Cubs BCB After Dark: Cubs sign Liam Hendriks

Tonight I’m just going to have a few words about one of my favorite cult classics, director Allan Arkush’s 1979 comedy Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, starring P.J. Soles, Vince Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young and the Ramones. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School was a Roger Corman production, and it’s yet another example of Corman giving young wannabe filmmakers a chance. Co-conceived by Arkush and another at the time unknown at the time in Joe Dante, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School is a fantastic comedy that wittily skewers the teen/high school movie genre. Not only is it very funny, but there’s also a lot of great music by The Ramones which, contrary to what the film claims, is not lethal to mice.

Van Patten plays Tom Roberts, the captain of the football team at Vince Lombardi High with All-American looks who unfortunately can’t get any girl to have sex with him because he’s such a total nerd who spends most of his time talking about the weather. He has a crush on Riff Randle (Soles), the rebel girl who is only interested in her favorite band, The Ramones.

So Tom hires Eaglebauer (Howard) who is the Milo Minderbinder of the Vince Lombardi High boy’s room, where he runs a business where he sells anything to the students for the right price. Tom wants Eaglebauer to set him up on a date with Riff. Meanwhile, Riff develops a friendship with Kate Rambeau (Young), a nerdy science girl whose hobby is “splitting atoms.” Kate has a crush on Tom and goes to Eaglebauer to set up a date with Tom for her.

All of this is put into danger by the new principal, Evelyn Togar (Mary Woronov). Principal Togar is determined to put an end to all this rock and roll and has decided to make an example out of Riff and Kate.

Meanwhile, The Ramones are coming to town for a concert and Riff and Kate are determined to go. Will Principal Togar be able to stop them? Will Tom get a date with Riff? Will Kate get a date with Tom? Will The Ramones play the song that Riff wrote: “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”?

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School takes all the tropes of kids versus the teachers movies and turns them up to eleven. There’s also tons of little sight gags and running jokes that pay off repeatedly. While no one turns in anything less than a great comedic performance (well, except The Ramones, but we forgive them because they’re Ramones) special praise is deserved by former Andy Warhol “Factory Girl” Woronov and her often-acting partner Paul Bartel, who plays the hip music teacher Mr. McGree, who declares The Ramones to be “the Beethovens of our time.” Woronov and Bartel made 17 movies together including two other comedies that you should check out, Eating Raoul (1982) and Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989). Bartel also wrote and directed both of those films.

It seems incredible that Rock ‘n’ Roll High School wasn’t written for The Ramones, because their brand of absurdist punk is perfect for the absurdist comedy of the film. Arkush was supposedly turned down by Cheap Trick and Todd Rundgren and he was not interested in either Van Halen or Devo (both of whom were willing), the Ramones got the gig after Bartel showed Roger Corman a picture of Joey Ramone on a surfboard. No, they couldn’t act and they were not nearly as well-known and popular in 1979 as they are today. (The idea of buying a Ramones T-Shirt at Target in 1979 was unfathomable.) But it’s impossible to see the film working as well with any of those other bands. Dee Dee Ramone, upon seeing some of the footage, told Arkush that “We look like we’re from another planet!” to which Arkush responded “Yes, that’s what I wanted. You’re perfect.”

Corman’s productions were famous for their small budgets and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School was no exception. That Arkush was able to hide most of the tricks to keep the budget down was a major accomplishment. They found a school in LA that had closed and would soon be demolished, so they got to use it cheap and no one much cared when they trashed the place during filming. Exterior shots had to be done at a different, in-use, school and extras came from yet a third school, so a “fake” script was given to the authorities so they wouldn’t object to the subject matter of the film and withhold permission.

Corman has been called the most influential filmmaker of the last half of the 20th Century because of all the young talent he gave their first break too. Beyond Arkush (who has been a major TV director over the past 40 years) and Dante (who would go on to direct Gremlins), Corman gave unknown young talents like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, John Sayles, Peter Bogdanovich and James Cameron their first big breaks in the industry. When Corman agreed to finance TV star Ron Howard’s first film Grand Theft Auto, he told Howard that if he did a good job for him, he would never have to work for him again. And Howard never did.

I’ve never been a big fan of teen and high school movies, not even when I was in high school. There are exceptions, of course, but mostly I lean towards the films that savagely satirize the genre like Heathers and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. But beyond its genre sendup, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School stands on its own merits as a very funny comedy.

Here’s the trailer for Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.

Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.

The Cubs made a roster move today.

In the Cubs search for healthy pitching arms, they have turned to a three-time All-Star and two-time Mariano Rivera American League Relief Pitcher of the Year in Hendriks. Unfortunately, all of that came between 2019 and 2022. Now 37 years old, Hendricks underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023 and missed most of that season. Boston signed Hendriks to one of those two-year deal before the 2024 season where they knew he wouldn’t pitch for them in 2024 but hoped he would last year. He did, but managed just 13.2 innings and was very poor, posting a 6.59 ERA.

Hendriks signed a minor league deal with the Twins this past offseason, but he failed to make the roster out of Spring Training and chose free agency over reporting to Triple-A St. Paul. Now he’s found a new team with the Cubs.

When Hendriks was at his peak with the Athletics and White Sox, he relied on a 97 mile per hour fastball and an 88 mph slider. He also had a change that he would work in to left-handers, but he was mostly hard fastball/hard slider. He was regularly striking out over 13 batters per nine innings and walking fewer than three per nine. In 202o and 2021, he was even better, walking just around one batter per nine.

Since Hendriks returned from Tommy John, the velocity on his fastball has been down to around 95 mph and the slider is down to more like 86. Unsurprisingly, he’s striking out fewer batters and walking more of them. You also have to wonder if he couldn’t make the pitching-desperate Twins out of Spring Training, whether he really has anything left in the tank.

On the other hand, before the injury Hendriks was an elite closer. It’s true that sometimes players never fully regain their velocity after Tommy John surgery, but it’s also true that sometimes it just takes longer than you had hoped to return to form. This article reports that “multiple teams” were interested in Hendriks before he signed with the Cubs, so it seems like the Cubs aren’t alone in thinking that there might still be something there.

Because Hendriks had turned down a chance to pitch in St. Paul earlier this year and because there were multiple teams interested in him, I assume that Hendriks has an opt-out clause. The Cubs will probably have Hendriks for about a month in the minors as he tries to regain his form before they have to make a decision on him: either call him up to the majors or release him.

You may not know this, but Hendriks was briefly a Cub before, although you won’t find any pictures of him wearing Cubs pinstripes. When the Twins, Hendriks original team, put him on waivers in December of 2014, the Cubs claimed him. Ten days later, the Cubs designated him for assignment, hoping to sneak him through waivers. It didn’t work as he was claimed by the Orioles. The Orioles then waited until February of 2015 to try to sneak him through waivers again, but that time Hendriks was claimed by the Blue Jays.

So do you think signing Liam Hendriks was a good idea?

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We appreciate all of you taking the time to sit with us for a while. Get home safely. Call a ride if you need to. Be sure to collect any personal items. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And stop by again next week for more BCB After Dark.