Mehring Monday: Baseball on Netflix

Last week, I noted that I am a late adopter to technology. This week probably adds to that characterization.

I recently picked up Netflix as an online streaming service. The main reason was to get caught up on the first two series of Sherlock before the new season debuted last night - and was awesome, by the way! Then, I got sidetracked into binge watching Parks & Rec and Futurama along with a bunch of other shows. It's a miracle that I've shown up for work at all for the last three weeks.

To tie this in with baseball and work and this week's column, I was looking at some of the current baseball titles on Netflix as a way to get my baseball fix between now and the start of Spring Training.

The first choice is Baseball, the documentary by Ken Burns. That should be a strong choice for eleven episodes.

There is also a selection of 30 for 30 documentaries. Little Big Men, the story of the team that won the 1982 Little League World Series; Jordan Rides the Bus, the story of Michael Jordan playing for the Birmingham Barons; Catching Hell, the story of Steve Bartman and Game Six of the 2003 National League Championship Series; Four Days in October, the story of the Boston Red Sox comeback in the 2004 American league Championship Series; The House of Steinbrenner, the story of, well, George Steinbrenner; and Fernando Nation, the story of Fernando Valenzuela.

There are also a pair of non-30-for-30 documentaries. One - called Knuckleball - features RA Dickey and Tim Wakefield in the story of that pitch. The other is Ballplayer: Pelotero, a look inside MLB training camps in the Dominican Republic.

That takes care of documentaries. The realm of fiction gets a bit short. The list has just three movies and it's not exactly Major League, Bull Durham, and The Natural. No For the Love of the Game, Major League II, and The Final Season either. It's not even Angels in the Outfield, Air Bud: Seventh Inning Stretch, and Major League: Back to the Minors.

The Perfect Game: "A seemingly impossible dream of playing baseball for the United States becomes a reality for a group of youngsters from an impoverished Mexican city in this poignant drama based on actual events."

One Hit from Home: "Suffering from a career-ending injury, former pro baseball player Jimmy returns home and confronts his dark past. Jimmy tries to make peace with the life he thought he had left behind for good, and is forced to coach an underachieving college team."

A Mile in His Shoes: "Dean Cain stars in this uplifting family drama as Arthur Murphy, manager of a minor-league baseball team that finds renewed inspiration when they hire new pitcher Mickey Tussler, a lad who happens to suffer from Asperger's syndrome."

None of those are exactly my cup of tea. But, those are your options. Hopefully, this changes over time.