The Stratton Story (1949)

Monty Stratton: Look at that road! I used to do ten miles on that road like it was nothin' - just to pitch a game! Now I can hardly reach it, let alone walk on it!

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Monty Stratton: [after accidentally shooting himself in the leg] I shot the wrong rabbit!

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Ethel Stratton: You told me once, "A man has to know where he's goin'!" Where are you goin', Monte?

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Although Monty Stratton was a real baseball player who continued to play baseball after having a right-leg, above-knee amputation, much of the story was fictionalized for this film. For instance, in the hunting accident, the real Monty Stratton shot himself with a pistol, rather than with a rifle. Also, the game in which the real Monty Stratton returned to baseball after his amputation was not an All-Star game, as in the movie, but rather a 1939 charity game between the White Sox and the Cubs (the proceeds of which went to Stratton).
In August 1947, Van Johnson and Janet Leigh were set to star.
After the events of the movie, the real Monty Stratton went on to be a coach for the Chicago White Sox for a couple of years before going back to his home town of Greenville, TX to start his own farm team. In 1946 he shocked the world when he took the mound once again, this time in the minor leagues, and he posted an 18-8 record for that season.
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