Billy Bob weighs in on Howard vs. Pujols as MVP

Even if you didn't know Billy Bob Thornton was once a pro pitching prospect, you could probably guess his pitch was the screwball.

The out-there actor-musician - star of "Sling Blade" and "Monster's Ball," studio jam partner of Dwight Yoakam, and former component of Billy Bobjelina - is a well-known Hollywood maverick, and certainly looked the part when he stopped in Philadelphia recently toward the tail-end of a 4,000-city tour to promote "The Astronaut Farmer."

Slumped in a chair and staring down at his snakeskin cowboy boots, you got the idea that he didn't want to talk about astronauts or farmers, and he readily confessed that this was indeed the case.

So when a reporter goaded Thornton, a legendary Cardinals fan, to join the Albert Pujols-Ryan Howard MVP debate, he launched into a lengthy baseball/sports monologue that included his ill-fated tryout with the Royals organization and concluded with the science of the screwball (it's not a reverse curveball, he said, it's more like a fastball that moves funny).

"Obviously, when it comes to the MVP, I'm biased. I'm a die-hard Cardinals fans since I was a baby, and now I'm kind of to the Cardinals what [Jack] Nicholson is to the Lakers," said Thornton, who grew up in Arkansas, where the Cards were the closest major league team.

"I love Albert, personally and as a player, but it doesn't bug me that Ryan Howard got it because look, the guy's amazing. And Albert was injured for a long stretch, so this year it was like the team was the MVP," he said. "So I'm for Ryan Howard being MVP, and I think that Albert is too, in his heart, because he of all people knows how hard it is to accomplish what Ryan did last season."

Thornton, who broke his collarbone while trying to make the Kansas City Royals organization as a "junkball"-throwing rightie, is still pained that he was only able to attend two of the World Series games last year.

Movies intervened, which for Thornton - not always a stickler for his itinerary - was an ordeal. He's been known to abandon schedules on a whim.

"This past year, we were going to New York to do some press on a private plane and [my manager], who's this big Steelers fan, says, 'Hey, let's land in Pittsburgh and see the Steelers-Bengals game,' " he recalled. "So we land in Pittsburgh, and the next day, I'm on the sidelines during pregame warm-ups, right next to the linebackers. And during the drills Joey Porter walks up to me and says, hey man, you got to tell me about Halle Berry!"

The anecdote still makes Thornton laugh, though he's on record as being a bit thin-skinned about repeated questions regarding his notorious sex scenes with the lovely Berry in "Monster's Ball."

"It's true I don't like answering those questions, but this was Joey Porter, and I was kind of in his space," said Thornton, laughing.

Thornton is sensitive to the issue of granting celebrities their space, because he's been subject to the kind of invasive scrutiny that accompanies stardom.

"I know it's kind of the thing to say, especially coming from the indie film camp like I did, but I'm really just an actor. That's what I'm in it for, and I don't care about that other stuff," he said.

"On the other hand, you don't want to crap all over it, because it affords you so many things. But I'm just not that into it. I don't hang out with other actors so we can all look cool and have leather jackets and ride Harleys. I just don't care about it, and I think people know too much about us already."

A typical day for Thornton is spent in his basement recording studio (he recently signed a record deal with Universal), playing with his 2 1/2-year-old daughter, or watching his favorite TV shows - "Andy Griffith" and "Green Acres."

He emerges from hiding to work, or to talk about his work. After exhausting the subject of baseball, he turns to "The Astronaut Farmer." He chose the project because he liked the story of a Texas rancher who builds his own orbital rocket, and because he knew the character fit his persona.

"There are guys who think they are consummate actors that can do anything, and that's why every now and then you see some guy getting really slammed - he's in a movie he shouldn't of been in. Not a bad actor, just a bad choice.

"This movie, I read it, I understood the character, and I could see I was the best guy for the job." *