Back in September, we shared the first trailer from Brian Helgeland’s 42, the Jackie Robinson biopic that looks … well, pretty much like every other Hollywood biopic made in the last 10 years, but it looks good, especially if you give a shit about its content. Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey! Christopher Meloni from ‘Law & Order’ as Leo Durocher! Jackie Robinson with a low, grizzled voice, instead of sounding like every black comedian’s white guy voice like he did in real life!

Today, we get a second, extended trailer, and while it features a lot of the same footage as the first — the stuff set to Jay-Z’s ‘Brooklyn (We Go Hard)’ is essentially unchanged — it’s got a lot of new stuff, too, including ‘Firefly’ star Alan Tudyk as racist-ass Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Ben Chapman. Zoe would be so disappointed in you, assuming that 1940s baseball and 2500s soft sci-fi are the same.

Pretty excited to see this, I’ve gotta say. In a perfect world, this will remind Harrison Ford that he can act, and he’ll stop miring in Indiana Jones re-boot attempts and letting Calista Flockhart choose his projects.

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Actual picture of Branch Rickey signing Jackie Robinson.

Normally I don’t get too excited about films on this side of the UPROXX mansion, but occasionally a sports movie comes out that gets my jock strap a-risin’. And now that Trouble with the Curve is out in theaters, we can talk about the other sports movie that looks pretty decent, 42. Written and directed by Brian Helgeland (Man on Fire, L.A. Confidential, and the wildly underrated Payback) 42 tells the story of Jackie Robinson’s signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and while we’re all familiar with it, it’s still a pretty awesome story.

Short of a spoof version by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg, there’s really not a bad way to tell Robinson’s story of bravery in the face of horrifying racism, and the new trailer for 42 looks like Helgeland has done a pretty damn good job. TV drama veteran Chadwick Boseman plays Robinson, and he’s surrounded by some great actors in Alan Tudyk, Christopher Meloni, John C. McGinley, and even Harrison Ford, who might not be mailing in a performance for the first time in… well, it really depends on what you thought of Firewall.

42 hits theaters on April 12, 2013, or the start of the St. Louis Cardinals’ second consecutive season as reigning World Series Champions, as I like to call it. *looks at Milwaukee Brewers remaining schedule, craps pants*

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Watch in amazement as Jackie Robinson, Jackie Robinson and Jackie Robinson turn a Padres-quality sacrifice bunt into a ridiculous triple play in the top of the 9th inning of Sunday’s Dodgers/San Diego game.

I’d explain things further, but who the hell am I to summarize what Vin Scully says? The play was birthed when home plate umpire Dale Scott called a foul ball foul, had an inner-ear fart and just sorta let the Dodgers finish the play. Padres manager Jackie Robinson Bud Black was ejected during the call, because I guess there will never be a situation where an ump goes, “eeengh okay sorry”.

“The whole play looked funky,” Black said. “I saw the hands go up. Our impression was that it was a foul ball. It happened so fast. I didn’t like the result.”

A few things I’ve learned from this video:

1. You should always finish the play no matter what, because someone important might not be remembering how baseball works.
2. The Dodgers are filled to the brim with serendipity this season.
3. Vin Scully should be baseball’s only announcer.

[h/t The Outside Corner]

We really didn’t do anything special for Jackie Robinson Day (after all, it was also Dara Torres‘ birthday, and if we weren’t so busy scurrying to fill out our extension form with the IRS, we would have covered the latter before anything else). But yeah, MLB commemorated Robinson’s role in integrating the modern game by asking every player to wear Robinson’s No. 42. And just to make it more official, I heard that MLB executes contacted random players to make anonymous death threats. That one probably sounded better in the board meeting.

Anyway, the Nats finally won a game, beating the Phillies yesterday when Adam Dunn, Elijah Dukes, Alberto González and some other white guy all hit home runs. The Yankees got whipped by Cleveland. The Mets did, too, , but Julia Stiles contributed this report on the new Citi Field to the Wall Street Journal. I have no idea why.

And there’s some high school kid that’s thrown three consecutive no-hitters. This would be its own post if any of us actually cared about sports.

Mariano Rivera — the last MLB player to wear number 42 on a daily basis thanks to a grandfather rule — disgraced Jackie Robinson's legacy by allowing a two-out, three-run walk-off home run to Marco Scutaro that gave the A's a 5-4 victory over the Yankees. Scutaro, batting just .050 at the time, wrapped an 0-2 pitch just around the left-field foul pole, denigrating everything that Robinson ever did to break the race barrier.

I kid, I kid. Yankees fans have it tough enough right now, what with Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano joining Chien-Ming Wang on the DL (not Pavano! But he's such a workhorse!).  Still, I think it would have been a little more respectful of MLB players had shown some deference to players wearing No. 42 — you know, let them hit a home run every time up, or allowed Dontrelle Willis to throw a no-hitter.  Something like that. 

Instead, all we have to remember the day is six rainouts across the eastern seaboard.  Stupid Nor'easter.  I walked three blocks yesterday and almost drowned in a storm drain.

And now for the Hollywood Minute: Let's look at a couple items of note from my movie-centric friends at Film Wad, a site where I'd spend all day watching trailers if I weren't so busy cruising the sports blogosphere.

First, Thomas Carter has signed on to direct an as-yet untitled film about Jackie Robinson that will star Robert Redford as Branch Rickey and an actor (probably black) to be named later as Robinson. You may remember Carter from Coach Carter, but more than likely you don't. I prefer to remember him for Swing Kids (which I successfully avoided watching) and the postmodern love story Save the Last Dance. That was where Julia Stiles was a ballet dancer, but living in the 'hood gave her rhythm.

The other bit of news is that Anthony Mackie — best known for playing "Papa Doc" in 8 Mile — will play Jesse Owens in a biopic that begins shooting next summer. I guess the director felt bad about the way he got laughed off the stage when Eminem called him Clarence, because now he's going to win four gold medals at the '36 Berlin Games. In your face, Hitler!

What's tougher? Being a white guy rap-battling in the Detroit 'hood, or being a black athlete in a stadium full of Nazis? Or being as handsome as I am and dealing with jealousy of ugly people every day? I'm like the Jesse Owens/Jackie Robinson of blogging. No attractive person has ever done this before.