Scholastic Kid Reporters Christopher Miller (L) and Ethan White interview Gregory Lanesey, the director of Chasing 3000. (Photo: Jen Boggs)

April 30, 2007

Baseball has always been America's pastime. This year, a family film about baseball—Chasing 3000—made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Chasing 3000 is about two brothers (one with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, or MD) who travel to their old hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are on a mission. The brothers want to see Pittsburgh Pirates Roberto Clemente's 3000th hit.

The two brothers, Mickey (Rory Culkin) and Roger (Trevor Morgan), had to say goodbye to their hometown when they moved to Los Angeles. What makes this journey across the country especially out of the ordinary is that neither of them has his driver's license. The boys face many challenges and manage to come out on top.

I had the chance to speak to the director, writer/producer, and a few of the young actors involved in this film at the red-carpet premiere of the film at the Tribeca Film festival.

Bill Mikita, the writer/co-producer of the movie, has a close connection to the film he wrote. It is based on his relationship with his own brother, who struggled with MD.

"We shared a common bond and a devotion to one another, and I wanted to tell that story," explained Mikita. "A story about brothers, a story about baseball, a story about heroes. And our hero was Roberto Clemente."

Mikita did double duty on Chasing 3000, as writer and a producer. He explained a bit about the difference between writing and producing.

"Writing is very lonely," Mikita explained. "You sit in a room . . . and you write. Being a producer, you have to talk to everybody, and you have to get involved with every aspect."

When asked which of the two, writing or producing, he liked better, Mikita responded pretty quickly.

"Right now, probably writing," said Mikita. "Producing was pretty tough."

Next, I got to talk to Blake Woodyard, the actor who played young Mickey in the film. Blake told me that this was his first film.

"It was very fun," he said. "It was a very good experience."

The last person to come down the carpet was Chasing 3000's director, Gregory Lanesey. The director described himself as a pretty big sports fan.

"I grew up playing a lot of sports," he said. "I think sports are really good for kids to watch or kids to participate in because they teach you a lot about life . . . sometimes things work out well, sometimes things don't."

I noticed that Lanesey was wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates jersey with "Clemente" on the back.

"It's hard not to love the Pirates, when you know of Roberto Clemente and learn about his story—you just root for him," said Lanesey. "The Pirates have become my team, just from this experience of making this movie about him."

Roberto Clemente was arguably one of the greatest baseball players ever. He played right field and he was the 12th player to reach 3000 hits. He was the first Hispanic player elected into the Hall of Fame in 1973—less than a year after he died. (Clemente died in a plane crash while on a mission to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua.)

If you have a brother, or if you love baseball, Chasing 3000 is a great movie to see.