “You still lying, Gomez?” And he keeps walking up to the dais where he was going to sit at the table. That was the very first thing he said to me that spring. At that point he had no idea that I was going to be there every day.
And then the next morning, I approached him and said, “By the way, ESPN has given me this assignment where I am basically going to be here every day chronicling you.” And he just said, “Okay, dude, whatever,” and walked away. That was the season he was on the D.L.—the disabled list. If you remember, he had those three surgeries during spring training. The first one was simply to