Blog bat around: Bacon goes with everything

By my count, this is the third Blog Bat Around of the year, or at least the third one in which I've participated. The Blog Bat Around is undergoing a revival! It's been at least six or seven years since I was churning out BBA's at this rate.

This version of the Blog Bat Around is a fun, frivolous one. Not a lot of thought involved, just a bit of research and filching some images.

Collecting Cutch wondered whether we could attach our favorite player to actor Kevin Bacon, using the always popular six degrees of separation parlor game. Would our favorite players have a connection to Bacon like every actor in the world?

Well, I was pretty confident with my favorite player.

Ron Cey played in Los Angeles for a dozen seasons. He was a popular player, and in L.A., any popular player finds his way into Hollywood in some way or another.

Cey made an uncredited appearance as a "member of the house band" in "Murder She Wrote" in 1987, after his Dodger career had ended. He also apparently appeared as himself in a rebooted version of "Columbo" in 1990 after his career was over.

But I'm going to go to when Cey's Dodger career was thriving. Cey appeared in the 1982 movie "Q - The Winged Serpent," playing a cop named Detective Hoberman.

There is Cey shooting at the big, bad serpent.

So, to connect Cey with Kevin Bacon, I will start with one of the film's stars, Michael Moriarty, who played a crook in "Q".

Moriarty appeared in many movies and TV shows and his grandfather, George, played in the majors from 1903-16. One of the movies starring Moriarty was another unforgettable creature flick.

"Troll," which was released in 1986, became a cult classic and is sometimes cited as the source of the Harry Potter books (the main character in "Troll" is named Harry Potter Jr.).

There's Michael and Harry now.

Also in "Troll" was Harry Potter Jr.'s mother, Anne Potter, played by former Charlie's Angel, Shelley Hack.

Hack appeared in the 1983 movie "The King of Comedy".

Hack played aggressive TV executive Cindy Long.

Here, she's dealing with Rupert Pupkin, the deranged wannabe stand-up comedian, played by Robert DeNiro.

Robert DeNiro played a priest named "Father Bobby" in the 1996 movie "Sleepers".

Also in "Sleepers" was a sadistic prison guard, played by Kevin Bacon.

There is Bacon as Sean Nokes just before getting his comeuppance.

And that is how Ron Cey is connected to Kevin Bacon. Kind of grim, huh?

I believe that is a Bacon number of 4, which is not the most efficient way of connecting Cey to Bacon. But I wanted to trace it myself and not use The Oracle of Bacon. If I did use The Oracle, I could see that I could connect Cey and Bacon with a number of 2 (Ron Cey--Q--Mary Louise Weller--Animal House--Kevin Bacon).

To make up for my inefficiency, let's see if I can connect myself to Kevin Bacon in six degrees or less (I bet I can).

I will start with "A Few Good Men," in which Kevin Bacon plays prosecutor Captain Jack Ross.

Also in "A Few Good Men," was actor J.T. Walsh, also known for appearing in several notable movies with several notable actors. Walsh played suicidal lieutenant colonel Matthew Markinson.

Walsh appeared in the 1994 movie "Blue Chips" as Happy Kuykendall.

Walsh plays an unscrupulous college booster in a movie that might have one of largest cast of cameos ever. There are a ton of famous basketball figures in this movie. Jim Boeheim is in this movie. (I'm sure Boeheim disgustedly batted down a question of mine during a postgame interview a long time ago, but I don't remember it, so we're pressing onward).

Also in "Blue Chips" is Robert Wuhl, who played Marty. Having not seen the movie, I'm not sure who Marty is -- possibly an assistant coach?

Anyway, one of Wuhl's most famous ventures is the HBO series "Arliss," a sitcom that ran from 1996-2002 and documented the story of Arliss Michaels, president of sports agency.

One of the episodes from that show is called "The American Game". It includes an appearance by Tony La Russa, who was manager of the Cardinals at the time.

A year before La Russa appeared in that "Arliss," episode, he sat in the manager's office in the visiting clubhouse at Olympic Stadium in Montreal and stared darts at me before I got him to open up about the late, great George Kissell during an interview session.

By my count, that is a Bacon number of 3.

Wow, that was a lot more work than I thought it would be.

But now you know Bacon goes with everything, or everyone.