MOVIE RANT (by Chet Steadman): Bull Durham

I don’t care for Bull Durham.

Maybe I should have waited for my death bed confession but I couldn’t live in secrecy anymore. I rewatched this baseball classic the other night hoping that being a few years wiser, I might have a different opinion. Often we watch ‘classic’ movies when we are too young to fully appreciate them. And on the contrary, we might watch a movie now that we once loved when we were younger and realize it sucks. I didn’t fully appreciate The Big Lebowski when I was twelve and in high school I thought The Boondock Saints was a good movie.

After this recent viewing, my new found appreciation for Bull Durham proved to be wishful thinking. For those of you who might think this is merely a personal vendetta against Kevin Costner for making For Love of the Game, I can assure you it’s not. Field of Dreams is still my favorite baseball movie. Unfortunately, Bull Durham is low on the depth chart for me. It has a few great lines and Costner drops some gold nuggets of baseball wisdom. I’m not trying to say the whole movie is useless. The problem is that all the baseball aspects of this movie are totally unrealistic for what is supposed to be one of, if not the greatest baseball/sports movies ever. Yes, Major League is terribly unrealistic but it is for the means of comedy. Bull Durham was written by a former minor league player and I’m disappointed that it didn’t draw more from the real lives of ballplayers.

Here are some issues for me:


Tim Robbins is a 30 year old ‘young’ sensation who gets promoted from A-ball to the Big Leagues.


Nuke is the only pitcher on the team apparently.


Crash is the only hitter.


Players don't automatically hit homeruns because they know what pitch is coming.


Crash hits his record breaking homerun with a Wilson bat. Really?


Crash talking about his 21 days in the Bigs is one of the cheesiest scenes ever.


Susan Sarandon isn’t good looking.


Crash states that he believes Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone (for those of you who have seen JFK.)


Like For Love of the Game and Summer Catch, Bull Durham is a love story with baseball as a plot tool. Nothing about this movie actually speaks to the true culture of the game. The minor league life has great stories to tell (see Sugar). So to end this rant, I’ll say it’s not a bad movie. I actually think it’s a very good movie. But it isn’t a good baseball movie.

(long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last 3 days...?)

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*Who is Chet Steadman?

MOVIE RANTS
Rookie of the Year
For Love of the Game
Summer Catch
Field of Dreams

COLLEGE to PRO: Slumping

After years of trying to fight it, I've recently given in to the idea that slumps are simply a part of baseball. There's no avoiding them and they hit you when you least expect them- no one is immune.

I've seen guys follow career days with 0 for 20 stretches. It's amazing- and it happens overnight. How can you go from being so relaxed and confident, to literally feeling helpless in the batter's box? Yesterday you couldn't miss the barrel, every ball was hit hard- today, you'll take a foul tip to reassure you that your bat doesn't have a hole in it.

But that's baseball- it's a game of failure, and even Hall of Famers made an out more than half the time. It's a player's mental toughness- his ability to bounce back from failure- that will dictate how his career goes. And in the minors, the mentally weak do not last long.

In college, when the occasional slump reared its ugly head, I always had enough on my plate to distract me from whatever lack of success I was experiencing at the moment. Go to any college in the country and you'll find your fair share of distractions- most of these can hurt your game, but sometimes in baseball, a distraction is just what you need.