Mason Park

In Chatsworth. Visited the field today, this is apparently where the (original) Bad News Bears was filmed. Driving up to it seemed familiar, the long long straight road that Buttermaker drove down as he careened into the unpaved parking lot off Mason Drive, poured out some Bud and topped the can off with Jim Beam (a fine start to the day).

But the park layout is barely recognizable. The parking lot is now a grass strip between the road and the field, and the hill the "North Valley Marching Band" walks down on opening day is where the new parking lot is. The field itself has been reworked, the wooden backstop and dugouts and the wooden outfield fence are gone and the grass infield is now bare dirt. Only the sight line from the visitor's bench - the trees in the outfield - seems familiar.

There was no little league this afternoon. But the field was well used by two latino teams playing hardball. If the original movie's inclusion of Miguel and Jose Aguilar acknowledged the diversity of 1976 Los Angeles, today's visit maybe reflected that reality even more. I think I was the only white guy in the whole park. Glad to see the field is well used, but are the white kids just home playing video games (or driving around LA wondering at how much the city has changed)? Sigh.

[Come to think of it, there was absolutely nothing - no plackard or marker that I could see- in the park to commemorate its part in film. Could it be that this is not the field?]