A short film playing at the upcoming IAAC film fest in Manhattan reimagines Mahatma Gandhi as a pinch hitter for the Yankees:

… [Mohandas Gandhi] once traded his trademark loincloth for Yankee pinstripes (metaphorically) to pinch hit for the Bombers in 1933. He even managed to turn an infield dribbler into an inside-the-park homer.

At least that’s how a new film short, “Gandhi at the Bat,” tells us it happened. The 11-minute movie, based on a short story by Chet Williamson published in The New Yorker in 1983, imagines the Mahatma’s top-secret trip to the U.S., President Roosevelt’s request to cover it up and Babe Ruth giving the slugging swami batting tips.

“When I found ‘Gandhi at the Bat,’ I almost died laughing…” [The writer] suspects he was inspired by Ben Kingsley’s portrayal of the bespectacled spiritual leader in the 1982 bio-pic Gandhi. He chose the Yankees because they struck him as quintessential American team.

The story begins with Gandhi showing up at Yankee Stadium, ready to take in the American pastime. Made to look like pieced-together newsreel footage, it captures the game-loving guru as he sits in the stands, telling a hot dog vendor he’ll pass because he doesn’t “eat the meat of dogs.” He’s not even sure about the fundamentals of the game - since hitting the ball goes against his belief in non-violence.

The narration, however, it what sells it, with Williamson’s original text the basis for a play-by-play announcer who describes the Mahatma’s odd base-running style: “Gandhi started down the first base line in what could only be described as an energetic shuffle.”

“It’s written like a sportswriter who was at the game that day…” [Link]

… newly unearthed newsreel footage… shows the ballfield triumph of the “Tiny Terror of Tealand,” better known to his fellow Bronx bombers as “Mo.” [Link]

… “Gandhi at the Bat” is a faithful recreation of a 1930s-style newsreel. The 11-minute movie includes over 75 effects shots, done by the directors themselves, which transform the actual shooting location (a minor league ballpark in Bakersfield, California) into a faithful recreation of Yankee Stadium as it was over seventy years ago. [Link]

The short story plays off Yankee versus Indian English:

“C’mon, Moe!” Babe Ruth pleads. “Show ‘em the old pepper!” To which Gandhi replies: “I will try, Mr. Baby!” [Link]

There are several laughs in this mostly pointless absurdist sketch, interesting as a document of how baseball fiction sooner or later assimilates anything conceivable to the game. [Link]

The commenters on a baseball forum riffed:

With a runner on [second base] late in a game, who would you rather ask to sacrifice than Gandhi?

What if Ayn Rand is the baserunner? I’m sure she’d rather make her own way…

What if the Red Sox could pitch?

C’mon–now you’re REALLY getting ridiculous. [Link]

Watch the clip.