The Making of "The Emerald Diamond" - Part 1

Note: I had originally considered writing a book about the production of "The Emerald Diamond," but I never really took the time to develop the concept beyond some basic notes. With production of my new project "Playing for Peanuts" in full swing, I won't have time to do much more than sketch out some random thoughts about the experience of making the film. Check it out, leave your comments and pass it on!

Thanks,

John Fitzgerald
Director, "The Emerald Diamond" & "Playing for Peanuts"
Email: irishbaseballmovie@gmail.com
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The Making of "The Emerald Diamond" - Part 1

I have a hard time convincing people that baseball is played in Ireland. To be fair, the story does sound more than a little crazy. It goes something like this: a group of Irishmen in Dublin team up with a few American expats in 1996 to start the Irish National Baseball Team. They have no experience. No equipment. No fields. They play in the rain. They make their own backstops out of sticks and chicken wire. They treat losses as learning experiences and embarrassing blowouts as badges of honor. With a little luck and alot of hard work, they establish a small network of die-hard baseball players scattered throughout Dublin, Belfast and the Irish countryside.

That, in a nutshell, is the story and spirit of the Irish National Baseball Team and it is the reason I decided to produce and direct, "The Emerald Diamond."





Once I've convinced a person that baseball is actually played in Ireland, the next question is, "Why did you decide to make a documentary about it?" I've told the story several hundred times and, to be honest, I'm still trying to figure it out myself. There are reasons that have been clear to me from the outset, but I continue to realize new reasons and motivations that led me to risking my mental and financial well-being to make a movie about something most people have never heard of.

Winter 2003 - The Seed is Planted

In the winter of 2003, I was in my second year of working in the TV/film industry as a production assistant. I had left a good job as a graphic designer to work a variety of freelance jobs on student films and Hollywood movies. It wasn't glamorous and it certainly didn't pay well -- but it was fun for a while. Over the course of two years, I had spent many 15 hour days getting coffee for people on movie sets and working freelance at the local public access station to learn the ropes and pay the bills while I worked up the ladder. I had met a few famous and semi-famous people. I said hello to Jimmy Fallon, discussed steamed vegetables with Joaquin Phoenix, escorted Dennis Franz to his trailer, prevented Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys from walking into a film set and stood in the lunch line with Gisele Bundchen. Fun times, good stories (maybe), but not really what I had hoped to accomplish. During my spare time, I had also read a few filmmaking books and directed a short film. It wasn't much, but it was a start:

Click to Play "Gorilla Gram" (my first & only short film)

"Gorilla Gram" is a short film that I directed back in 2003 (released in 2004). It stars Angela Gots and Sam Gilroy (son of "Bourne Identity" screenwriter Tony Gilroy).

The project was shot on DV (two Canon XL1 cameras) and edited on Final Cut Pro.

I was bored. I was ready to go back to working a regular job -- better pay, normal hours... you know the drill. That's when I first found the website of something called "Baseball Ireland."

I don't remember how I found it or what I was looking for, but I'm pretty sure I can lay the blame/credit for everything on Google. How else would a production assistant in New York find out about a group of crazy ballplayers in Dublin? Yeah, I blame Google.

Before we go any further, I should make one thing clear: I love baseball. I played in Little League, high school and my first year of college and several years after that in adult wood bat leagues. I've also coached at the high school level. Baseball is probably the only thing I can say I've enjoyed my entire life, or at least since I was five years old. Except maybe peanut butter and the Muppets. I digress...

The idea of a baseball team in Ireland intrigued me. A few emails to Baseball Ireland President Sean Mitchell yielded some interesting facts: Ireland's National Baseball was entering its 10th year of existence and they were getting ready to play in the 2006 European Championships. The team was actively looking for Irish-American ballplayers to join the team. Any American could tryout for the team, as long as they had one parent or grandparent who was an Irish citizen. I hadn't played competitive baseball for a couple of years, but my grandmother was an Irish citizen. If I could get myself back into playing shape, I should have no problem making the team. I could represent the country of my ancestors while playing America's game. It beats putting out a fire with your foot on the set of "Ladder 49."

Sean told me about Baseball Ireland's humble beginnings -- several friends had formed the Irish National Baseball Team in 1996. They had no money, experience or uniforms. They knew they would have a hard time in international competition, but they didn't care. They wanted to represent their country and they wanted to do it by playing baseball. Nothing else mattered.

Over the next few months, I developed a plan: I would train in New York and then fly to Dublin to tryout. If all went well, I would play one summer in Ireland and then return to New York to get a steady job, content with my Irish baseball experience. It promised to be alot of fun and a great way to play meaningful baseball one last time, before I went back to the 9-to-5, boring life that I had given up two years earlier.

January 2004 - Technicalities and Credit Cards

In January 2004, the Irish Embassy informed me that I was not eligible for Irish citizenship and, consequently, I wasn't eligible to play for Ireland. It was a technicality -- my grandmother was an Irish citizen, but she had been born in New York. After months of batting cages, lifting weights and jogging, the prospect of playing for Ireland's National Baseball Team had proven too good to be true. I spent the next few days unsure of my next move.

Author's Note: I KNEW there was a next move. I know myself well enough to see when I will put my head down and plow through a roadblock. And I'm not bragging - it's a character flaw. I know it. Moving along...

I didn't feel like I was ready to completely abandon the movie business, but my days of getting coffee for movie producers were over. I just couldn't do that anymore. The thought of spending 60 hours a week working on somebody else's Hollywood dream was out of the question.

At some point after learning I was ineligible to play, I decided to make a movie. A documentary. About baseball. In Ireland.

I never had any interest in making documentaries. Outside of a few documentaries that I love, the entire genre bores me. But the stories I had heard from Sean Mitchell had planted the seed. The more I thought about it, the more the story sounded like "Field of Dreams" meets "Rocky," with some elements of "The Bad News Bears" and "Rudy" thrown in for good measure. The story was perfect. It had to be told.

Two problems: I had no money and I had never made a documentary.

Solution: Credit cards and figure out the rest on the fly...

Continue - Part 2 & Part 3


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John Fitzgerald is the producer and director of "The Emerald Diamond" - a 90-minute documentary about Ireland's National Baseball Team. "The Emerald Diamond" won the Critic's Choice Award at the 2006 Baseball Hall of Fame Film Festival. It has been screened in over 30 theaters in the US and Ireland and is currently being aired on the America One Television Network. For more information, visit http://www.irishbaseballmovie.com/
Media Inquiries: Email John Fitzgerald