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Padres News: Jason Lane Homers in Oscar Nominated Film Boyhood

By Mark "Wisco" Whelan

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I didn’t watch the Oscars last night, but I was rooting for “Boyhood” to win best picture. No, it wasn’t my favorite movie of the year; that honor would go to “The Imitation Game”.

In fact, I haven’t even seen Boyhood. But apparently there’s a scene in the film that shows San Diego Padres pitcher and former Houston Astros outfielder Jason Lane hitting a home run at Minute Maid Park. And anytime a movie shows footage of an actual baseball game, that gets my attention.

Was Lane at this week’s Academy Award ceremonies, hitting the after-parties and rubbing elbows with Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, and David Oyelowo?

Are you kidding? It’s Spring Training. He’s getting ready for the baseball season, not messing around with a bunch of actors.

But he was rooting for the film to win.

The funny thing was, he wasn’t even aware he was in the movie until a friend told him about it mid-season last year. According to Corey Brock at padres.com, Lane finally got a chance to see the movie after the season ended.

Lane hasn’t played the outfield or hit a home run in the majors since 2007. But Boyhood is a film that took 12 years to make, following a boy as he grows from a child into a young adult. So when the movie came out in 2014, we finally got to see the scene that was filmed a nearly a decade ago.

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It turns out there was a little Hollywood magic involved in Lane’s home run. Actor Ethan Hawke describes Lane’s home run as a three-run shot in a game that Roger Clemens started for the Astros against the Brewers. But it turns out that Lane never hit a three-run homer in a game started by Clemens against the Milwaukee Brewers. So what gives?

It seems the film crew was actually at two separate games, one in 2005 that Clemens started where Lane hit a home run to right field, and another in 2006, when the homer that ended up in the movie was filmed.

In that game, Lane hit a homer to left, as we see in this scene. So the facts of the two games were combined to make the story a little more interesting for the movie. It was pure coincidence that Lane homered in both games.

Or perhaps, as Director Richard Linklater suggests, there was some celestial intervention. In this post by Christopher Wilson of Big League Stew, Linklater says:

…the film gods were with us. I’m pointing my camera for one inning, and the Astros are one of the worst offensive teams in baseball at this time. I’m pointing my camera down the third base line, basically the point of view of my people. I’m just saying, well, let’s just hope something happens. I need something! And then Jason Lane, who’s my favorite player of all time now, hits a home run. It’s not out of the frame, it’s not to center or right. It’s right down the line, in the shot. You know, it wasn’t planned, but it just happened.

Boyhood didn’t win the award for best picture, but I think I’ll go see it anyway. Jason Lane is a San Diego Padre now, and you’ve got to support the home town team. Even if it’s at the movie theater.

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