Documentary on MLB legend from Georgia will air in Macon

Maconites can catch a glimpse of baseball and American history next week when the Douglass Theatre screens a new documentary that sheds light on the career of a legendary Georgia baseball player.

“Stalking the Big Cat of Georgia” will air at the Douglass on Tuesday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. The film tells the story of Johnny Mize, an MLB Hall of Fame first baseman who hails from the small North Georgia community of Demorest.

Director Hal Jacobs was turned onto Mize’s story when he read the biography of the player written by historian and Demorest native Jerry Grillo.

“I had read some of Jerry’s work. I didn’t know him personally, but he had written about an Atlanta musician previously. When I heard about the baseball book coming out, I thought, ‘This could be fun,’” Jacobs said. 

When he got his hands on Grillo’s biography about Mize, the film director knew he had something great. Jacobs specializes in highlighting Georgians with important stories that get overlooked, and Mize’s intriguing career arc seemed to fit the bill.

The film explores how Mize took a long route to MLB but slugged with the best of them once he got there. The first baseman played for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants and New York Yankees across a 15-year career and hit 359 home runs while batting .312.

Despite his incredible performance, Mize had to wait 28 years before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, another key point in the documentary.

Grillo acts as the lynchpin for the journey, talking at the baseball field where Mize played when he was young and guiding the film crew through the roads of Demorest.

“One of the first people we met was a third cousin of Mize’s. It turns out she was an artist who had done some beautiful portraits of Johnny,” Jacobs said. “She also had a great memorabilia collection with autographs and things like that.”

Mize’s career accolades weren’t only limited to his time on MLB fields. Grillo was surprised to learn, for instance, that Mize played some games in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. He also played with some of the country’s best Negro League players.

This reminded Jacobs of an interview he’d conducted long ago — and would lead to one of the “Big Cat” documentary’s most unique aspects.

“I realized I had met with a player who played for the Atlanta Black Crackers, James ‘Red’ Moore, and interviewed him about 20 years ago,” Jacobs said.

He noticed parallels between Mize and Moore’s career. Both left baseball to serve in the military, for instance, though Mize was able to return to the game after World War II while Moore was not. Both players were beloved by teammates and fans, with Moore having a particularly passionate group of followers in Atlanta.

Though Moore had sadly passed away when the documentary was being made, Jacobs held onto the interviews and still knew one of Moore’s acquaintances. The director decided to include him in the documentary, with Moore’s friend Greg White acting as the guide for that portion of the film.

“We really just wanted to tell a human story. We do not geek out on statistics. We wanted to not only show the humanity of the players, but also the men who are telling the stories and carrying them forward,” Jacobs said. “We thought it would also be important to add that — if we’re going to tell the story of this white first baseman who was an All-Star, we need to talk about this Black baseball player who was beloved by his community.”

Moore even played at Macon’s historic Luther Williams Field when he appeared for the Macon Peaches, adding a nice local touch to Tuesday’s screening in Macon. 

Jacobs said the screenings give him and the others involved with the documentary the chance to speak with people in the community about the film and what parts of it resonate with them.

“Baseball fans love it, but we’ve also been told that people who aren’t as passionate about baseball come out of it understanding a little more about why their husband or son might love baseball so much,” Jacobs said. “It’s really about how we value history in our communities and how we keep these memories alive.”

The screening at the Douglass begins with a happy hour at 6:30 p.m. before the film starts at 7:30 p.m. Jacobs and Grillo will discuss the film with the audience. Tickets are $5.