Scenes from an Interview: Mark Donahue

Baseball Player, Author & Filmmaker

By Gus Mollasis

Mark Donahue loved playing baseball from the time he was a kid. His passion for the game grew greater as he got older and played ball with future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and major leaguer Steve Yeager. Today he still plays hard ball, wins championships and gives his best impersonation of Robert Redford in The Natural displaying his reasons why he “loves baseball.” He’s turned his passion for the game into a book Last at Bat, about the incredible journey of major leaguer cut in the mold of a Mike Trout. His next swing for the fences? Mark’s working on turning Last at Bat into a major motion picture that he hopes will be shot on Sarasota’s Field of Dreams. Recently, I had a chance to go a few innings and throw a few questions to Mark Donahue. 

Tell me when you first fell in love with baseball.

When I realized I wasn’t very good at it. I started playing when I was nine years old and was by far the worst player on my team. I had never played before. I guess the challenge of trying to conquer something prompted me to end up loving it and playing it my whole life. I still play in a men’s senior baseball league. In college, I was good enough to be scouted, but there comes a time when you realize that you’re just not good enough. And that happened my senior year in college.

As you went down the base path of your life, you played with and against some top big leaguers.

Yes, I played with Mike Schmidt and Steve Yeager. A lot of guys I played with ended up playing college or pro ball. Most of us ended up being scouted. We had a good team and were all from the Dayton, Ohio area. All the guys got offers, but there comes a realization when you’re playing with or against a guy like Mike Schmidt that they got a lot better and we didn’t. We were good for college players and All Americans—but that’s a big difference when going against a Schmidt, Johnny Bench or Tony Perez. Those guys are Hall of Famers and there’s a big gap between that talent level and ours. I had a chance to sign, but knew that even if I made it, I wouldn’t be a superstar and have a long career. I decided to get into business instead, but I continue to love and play the game.

What league do you continue to play in today?

There’s a Roy Hobbs League that runs throughout Florida. And then I play in the men’s Senior Baseball League, which has the World Series in Phoenix, Arizona every year. I’ve missed a few years, but I’ve played ball since 1988. The cool thing about it is you go up in age group. You’re not playing against 20-year-olds all the time. You’re playing against 30, 40, 50 or 60-year-olds—whatever it is. They have guys who are 70 to 75 years old still playing. For what it is, it’s a relatively high level because most of the guys played college or pro ball. There are a lot of former major leaguers who’ve played in that league. A couple of my teammates were Jose Cardenal and Jerry Hairston who continue to play because of their love of the game.

What is it that you love about the game?

What some people who aren’t baseball fans don’t like, I do like. I think it’s the pace of the game. If you are an aficionado of baseball, you understand and begin to love the nuances. People get bored when there is a 10 pitch at bat, when there is a 3-2 count and the guy keeps fouling it off. To me that is so exciting because you don’t know what’s going to happen. Both guys are zoned in. Neither one is giving up. It’s that drama. I think that you have had to have played the game a long time or been a fan a long time to truly appreciate how skilled these guys are. For people who have never played the game, I suggest you go to a batting cage. Turn it on high and stand there. You’re going to understand what these guys face because you’re facing a fastball coming at 86 mph, but it’s straight. Add a breaking ball to that and a change-up. A slider or forkball or knuckleball. There is nothing harder than hitting a baseball especially when it can kill you.

Tell me about how your baseball novel, Last at Bat, came to be.

I was flying back from a Senior World Series Championship in Arizona. I went to the men’s room and I was washing my hands and we hit an air pocket. We dropped what felt like a million feet. I went to the ceiling and hit my head. I was thinking that if this plane crashes, am I safer here in the bathroom or safer back in my seat in the tail section of the plane?  Every time I’ve seen a plane crash the only thing that seems to be left is the tail section. So, I went back to my seat and thought that if everybody on the plane is killed except one person and that person loses memory, then that person would have the chance to go back and start life over. I think everyone has that “I wish I could start over” thing built in. How would I do things differently? Coming back from a baseball tournament I put that idea together with a baseball player and that started the process. I remember that night taking out a yellow tablet and starting the book.

Please take a swing at synopsizing the story of Last at Bat.

It’s the story of the greatest player of his era who has won a number of MVP awards. He’s 25 and gets hooked on opioids because of an injury, loses track of his finances and subsequently gets sent to jail. On the way to jail, his plane crashes and everyone on board is killed except him. He has no memory of who he is. He is discovered by a country doctor in the hills of South Carolina. He’s badly burned, his face is gone. No one knows who he is. At a picnic about three years later, he hits a ball some 400 feet at a softball game. He thinks to himself that he may have played this game. And that begins our story of what happens to Dylan Michael, who is our lead character and how he comes back for one “Last at Bat.”

You’ve transformed Last at Bat into a screenplay with hopes of bringing it to the big screen and potentially producing the film n Sarasota while working with a major league team. Where are you right now in the process?

In Field of Dreams there are no real baseball scenes aside from those with the ghosts playing a little baseball on the field. It’s really a story about a father and a son. We wanted to have more baseball action but we wanted it realistic. Most baseball movies have terrible baseball action. We wanted to combine a love story with a baseball and a comeback story. I think the story accomplishes that. We’re looking to team up with a major league team to be the team in the film, but we don’t have to. If you remember in The Natural, the Knights were the team. So we can fictionalize the team. If a major league wants to partner with us, that would be great for us and the team. It’s a feel good story and people are going to come out of the theater feeling good. There are laughs, tears and romance. We’re prepared to move forward without the assistance of a major league team. Frankly it will be easier to proceed that way. There are endless parks where we can film. Because of computer-generated imagery, we can make any park look like Yankee Stadium.

As part of Sugar Studios in Los Angeles, I understand you are looking at expanding Sugar Studios to Florida and possibly to Sarasota.  Where does that stand?

We decided that we wanted to expand while keeping our operation in LA because of distribution and the amount of business we have out there. We want to get to a place where we could drop anchor and create a Warner Brothers from the 1940s—find a small area where we could bring to the table a lot of jobs and business for the community. Selfishly we could be a big fish in a small pond, and we don’t apologize for that. We have a connection to LA and we’re doing very well out there, but we can make seven to ten to twelve films wherever we go. We can fundamentally change the complexion of a community because people would literally come from all over the world to Sarasota. The big difference is that a lot of companies will come in and make one film over a two-week period. They stay in town, go to some restaurants, then leave town. And that’s not what we want to do. We will find a community where we will come in and be there for the duration. There are so many production companies in LA. We want to separate ourselves. By creating Sugar Studios FLA, we think we can bring something to the community.

Tell us about the number of films that you believe are Florida or Sarasota-centric and could be filmed here.

We own 21 or 22 scripts now. We figure that from 12-14 of those could be made in a Florida location. It takes minor rewriting in some of the scripts. Our vision was to create a partnership, where people aren’t just investors. They come in and help us finance the film but they’re also integral to the film. By doing that, we create a different kind of business model for these films reducing risk and having people who see a long-term involvement in filmmaking and not one film.

What response have you received from Sarasota’s film commission and Ringling College?

While Jeanne Corcoran at the film commission have been very helpful, trying to reach out and talk to some people has been a little bit different than what we’re used to. Normally when you reach out to a facility like that, they have rate cards and information that’s easily attainable. We were surprised that there wasn’t a little bit more of a reach out to us because we can use that facility (Ringling) to produce 10, 15 or 20 films over the coming years that will make a huge impact on that facility. Candidly, no one has ever called us. 

How is your team different than others who have come here with a filmmaking plan?

The thing I have noticed in filmmaking communities like Sarasota and across the country, is there are always a lot of talented creative people around that can quite frankly do things that I wish I could do. But they don’t have a business background as much as I think they should. Many have no idea regarding the business side of the film business. They know how to make a film. They might even have a good script. But that’s not all you need. You need people who understand returns on equity and investment and cap rates and all these technical terms that go into the business side of the film business. We have that. I’ve worked for two Fortune 500 companies. We understand the business side of the business and want to link that with the artistic side and create something that is really unique.

What makes a good baseball movie or any good movie?

I think you know you have a good movie when people talk about it in the car on the way home. If they don’t do that and are talking about where they are going to eat, you probably didn’t make a good movie. And that’s not tied to budget. You can have big budgets that turn out to be lousy films. We believe we have scripts and stories that will make good films. With all the technology improvements, it’s hard technologically to make a bad film. But you still need good stories. And we have good stories.

When you think of a baseball scene that is most memorable to you, which one comes to mind?

That’s a loaded question. It’s one of the scenes in Last at Bat. It’s a scene where Dylan Michael, our star, is on his way to prison, and he stops at a ballpark and peers through the gate of a field he used to play on thinking he’ll never play again, realizing what he’s lost. That scene would mean a lot to me, to see that on screen, because I know how much he loved baseball. And to have that game taken away from you like that is heartbreaking.

If you’re interested in talking to Mark Donahue about Sugar Studios, please call 937.433.2077 or email mark@markrdonahue.com (website: markrdonahue.com).