Library offers Wonderful Evening for Baseball Lovers

From Toni Ridgway-Woodall

Crawfordsville District Public Library

Join us on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the lower level of the Library for a fun evening that celebrates the life of a famous Hoosier. We will watch a short film and our guest emcee Craig Tornquist will share personal stories about his time with baseball legend Carl Erskine and give away some great prizes. Light refreshments provided by Christi Hubler Chevrolet.

Visitors must be present to be eligible for prizes.

The movie is The Best We Got: The Carl Erskine Story. It tells the story of an Indiana athlete who rose to fame as a professional pitcher during the Golden Age of Baseball. Carl was also known to be vocally against discrimination and advocated for individuals with special needs. He encouraged others through his core values of grace, humility, and servant leadership.

This link has information about the movie’s concept, the cast, & the crew. https://www.carlerskinefilm.com/about

The film’s backstory directly from it’s webpage:

“The idea came in 2013 from Bobby “Slick” Leonard. During Ted Green’s first interview for his film on the Naismith Hall of Famer, Slick said, “Boy, you’re doing a film on the wrong guy. The guy you want is up in Anderson, name of Carl Erskine.” Seven years later, Ted took his advice.” After more than 50 interviews and two years of research, “The Best We’ve Got: The Carl Erskine Story” — title stolen from former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels —premiered at the beautiful Paramount Theatre in Carl’s hometown of Anderson, on Aug. 11, 2022.

The Guest Emcee is Craig Tornquist. Craig loves Special Olympics Indiana!  For the past 12 years, he has been proud to promote their unique partnerships with the Indiana High School Athletic Association, the Indiana Middle Level Education Association and the Indiana Council of Administrators of Special Education  in school assemblies all over Indiana.  Craig has performed more than 3,000 clean stand-up comedy shows throughout America.  Carl Erskine has become one of his heroes.  Craig is delighted to be hosting this event which is guaranteed to make you smile!

And for those who want to do a little online research, here is some important info and some links:

Erskine Personal Impact Curriculum and the description prompt to all three companion (youth) books https://soindiana.org/EPIC/. We have these books in our Youth collection in English and Spanish.

The film Maker Ted Green’s website https://www.tedgreenfilms.com/

The Best We Got website https://www.carlerskinefilm.com/

Johnson Simon Illustrator of companion books (scroll down to access quick clip & images for books)  https://www.artbyjohnsonsimon.com/

Indiana Special Olympics general website https://soindiana.org/ and their resource page https://soindiana.org/resource-library/

Christi Hubler Chevrolet https://www.christihublerchevy.com/

Craig Tornquist https://www.craigtornquist.com/