1981 Bill Lee: A Profile of a Pitcher (Primary) Directed by Bill Lee. Written by Bill Brownstein and Bill Lee. Produced by Bill Lee/Double Bill Films. A Canadian documentary.
1981 Chosen, The (Secondary) Directed by Jeremy Paul Kagen. Written by Edwin Gordon. Produced by Jonathan Bernstein and Edie Landau/Chosen Film Company. Starring Barry Miller, Hildy Brooks, Robbie Benson, Rod Steiger, and Maximillan Schell. A story of friendship and family loyalty accentuated by ethnic and religious differences between the main characters. Baseball plays an important role in establishing tension between New York street kids and the othodox Jewish community.
1981 Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (Tertiary) Directed by David Lowell Rich. Written by Henry Barrow and Barbara Dana. Produced by Jay Weston/20th Century Fox. Starring Alan Arkin, Carol Burnett, Jack Warden and Danny Aiello. A quirky comedy in which Philly Flash (Arkin) is a former all-star pitcher in involved with Emily “Chu Chu” (Burnett) and a briefcase of secret government documents.
1981 Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige (TV, Primary) Directed by Richard A. Colla. Written by Leroy Paige and Ronald Rubin. Produced by Danny Arnold and Jordan Davis/TBA/Warner Bros. Starring Louis Gossett, Jr., Beverly Todd, Cleavon Little, and Ossie Davis. This is the story of the rise of Satchel Paige, who at age 12 went to reform school where he learned to pitch. He struggled with racism and the problems faced by the Negro Leagues until 1948 when he was hired by the Cleveland Indians. He later played for the St. Louis Browns and Kansas City Athletics, making his final major league appearance in 1965 at 59, though he continued to pitch in the minor leagues. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.
1982 Cannery Row
(Secondary) Directed by David S. Ward. Written by John Steinbeck and David Ward.
Produced by Kurt Neumann and Michael Phillips/MGM. Starring Audra Lindley, Frank
McRae, M. Emmett Walsh, Nick Nolte, Sunshine Parker, and Debra Winger.
“Doc” (Nolte) is a marine biologist and one time major league
ballplayer who drops out of baseball because he beaned a batter (who is The Seer
(Parker)). Suzy (Winger) is a
free-spirited sometimes floozie in a local brothel, who knows her baseball. In one particularly well-written scene, Suzy and Doc argue
over the moral character of both people and baseball. Extending the film’s
connection as a secondary baseball movie, there is a humorous and poignant
baseball game among the rag-a-muffin characters of Cannery Row and a women’s
professional softball team in which The Seer reveals his old prowess with the
bat. One of Doc’s friends breaks Doc’s arm with a bat in order to force Doc
and Suzy to spend time together.
1982 Chasing Dreams (Primary) Directed by Sean Roche. Written by David Brown. Produced by David Brown and Theresea Conte/Nascent Productions. Starring John Fife, Jim Shane, Claudia Carroll, Matt Clark, and Kevin Costner. A young Kevin Costner appears briefly as the older brother going off to college. The main character in the story is a farm boy who lacks direction and earns the enmity of his Dad. When the boy discovers baseball in junior college, he finds direction in his life. Two events, the tragic death of his wheel-chair bound younger brother and being beaned, almost derail him. He comes back in time to help his college team win the championship which probably gets him a chance in the minors.
1982 Million Dollar Infield (TV, Primary) Directed by Hal Cooper. Written by Dick Wimmer. Starring Bonnie Bedelia, Robert Costanza, Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, and Bruno Kirby. Four wealthy, long-time friends from Long Island play on the same softball team. Each has his own peculiar problems, but all try to work it out on the ball field.
1982 Zapped! (Secondary) Directed by Robert J. Rosenthal. Written by Robert J. Rosenthal and Bruce Rubin. Produced by Jeffrey D. Apple/Embassy Pictures. Starring Scott Baio and Willie Aames. A high school baseball player (Baio) gains telekinetic power that alters the flight of a baseball.
1983 Blue Skies Again (Primary) Directed by Richard Michaels. Produced by Arlene Sellers and Alex Winitsky/Warner Bros. Starring Kenneth McMillan, Harry Hamlin, Mimi Rogers, and Robin Barto. A story about a girl, Paula Fradkin, who wants to play second base in the major leagues. She goes to the Denver Devils tryout camp where she is harassed by the owner (Hamlin) and the team. The team manager and her agent help her play in an exhibition game in which she scores a run to the cheering of the crowd.
1983 Max Dugan Returns (Secondary) Directed by Herbert Ross. Written by Neil Simon. Produced by Herbert Ross and Neil Simon/20th Century Fox. Starring Matthew Broderick, Marsha Mason, Jason Robards and Kiefer Sutherland. Nora (Mason) is a single mother who lives with her son Michael (Broderick) in a small house. They don't have much money but they have each other. Out of the blue, Nora's father Max Dugan, who left her and Nora's mother when Nora was nine years old, arrives. He brings a suitcase with dollar bills and showers her and Michael with gifts, trying to make up for lost time, knowing he has a fatal heart ailment. Michael is a good fielder but a bad hitter, so he arranges for Charlie Lau, the batting coach for the Chicago White Sox, to coach him on hitting. Michael hits the winning home run.
1983 Tiger Town (TV, Primary) Directed and written by Alan Shapiro. Starring Bethany Carpenter, Roy Schneider, Justin Henry, and Ron McLarty. A Disney movie made for the Disney Channel. Schneider plays a veteran outfielder, Billy Young, who’s never played in a World Series. He’s now in a batting slump and the Detroit Tigers aren’t doing very well in the race. A young baseball fanatic, Alex, idolizes Young. At a game, Alex calls upon all his concentration powers to inspire Young to hit a home run, which he does. Alex continues “willing” hits in the following days and the Tigers begin to win and enter the pennant race with the Orioles. Complications delay Alex from getting to the last game, but he arrives in time for Young to score the winning run.
1983 Under Fire (Tertiary) Directed by Robert Spottiswoode. Written by Clayton Froham and Ron Shelton. Produced by Anna Roth and Jonathan Taplin/Orion Pictures. Starring Nick Nolte, Ed Harris, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, and Alma Martinez. The story of photographer Russell Price (Nolte) covering the war in Nicaraqua in 1979 and his battle to stay neutral. When the guerillas have Price take a picture of their leader Rafael, who's believed to be dead, Price gets drawn into the conflict. Pedro (Eloy Casados) autographs a baseball for Claire (Cassidy) to bring back to the states and present to Dennis Martinez (major league pitcher born in Nicaragua). He then puts on a Baltimore Orioles cap and throws a hand-grenade like a fast ball. And just before he is shot, Pedro says to tell Martinez that his curve ball is better than Martinez’s curve ball.
1983 Zelig (Tertiary). Directed and written by Woody Allen. Produced by Robert Greenhut and Charles H. Joffe/Orion Pictures/Warner Bros. Starring Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Thereasa Russell, Tony Curtis, and Gary Busey. A pseudo documentary with a vintage 1920s look. Zelig (Allen) is a man who cannot find his own identity. Zelig’s first baseball moment is “news film” recorded by the Hearst Metrotone News at a New York Yankees training camp where Babe Ruth is at bat and Zelig is leaning on a pair of bats waiting his turn. The announcer says, “He’s listed on the roster as Lou Zelig, but no one on the team has heard of him.” Later, Zelig confides to psychiatrist Eudora Fletcher (Farrow), “I love baseball. You know, it doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just very beautiful to watch.”
1984 First Born (Tertiary) Directed by Michael Apted. Written by Ron Koslow. Produced by Stanley Jaffe and Paul Junger Witt/Paramount Pictures. Starring Peter Weller, Christopher Collet, Corey Haim, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Teri Garr. The story of a young divorcee with two children and the problems that affect their lives, most notably the problems associated with a boyfriend who is abusive. In a dramatic scene towards the end of the film, the boyfriend Sam (Weller) is beating up Wendy (Garr) and the oldest boy (13 or so). The youngest boy (7-8 years-old) puts him out of commission by hitting him with a baseball bat.
1984
Natural, The (Primary) Directed by Barry Levinson. Written by Bernard
Malamud and Roger Towne. Produced by Philip Breen and Roger Towne/TriStar
Pictures. Starring Robert Duvall, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Robert Redford,
and Glenn Close. Roy Hobbs (Redford) is a middle-aged ballplayer making a
comeback with the New York Knights, a team mired in last place.
Iris Gaines (Close), Hobbs’ childhood sweetheart, reenters his life and
tries to snap him out of a slump by revealing the secret withheld for years:
Hobbs is the father of her son. Gamblers try to get him to throw the
pennant-deciding game, but he hits a homer into the lights that erupt into a
spectacular fireworks display. A film often credited with the resurgence of
baseball movies.
1984
Soldier’s Story, A (Secondary) Directed by Norman Jewison. Written by
Charles Fuller. Produced by Norman Jewison and Charles Milhaupt/Columbia
Pictures. Starring David Alan Grier, Art Evans, Howard Rollins, Jr., Adolph
Caesar, and Denzel Washington. This
is the story about the murder of a tough black officer at a military post in the
1940s. The unit in which the Black soldiers reside consists of men who had
played baseball in the Negro Leagues and are now one of the teams playing for
the army. The murder victim is the
team manager.
1985 Amos (TV, Secondary) Directed by Michael Tuchner. Produced by Peter Douglas. Starring Dorothy McGuire, Pat Morita, James Sloyan, Kirk Douglas and Elizabeth Montgomery. Amos Lasher (Douglas), now 70, is a former major league baseball coach who lost his home and is now forced to live in a nursing home. He clashes with Daisy Daws (Montgomery) the nasty nurse (resembling the role of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). The baseball theme is a formative part of the strong character of the protagonist.
1985 Babe, The (TV, Primary) An ESPN biographic dramatization production (90 minutes) based on a play by the same name. Max Gail plays Babe Ruth.
1985 Brewster’s Millions (Secondary) Directed by Walter Hill. Written by George Barr McCutheon and Herschel Weingrod. Produced by Lawrence Gordon and Gene Levy/Universal Pictures. Starring Richard Pryor, John Candy, Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, and Jerry Orbach. In this comedy about a minor league over-the-hill relief pitcher with the fictitious Hackensack Bulls, Montgomery Brewster (Pryor) inherits $30 million if he can adhere to a bizarre spending spree scheme. Major League baseball is subtly presented as the ultimate achievement, even compared to being a millionaire. Brewster is portrayed as loving baseball above all else and wanting to pitch against and beat the best team in baseball, the New York Yankees!
1985
D.A.R.Y.L. (Tertiary)
Directed by Simon Wincer. Written by David Ambrose and Allan Scott. Produced by
John Heyman/Paramount Pictures. Starring Mary Beth Hurt, Michael McKean, and
Kathryn Walker. A young boy (D.A.R.Y.L. Digital Analyzing Robotic Youth Lifeform)
is found wandering without any memory of who he is. A family takes him in and
begins to look for clues to help him find his way home. In the meantime, they
notice that the boy seems to have certain special abilities not usually found in
kids his age, or even fully-grown adults. On Daryl's first day in his new home,
Andy and Turtle teach him how to bat in baseball. Andy, who coaches a
local Little League team, finds out that Daryl, once he is shown how to bat, can
hit the ball better than any kid he has ever seen.
1985 Insignificance
(Secondary) Directed by Nicholas Roeg. Written by Terry Johnson. Produced by
Alexander Stuart and Jeremy Thomas/Recorded Pictures Company/Zenith Productions.
Starring Will Sampson, Gary Busey, Michael Emil, Theresa Russell, and Tony
Curtis. The movie is set in the late fifties featuring the unnamed characters
resembling Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, and Joe DiMaggio. Baseball is
referred to many times throughout the movie. It’s about lives crossing paths
with others and their own at the same time.
When two characters interact both usually have a flashback to a time from
their past. Marilyn Monroe (Russell) is shooting her famous scene when her dress
flies up from the subway vent after which she visits Albert Einstein (Emil).
While this is happening a man at a bar is seen watching a baseball game on TV.
The man later turns out to be baseball hero Joe DiMaggio (Busey),
Marilyn’s husband. Marilyn talks to Einstein about life and relativity and
asks to sleep with him until DiMaggio shows up looking for her. Joe is furious,
but talks to Einstein as if nothing happened. Joe opens a pack of gum with a
baseball card in it and brags about his twelve appearances on cards, measuring
his success with the cards he’s on.
1985 MacArthur’s Children (Secondary) Originally titled Setouchi Shonen Yakyu Dan. Directed by Masahiro Shinoda. Written by Takeshi Tamura and Aku Yu. Released in the U.S. by Orion Classics. Starring Hiromi Go, Juzo Itami, Shima Iwashita, Masako Natsume, and Yoshiyuko Omori. A story about how a small fishing village in Japan must adjust to a new society after WWII during the U.S. military occupation. Baseball helps to drive the plot allowing the children and the people to adapt to change. One of the characters in the film is a wounded Japanese soldier who had been a championship baseball player. He returns, ashamed that he’s lost his leg and can’t be the same man for his wife. He encourages his wife and her students to start a baseball team. The team enhances the morale of the children and the community and helps the soldier regain his self-esteem.
1985 Mask
(Secondary) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Written by Anna Hamilton Phelan.
Produced by Martin Stargar/Universal Pictures. Starring Estelle Getty, Richard
A. Dysart, Cher, Eric Stoltz, and Sam Elliot. Rocky (Stoltz) is the son of Rusty
(Cher). Rocky suffers from a disease that severely deforms his face and skull.
He’s a brilliant student and confronts difficulties well despite his
deformity because of Rusty’s strength. Rocky is a baseball enthusiast who
collects baseball cards (1955 Brooklyn Dodgers) and goes to big league games all
of which provide him a connection to the life of a normal kid his age. As such, baseball helps to define his character and propel
the plot.
1985 Slugger’s Wife, The (Primary) Directed by Hal Ashby. Written by Neil Simon. Produced by Margaret Booth and Ray Stark/Columbia Pictures. Starring Martin Ritt, Cleavant Derricks, Michael O’Keefe, Rebecca DeMornay, and Randy Quaid. Burly DeVito (Ritt) manages the Atlanta Braves in a love story about an Atlanta Braves star, Darryl Palmer (O’Keefe), who marries a nightclub singer, Debby Huston (DeMornay), but their life goals clash. He wants her nearby when he’s playing and she wants to pursue her club dates. He goes into a slump when Debby leaves him at a crucial moment. Debby shows up on the day when he could break the home-run record and win the pennant for the team. He hits a grand slam, breaks the record and wins the game.
1986
About Last Night . . .
(Secondary) Directed by Edward Awick. Written by Denise DeClue and Tim
Kazurinsky. Produced by Jason Brett and Arnold Stiefel/Columbia Tri-Star.
Starring James Belushi, Elizabeth Perkins, George DiCenzo, Rob Lowe, and Demi
Moore. A young Chicago couple (Lowe
and Moore) meet at a softball game. They try to develop a relationship, but Lowe
has difficulty committing to her. There are arguments and a breakup. At the end
of the film, Lowe gives up the ball game to reconcile with Moore. The movie is
in the secondary category since baseball is peripheral to the story. The couple
does attend a Cubs game. In this film, baseball provides a social arena for
young men and women to meet.
1986
Brighton Beach Memoirs (Secondary) Directed
by Gene Saks. Written by Neil Simon. Produced by Joseph Caracciolo and David
Chasman/Universal Pictures. Starring Richard Bright, Blythe Danner, Bob Dishy,
Jonathan Silverman, and Brian Drillinger. A
story of life in Brooklyn in the late 1930s told through Eugene, a pubescent
teenager who is obsessed with sex and baseball.
His room is full of baseball memorabilia and he bemoans the name Eugene
is inappropriate for a Yankee player. He
will become a writer only if becoming a Yankee doesn’t work out.
1986
Dog Baseball (Primary)
A comedy short directed by William Wegman. No other details are available, but
the title is highly suggestive.
1986
Every Time We Say Goodbye
(Secondary) Directed by Moshe Mizarhi. Written by Moshe Mizarhi and Rachel
Fabien. Produced by Eitan Evan and Sharon Harel/Tri-Star Pictures. Starring
Cristina Marsillach, Anat Atzman, Gila Almagor, Tom Hanks, and Benedict Taylor.
An American flyer who joined the RAF before his country was in the war is
recovering from a leg injury in Jerusalem. As he recovers, he is frustrated by
inactivity and entices a friend Peter (Taylor), a Brit, to a game of catch. Pete has little knowledge of what to do with an American
baseball and glove. The awkward game of catch is used as a vehicle for a
conversation about love while illustrating the cultural gap that existed between
Hanks and his friend.
1986
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Secondary)
Directed and written by John Hughes. Produced by John Hughes and Michael
Chinch/Paramount Pictures. Starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara,
Jeffrey Jones, and Jennifer Grey. High
schooler Ferris Bueller (Broderick) has perfected the art of faking illness to
skip school. Today he’s elevated the art to the level of a science as he
thwarts parents and school authorities to play hooky. The movie opens with a Cubs baseball game on TV being called
by the venerable Harry Carey. Among
the day’s escapades, an afternoon game at Wrigley Field where the three have
seats along the left field foul line and Bueller catches a foul ball. The game
is used a back drop, including the “Save Ferris” message on the electronic
message board at the entrance to Wrigley Field.
1986
Gung Ho
(Secondary) Directed by Ron Howard. Produced by Edwin Blum and Lowell Ganz.
Produced by Deborah Blum and Tony Ganz/Columbia Tri-Star Pictures. Starring John
Turturro, Michael Keaton, Gedde Watanabe, Mimi Rogers, and George Wendt.
This film focuses on intercultural differences and how they’re overcome
in Smalltown, U.S.A. Local sports
hero and foreman Hunt Stephenson (Keaton) ineptly persuades a Japanese car
manufacturer to reopen an auto plant in the U.S. Clashes occur immediately
between the Japanese management and the good-old-boy, beer-drinking,
all-American workers. Where baseball typically represents a unifying force a
Japanese vs. American baseball game (softball) is ends us emphasizing the
differences between the two cultures.
1986
Winner Never Quits, A
(TV, Primary) Directed by Mel Damski. Written by Burt Prelutsky. Produced by
Daniel Blatt and Robert Singer/Columbia Pictures. Starring Keith Carradine, Mare
Winningham, G.W. Bailey, Ed O’Neill, Dennis Weaver, and Huckleberry Fox.
Fact-based story of a Peter Gray (Carradine) who lost his right arm in a
childhood accident, but went on to fulfill his dreams of playing major league
baseball. With the support of his Pennsylvania coal mining father (Weaver) and
his brother (O'Neill) he learns to battle for what he wants. Finally in 1943, he
is hired to play for a minor league team, the Memphis Chicks in the Class A
Southern Association. Initially considered a freak and a box office attraction,
he survives the taunts of his teammates and bats .333 his rookie year, steals 63
bases and leads the league outfielders in fielding percentage ultimately winning
the league's MVP award. In 1945, the St. Louis Browns call him up to the major
leagues. A parallel story is told about the ball player's friendship with a
young boy (Fox) who lost his arm and dreams of one day playing baseball. The
idea for the movie came from co-producer James Keach whose brother went to
school with the younger boy. (John Sacksteder)
1987 Amazing Grace and Chuck (Secondary) Directed by Mike Newell. Written by David Field. Produced by David Field and Roger Rothstein/Tri-Star. Starring Dean Alexander, Jim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Alex English. Chuck is a Little League player who decides he has to take some action to stop the world’s buildup of nuclear arms. He goes on strike and won’t play until the nuclear powers disarm. His action attracts another athlete, Amazing Grace, a Boston Celtic who joins in the boycott. Ultimately the world’s leaders agree that a disarmament agreement must be signed. Chuck’s position as a baseball player helps to define this character within the “All-American” image.
1987 Ironweed (Secondary) Directed by Hector Babenco. Written by William Kennedy. Produced by Keith Barish and C.O. Erickson/HBO/Columbia Tri-Star. Starring Diane Verona, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Carrol Baker, and Michael O’Keefe. A story about street people in Albany, New York during the late 1930s. Phelan (Nicholson) is haunted by his past and Helen (Streep) is his sometimes sober friend. Phelan has been in the major leagues (pitcher) and when reminiscing with his grandson, passes on his assessment of Ruth and Cobb, and presents his grandson with a baseball.
1987 Long Gone (TV, Primary) Directed by Martin Davidson. Written by Michael Norell. Produced by Joan Barnett and Arthur Fellows. Starring Katy Boyer, William L. Petersen, Virginia Madsen, Dermot Mulroney, and Larry Riley. Erickson calls this movie “one of the most thoroughly enjoyable baseball comedies made in the last two decades.” The Tampico Stogies in 1957 climb to a possible minor league pennant with the help of two new players signed by manager Stud Cantrell: a second baseman, Jamie Don Weeks, and a big hitting black player, Joe Louis Brown. Cantrell is offered a bribe by the owner of the Stogies’ major opponents to manage his team next year if the Stogies lose the pennant. Brown is also paid to throw the Series. But just before the deciding game, Cantrell and Brown realize the honest way to go and the Stogies win the pennant.
1987 New York Yankees (The Movie) (Primary) Directed and written by Lawrence Miller. A documentary of the history of baseball's most famous franchise, from the beginning in 1903 through the 1986 season. The documentary uses newsreel, game footage, and interviews with players, coaches, and team personnel.
1987
Principal, The (Tertiary) Directed by Christopher Cain. Written by Frank
Deese. Produced by Tri-Star Pictures. Starring James Belushi, and Lou Gossett,
Jr. Rick Latimer (Belushi) is a teacher who gets a job as the principal of a
school with a very bad reputation. In fact, his transfer there is a kind of
punishment because he beat his wife's boyfriend. So, Rick finds himself in a
school where drugs, knives and guns are very usual things. Belushi wields a
baseball bat to exert his authority.
1987 Radio Days
(Secondary) Directed and written by Woody Allen. Produced by Robert Greenhut and
Charles Joffe/Orion Pictures. Starring Mia Farrow, Seth Green, Julia Kavner,
Josh Mostel, and Michael Tucker. A
story about growing up in Queens during the 1940s with vignettes from period
radio performers. One scene
parodies The Stratton Story when the story is told on “Favorite Sports
Legends” about the St. Louis Cardinal southpaw who shot himself in the leg.
The player returns to pitch with a peg-leg. The parody becomes Monty-Python-like
when the pitcher loses his non-pitching arm during the following off season.
Kyle pitches armless and legless. During the next off season, Kyle loses his
sight, but since he has an instinct as to where to throw the ball, he keeps on
pitching.
1987 Trading Hearts (Secondary) Directed by Neil Leifer. Written by Frank DeFord. Produced by Josi Konski. Starring Scott Alan, Richard Barron, Raul Julia, Beverly D’Angelo, and Jenny Lewis. Yvonne Nottingham (Lewis) is a precocious daughter of an aspiring nightclub singer, Donna (D’Angelo). Yvonne plays the matchmaker between her mom and former major-league pitcher Vinnie Icona (Julia). After a time, they grow close. When Donna’s ex-husband sends the law to bring Yvonne to live with him, Yvonne and Vinnie hide from the police at the Spring training camp of the Havana Sugar Kings, where Vinnie goes back to pitching. He and Donna reunite, but Vinnie’s pitching arm is gone so he has to find a new career.
1987 Untouchables, The
(Secondary) Directed by Brian DePalma. Written by Oscar Fraley and Eliot Ness.
Produced by Raymond Hartwick and Art Linson/Paramount Pictures. Starring Kevin
Costner, Robert De Niro, Sean Connery, Andy Garcia, and Charles Martin Smith. The familiar story of Elliot Ness (Costner) eventually taking
on Al Capone (De Niro). Baseball is
used in one scene. Capone is
entertaining a number of his lieutenants at an elegant luncheon and delivering a
sermon on teamwork using baseball as the metaphor of choice. His argument is that when one team member fails, then the
whole team is let down and suffers. He
concludes his peroration by savagely beating to death the non-team player with a
baseball bat.
1988 Big (Tertiary) Directed by Penny Marshall. Written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg. Produced by Linwood Boomer and James L. Brooks/20th Century Fox. Starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Herd, and Jared Rushton. Twelve-year-old Josh Baskins (Hanks) wishes on a carnival fortune-vending machine that he could be “big”—and he wakes up in the body of a 35-year-old man. Unable to find the machine and reverse his transformation, Josh temporarily adapts by taking a job and, through a variety of slightly contrived events, becomes a top executive at a major toy company. Baseball is used in the opening scene as a metaphor for youth and friendship prior to Josh’s transformation.
1988 Bull Durham
(Primary) Directed and written by Ron Shelton. Produced by Mark Burg and David
Lester/The Mount Company/Orion Pictures. Starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon,
and Tim Robbins. The story of a
minor league catcher, Crash Davis (Costner), who’s sent to the Durham Bulls, a
team in North Carolina, to help develop a young, raw pitcher, Ebby Calvin
“Nuke” LaLoosh (Robbins). Ebby
has potential but is green and wild. Annie
Savoy is a local resident who has an annual mission of selecting one young
player to take under her wing and into her bed; she chooses LaLoosh.
As the season progresses, LaLoosh learns a lot about baseball and life
from Crash and Annie, who knows baseball as well as seduction. LaLoosh gets his
chance and moves on to the majors while Crash is out of a job.
After he and Annie spend a night together, Crash leaves to take a
coaching job. However, he soon
returns to Annie and decides to quit the game, wistfully commenting that he
might manage somewhere, someday.
1988 Couch Trip, The (Secondary) Directed by Michael Ritchie. Written by Ken Kolb and Steve Kampmann. Produced by Orion Pictures. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Charles Grodin, Walter Matthau, and Donna Dixon. This film involves an inmate (Aykroyd) in an Illinois mental asylum who is attempting to convince a fellow patient not to jump to his death. “What about our dreams, man?” he asks. “Our dream of you and me playing for the Cubs in the World Series. You’re pitching. I’m catching. Bases are jammed in the ninth. I call for a spitter. You huck up an ungodly booger, fir it up, the bottom drops out of the pitch, Mattingly strikes out. And when the dust clears, man, it’s you and me, sitting around.” “No way, man,” is the response. “And why not?” “Cause even in a dream, the Cubs can’t win a World Series.” During the course of the story, John Burns (Aykroyd) escapes and ends up impersonating a Beverly Hills psychiatrist/radio talk show host. His advice to callers: all their woes might be solved if they attend a baseball game. (Edelman)
1988 Eight Men Out
(Primary) Directed by John Sayles. Written by Eliot Asinof and John Sayles.
Produced by Babara Boyle and Jerry Offsay/Orion Pictures. Starring Jace
Alexander, John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, Christopher Lloyd, and John Mahoney.
The story of the payoffs to White Sox players to conspire to lose the
1919 World Series to Cincinnati. The
film explores the level of participation and non-participation of the players,
the efforts of Charlie Comiskey to protect baseball from the scandal, and the
appointment by club owners of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as Baseball
Commissioner to take charge of the “independent” investigation and save
baseball from itself. The film focuses on the players and their emotions as
individuals.
1988 Funny Farm (Tertiary) Directed by George Roy Hill. Written by Jeffrey Boam and Jay Cronley. Produced by Bruce Bodner and Patrick Kelley/Warner Bros. Starring Chevy Chase, Madolyn Smith-Osborne, Kevin O’Morrison, Joseph Maher, and Jack Gilpin. Andy (Chase) and Elizabeth Farmer (Smith-Osborne) are sick of life in the city, and decide to move to the country. Buying a home near a picturesque town, they soon discover (to their horror) that things are done differently in the country. They must deal with all of the local characters, the local animals, as well as any skeletons in the closet. Andy is a sports writer who often wears a Mets cap and when he says this is his final move, a co-worker says, “That’s what Billy Martin said.”
1988 Good
Morning Vietnam (Tertiary) Directed by Barry Levinson. Written by Mitch
Markowitz. Produced by Harry Benn and Ben Moses/Buena Vista Pictures. Starring
Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran, Chintara Sukapatana, and Bruno
Kirby. The story of Adrian Cronauer
(Williams), controversial Armed Forces disk jockey in Vietnam, and his butting
heads with military brass while pursuing a young Vietnamese woman. His ties with
the locals prompts an entertaining farewell baseball game (using melons as
baseballs) as Adrian is being escorted out of the country by the disgruntled
military establishment. The game is
a comedic view of baseball as uniquely American.
1988 Naked Gun: From the
Files of Police Squad (Secondary) Directed by David Zucker. Written by Jerry
Zucker, David Zucker and Jim Abrahams. Produced by Jerry Zucker, David Zucker,
and Jim Abrahams/Paramount Pictures. Starring Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley,
George Kennedy, Ricardo Montalban, and O. J. Simpson.
Once Frank Drebin (Nielsen) determines that an assassination attempt will
be made on Queen Elizabeth at a baseball game (Angels vs. Mariners for a
division title), he takes over as the opera singer performing the national
anthem and as the home plate umpire. In
a final scene of close to twenty minutes, the film pokes fun at the national
anthem, hot dogs, first pitches, announcers, umpires, spitting and crotch
grabbing, signals, and pitcher tricks. When Drebin is asked in a sexually
charged scene by Jane Spencer (Presley) if he is afraid of his “big gun”
going off, he replies, “I used to have that problem, now I just think of
baseball.”
1988
Rain Man
(Secondary) Directed by Barry Levinson. Written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass.
Produced by Jon Peters and Peter Guber/United
Artists. Starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father dies and leaves a fortune—to
Raymond, the institutionalized savant brother that Charlie didn't know he had.
They set out on a cross-country journey of discovery. (Jon Reeves) Rain
Man uses baseball themes to link a mental patient, in this case the autistic
patient Raymond (Hoffman), to a degree of normality that baseball represents.
Though Raymond is in an institution for life, he has unusual mental capacity for
memorizing and statistics. He collects baseball cards and has a baseball trivia
book given to him by his father and has committed all the stats to memory.
Raymond recites “Who’s on First?” whenever he feels threatened.
1988
Red Heat (Tertiary) Directed by Walter Hill. Written by Walter Hill and
Harry Kleiner. Produced by Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna/Columbia Tri-Star
Pictures. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi, Ed O’Ross, and
Laurence Fishburne. A Russian cop
Ivan Danko (Schwarzenegger) is sent to the U.S. to return a prisoner.
The prisoner escapes and New York cop Art Ridzik (Belushi) helps the
Russian copy through a series of dramatic and humorous misadventures. As the
movie concludes, the two cops are sitting in an airport bar with the TV
broadcasting a baseball game. A discussion of baseball and the “totally
American” game ensues.
1988 Running on Empty (Tertiary) Directed by Sidney Lumet. Written by Naomi Foner. Produced by Naomi Foner and Burt Harris/Warner Bros. Starring Christine Lahti, River Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, Jonas Arby, and Martha Plimpton. The movie opens with a baseball game. Danny Pope (Phoenix) character is shown striking out. As he leaves the field, he sarcastically tells a buddy that “baseball is my life.” Later, Phoenix’s younger brother suggests trading baseball cards: Duke Snider for Fernando Valenzuala. Later, there’s a baseball scene as the teams in between innings. Finally, at the end of the movie, as the family (sans Danny) is about to drive away, a game between the Cubs and Phillies is heard on the car radio.
1988 Stealing Home
(Secondary) Directed and written by Steven Kampman and William Porter. Produced
by Warner Bros. Starring Mark Harmon, Jodie Foster, and Harold Ramis.
Katie Chandler (Foster) has committed suicide. Billy Wyatt (Harmon), a
former minor-league ballplayer who hasn’t played ball for 14 years was brought
up under Katie’s tutelage as his babysitter and friend.
As she pursues her own dreams, she urges Billy to pursue his to be a
ballplayer. She gives him a baseball pendant and tells him “You are a
ballplayer.” Billy recalls these experiences when he returns home because
Katie has left instructions that he is the only person who knows what to do with
her ashes. Billy and his best
friend, Alan Appleby (Ramis), played ball together in prep school and prior to
the climax of the film they play a two-man game in a deserted stadium with
Katie’s urn on home plate. The film is resolved when Billy realizes Katie
would want her ashes thrown into the wind off the Atlantic City Steel Pier. As
for Billy, he is a baseball player. He’s back in baseball replicating stealing
home like he did in a game in prep school seen early in the film.
1989 Back to the Future, Part II (Tertiary) Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy/MCA Universal Pictures. Starring Lea Thompson, Thomas Wilson, Elizabeth Shue, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The middle movie in the Back to the Future trilogy in which Professor Brown (Lloyd) has returned from the year 2015 to solicit Marty Mcfly’s (Fox) help in keeping his son out of jail and subsequently from preventing the McFly family nemesis, Biff, from altering history. A baseball bat is used twice in the movie as a weapon. The final baseball reference is a fantasy nod to baseball in the year 2015; a message board indicates that the Chicago Cubs have defeated the Miami team (unnamed at the time the movie was made) in the World Series.
1989 Born on the 4th of July (Tertiary) Directed by Oliver Stone Written by Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic Produced by Oliver Stone and A. Kitman Ho/Universal Pictures. Starring Tom Cruise, Bryan Larkin, Raymond Barry, Caroline Kava, Josh Evans. The true story of Ron Kovic (Cruise), a paralyzed Vietnam War veteran who turns against the country that put him in harms way. Baseball is one of several highly symbolic "American" ideals portrayed early in the film. Promptly following the opening scene of little boys "playing war" there is a Fourth of July parade where Ron Kovic is given a birthday present: a Yankees baseball cap. Ron is shown as a child playing a baseball game and hitting a home run. His room at home is decorated with baseball figurines and baseball cards/paraphernalia displayed on wall next to the Rosary (the Kovics were Catholic and all-American). Kovic’s character was established in large measure via his worship of Mantle, the Yankees, and baseball in general and, as such, baseball provided a sharp contrast to the loss of faith he goes through following his traumatic Vietnam experience. The final scene of film includes flashbacks of childhood and hitting the home run is one of the happy memories.
1989 Do The Right Thing
(Tertiary) Directed and written by Spike Lee. Produced by Spike Lee and Monty
Ross/MCA Universal Pictures. Starring Danny Aiello, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby
Dee, and Samuel L. Jackson. Danny Aiello owns a pizza shop in a neighborhood
with high interracial and ethnic tensions. Spike Lee directs and plays Mokie who
wears a Dodgers T-shirt with the number 42 and “Robinson” on the back.
Aiello’s Shop is decorated with pictures of Italian-Americans who have
made it in entertainment, politics and sports, including Joe DiMaggio. He also
has a baseball bat handy which he threatens to use and ultimately does when his
customers get out of control. We never see him hit a person with the bat, but he
does smash a boom box and threatens to hurt someone with it. In one scene,
characters argue about the comparative merits of Dwight Gooden and Roger
Clemens.
1989 Dream Team, The (Secondary) Directed by Howard Zieff. Written by Jon Connolly and David Louka. Produced by Joseph Caracciolo and Christopher Knight/Universal Pictures. Starring Stephen Furst, Dennis Boutsikaris, Michael Keaton, Christopher Lloyd, and Peter Boyle. A group of patients from a mental institution embark on a field trip to Yankee Stadium with their doctor who argues to his superiors the value of this normal activity in their confused lives. One of the characters wears a baseball cap and speaks in short, clipped baseball lingo. Circumstances separate the doctor from the patients and they are forced to fend for themselves and solve their problems, one of which is to find the missing doctor. They do well, and as a result of the trip, patients begin their journey back to mental health, and the doctor gives them the OK to go the next day’s game on their own.
1989 Fat Man and Little
Boy (Secondary) Directed by Roland Joffe. Written by Roland Joffe and Bruce
Robinson. Produced by John Calley and Tony Garnett/Paramount Pictures. Starring
Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, Laura Dern, and John Cusack.
Michael Merriman (Cusack), a young scientist recruited to Los Alamos to
work on the atomic bomb during World War II. He arrives with two baseball bats
in his duffel bag, and pastes pictures of baseball players on the wall of his
office. At one point during the film, there is a baseball game between the
doughboys (U.S Army) and the “pencil pushers” (the scientists), won by the
latter when Merriman hits a homerun that crashes through the commanding
officer’s window.
1989 Field of Dreams
(Primary) Directed by Phil Alden Robinson. Written by W.P. Kinsella and Phil
Alden Robinson. Produced by Brian Frankish/Universal Pictures. Starring Kevin
Costner, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffman, Ray Liotta, James Earl Jones, and Burt
Lancaster. In this baseball fantasy, a young farmer, Ray Kinsella (Costner)
hears a voice imploring him to build a baseball field on his Iowa farm to bring
back Shoeless Joe Jackson (Liotta) and other members of the 1919 Black Sox. He
builds the ball park and the White Sox and other old ballplayers come. He and
his wife and daughter can see them playing ball and can talk to them, but
skeptics see and hear nothing. In the end, Ray’s father returns to play catch
with Ray and reconcile Ray’s frustrations and regrets that his Dad never had
the chance to have a father-son game of catch.
1989 Glory (Tertiary) Directed by Edward Zwick. Written by Kevin Jarre and Robert Gould Shaw. Produced by Pieter Jan Brugge and Freddie Fields/Tri-Star Pictures. Starring Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy and Andre Braugher. At the beginning of the movie, in the background a soldier is seen throwing a ball and another soldier is hitting it and running.
1989 Honey I Shrunk The Kids (Tertiary) Directed by Joe Johnston. Written by Stuart Gordon and Ed Naha. Produced by Penny Finkleman Cox and John Landau/Walt Disney Pictures/Buena Vista Pictures. Starring Marcia Strassman, Kristine Sutherland, Rick Moranis, Jared Rushton, Matt Frewer, and Robert Oliveri. The movie focuses on a family whose father is an inventor. Early in the movie, a reference to baseball is made by a neighborhood kid. He asks if Nicky (Oliveri), the son of the inventor ever does anything normal, like play baseball. The father’s latest failure is an invention that is supposed to shrink anything down to the size of an ant. His invention fails miserably until one of the neighborhood kids hits a baseball through the window of his laboratory. The ball lands in the path of a beam of light that gives it more resistance proving that the machine works. The kids find this out when they go to retrieve the ball and end up strunk. The father must then find the kids without stepping on them and fix the machine to enlarge them again.
1989
Jacknife (Tertiary) Directed by David Hugh Jones. Written by Stephen
Metcalfe. Produced by Sandy Gallin Baum/Cineplex Odeon Films. Starring Sloane
Shelton, Ivar Brogger, Robert DeNiro, Ed Harris, and Kathy Baker. A Vietnam vet, Joseph Megs (DeNiro) tries to
snap his war buddy Dave (Harris) out of his post-war doldrums and alcoholism.
Joseph falls in love with his buddy’s sister Martha (Baker). Dave, a school
teacher, is depressed because he feels responsible for the death in Vietnam of
their mutual friend, whose Red Sox cap DeNiro wears emblematically throughout
the film.
1989 Major League
(Primary) Directed and written by David S. Ward. Written by David S. Ward.
Produced by Mark Rosenberg and Chris Chesser/Morgan Creek/Paramount Pictures.
Starring Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Margaret Whitton, and
Wesley Snipes. A baseball comedy in which a woman, Rachel Phelps (Whitton),
inherits the Cleveland Indians from her husband, but wants to move the team to
Miami. Contract arrangements forbid the team to leave town unless it fails to
attract 800,000 fans a year. Thinking of the Miami possibilities, Phelps
assembles a team she believes can never draw the minimum crowd and makes their
lives miserable. But the team begins to take shape and once they realize why
Phelps is sabotaging them, they rally and unbelievably win the pennant.
1989 Night Game (Secondary) Directed by Peter Masterson. Written by Spencer Eastman and Anthony Palmer. Produced by Moshe Diamant and Edward Sarlui/Viacom. Starring Roy Schneider, Karen Young, Richard Bradford, Paul Gleason, and Carlin Glynn. The story of a Texas police detective Mike Seaver (Scheider) pursuing a serial killer. Seaver is an ex-ballplayer and Houston Astros fan who eventually links the killings to the pitching rotation of the Astros. The killer is a former pitcher who lost his hand in an accident and had it replaced with a hook.
1989
Parenthood (Tertiary) Directed by Ron Howard. Written by Babaloo Mandel,
Lowell Ganz and Ron Howard. Produced by Joseph Caracciolo/Universal Pictures.
Starring Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, Tom Hulce, Jason Robards, and Mary
Steenburgen. A comedic look at upper middle-class parenthood in the 1990s,
spanning three generations. The opening scene is a fantasy which takes place at
a Cardinals baseball game. Martin as a kid has been brought to the game by his
father—an annual birthday ritual. Cut to the present and Martin’s at the
game with Steenburgen, his wife, and his kids. Martin is also a Little League
coach.
1989 Sea of Love (Tertiary) Directed by Harold Becker. Written by Richard Price. Produced by Universal Pictures. Starring Al Pacino, Ellen Barker and John Goodman. In the beginning of the movie, members of the New York Police Department, dress in New York Yankee shirts, and invite a bunch of bad guys to a banquet hall, believing they will meet Yankee ballplayers. Two hoods believe that Detective Frank Keller (Pacino) is actually Phil Rizzuto. A large Yankee logo is seen in the background. When Pacino delivers the bad news, cops dressed in Yankee shirts swarm over the gathering, handcuffing the bad guys. Later in the film, in a bar scene, a television is tuned to the Yankees game.
1989 When Harry Met Sally (Tertiary) Directed by Rob Reiner. Written by Nora Ephron. Produced by Rob Reiner and Andrew Scheinman/Columbia Pictures. Starring Stephen Ford, Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, and Bruno Kirby. Harry (Crystal) and Sally (Ryan) meet as college grads sharing a combative drive from Chicago to New York City in the 1970s. Their on-again/off-again friendship continues for more than a decade, turning from platonic to romantic and ending in their marriage. The first baseball icon appears when Harry unloads a baseball bat with his duffel and laundry bags from Sally’s car when they arrive in New York City. Best friends Harry (Crystal) and Jess (Kirby) talk about relationships—specifically Harry’s platonic relationship with Sally—while in a batting cage. During the famous fake-orgasm scene, one of the restaurant guests was seen wearing a NY Yankees baseball hat.
1990 Awakenings (Secondary) Directed by Penny Marshall. Written by Oliver Sacks and Steven Zaillian. Produced by Laurence Mark and Walter Parkes/Columbia Pictures. Starring Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Robin Williams, and Robert DeNiro. Robin Williams plays the role of a neurologist who brings mobility and life back for a while to patients who have been unable to speak and physically react to stimuli for many years. Robert DeNiro is Leonard, one of the vegetative patients. The film uses baseball in two ways. First, the doctor uses a baseball to throw to the patients and discovers they are alive inside by reacting quickly and catching the ball. And second, the daughter of one of the patients reads the newspaper stories about the 1969 Mets to her ill father every day.
1990 Court Martial of Jackie Robinson, The (TV, Secondary) Directed by Larry Peerce. Written by L. Travis Clark and Steve Duncan. Produced by Robert Sertner and Frank von Zerneck/Turner Pictures. Starring Stan Shaw, Paul Dooley, Andre Braugher, Daniel Stern, and Ruby Dee. While the film deals with Jackie Robinson and establishes his history as a baseball player, this film deals with the bigotry he faced when he was in the army before becoming a baseball star.
1990 Homer and Eddie (Secondary) Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. Written by Patrick Cirillo. Produced by Moritz Borman and James Cady/Kings Road Entertainment. Starring Anne Ramsey, Tad Horino, Karen Black, James Belushi and Whoopi Goldberg. Baseball is used as an element of fate that has changed a man’s life. When hit on the head by a ball as a child, Homer (Belushi) suffers brain damage that affects his competence and personality. His wealthy parents send him away to a special school to hide him. He’s now in his late 20s or early 30s and on the way home to Oregon to visit his dying father. He runs into Eddie (Whoopi) who has escaped from a mental hospital where she was being treated for a cancerous brain tumor. She drives Homer home and when he takes Eddie to his room in the family mansion they find that his prized Mickey Mantle poster is gone. There is no evidence that he ever lived there. Homer was hit by the ball because he was not watching the play, he was searching the stands for his Dad who was usually too busy to come to the games. Baseball is a symbol of normality. Even after his injury, the Mantel poster connects him to the part of himself that is still normal.
1990 Mermaids (Secondary) Directed by Richard Benjamin. Written by Patty Dann and June Roberts. Produced by Lauren Lloyd and Patrick Palmer/Orion Pictures. Starring Michael Schoeffling, Cher, Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci and Bob Hoskins. After yet another failed relationship, Rachel Flax (Cher) ups her family to the east coast to start all over again. Reluctantly dragged along with her is her daughter Charlotte - going through a very confusing time of her life - who wants to become a nun, and instead falls in love with a quiet, mild-mannered church employee, to the mixed response of her mother. (Paul Skerry) When the family moves to Eastport, MA, Charlotte’s room features the words “Red Sox” carved on a door. Lou (played by Hoskins), owner of a shoe store and amateur artist, has a “Red Sox” banner displayed in his store, and he wears a Red Sox cap when painting. Mrs. Flax opines that Astroturf will ruin baseball. At a New Year’s Eve party, Lou wins a $20 bet by naming three top career hitters. Later, Lou and Mrs. Flax’s family travel to Cooperstown, where a large photo of Joe DiMaggio was seen as well as Lou satisfying his dream of “touching Lou Gehrig’s glove.”
1990 Mr. Destiny (Secondary) Directed by James Orr. Written by Jim Cruickshank and James Orr. Produced by Laurence Mark/Buena Vista Pictures. Starring Jim Belushi, Michael Caine, Linda Hamilton, Jon Lovitz, and Hart Bochner. On his 35th birthday, middle-class Larry Burrows (Belushi) meets quasi-angel, Mike “Mr. Destiny” (Caine). Mike grants Larry a wish—to change his destiny. Baseball is the integral theme in the movie. Twenty years previously, Belushi struck out with two outs, a runner on third and his team down 3-2 in the state championship baseball game. His rhetorical question in the background narrative, “Why is it when you screw up, the whole world is watching?” Burrows tells Mr. Destiny, “If I’d just hit that goddamned ball, my life would have turned out a whole lot better . . . I swung too late.” Through his altered destiny he gets a chance to finally hit that ball.
1990
My Blue Heaven (Tertiary) Directed by Herbert Ross. Written by Nora Ephron.
Produced by Goldie Hawn, Andrew Stone, Nora Ephron/Warner Bros. Starring Joan
Cusack, Carol Kane, Larry Block, Steve Martin, and Rick Moranis. Vincent
“Vinnie” Antonelli (Martin) is a gangster in the witness protection program
because he testified against his mobster friends. Barney Coopersmith (Moranis)
is a shy G-Man. The film’s relationship with baseball occurs when Vinnie
develops a scam to collect money for a Little League baseball field.
1990 Opportunity Knocks (Secondary) Directed by Donald Petrie. Written by Michael Katlin and Nat Bernstein. Produced by Mark Gordon and Brad Grey/Universal Pictures. Starring Todd Graff, Julia Campbell, Milo O’Shea, Dana Carvey, and Robert Loggia. This is the story of a conman Eddie Farrell (Carvey) who wheedles his way into the hearts and trust of a rich corporate executive and his family (including falling in love with his daughter). In the end, Eddie has a change of heart and all is well. Milt Malkin (Loggia) is president of a firm manufacturing hand-dryers for restrooms and shares Eddie’s love of the Cubs. His office is decorated with Cubs paraphernalia. Milt is consumed by Ernie Banks’ record set on 5/9/70. It is his ATM pin number, his license plate number and the combination to his safe. Eddie uses his knowledge of Milt’s obsession to steal, but he eventually returns $180,000 to the safe.
1990 Problem Child (Secondary) Directed by Dennis Dugan. Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Produced by James Brubaker and Robert Simonds/Universal Pictures. Starring Gilbert Gottfried, Amy Yasbeck, John Ritter, Jack Warden, and Michael Oliver. Ritter and his wife think their childless days are over when they adopt a seven-year-old boy who turns out to be the kid from hell. Ritter is a Little League coach who promises his team ice cream if they win. During the game, Junior pinch hits, although he tells his Dad he doesn’t know how to play. “I’ll be proud no matter how you do,” Ritter assures Junior. On the first swing, the bat flies out of Junior’s hands, sails across the fence and smashes his grandfather’s (Warden) car window. His dad exhorts his kid to hang on to the bat, which Junior does as he gets a hit. Running the bases, Junior hangs on to the bat and uses it to demolish the defensive players and slides home under the catcher while hitting him in the crotch. The catcher drops the ball; “Touchdown,” Junior shouts jubilantly.
1990 Taking Care of
Business (Secondary) Directed by Arthur Miller. Written by Jill Mazursky.
Produced by Paul Mazursky and Geoffrey Taylor/Buena Vista Pictures. Starring
Anne DeSalvo, Loryn Locklin, Jim Belushi, Charles Grodin, and Hector Elizondo.
Harmless prison escapee Jimmy Dworski (Belushi) finds white-collar advertising
exec and playboy Spenser Barnes’ (Charles Grodin) little black book and
assumes his identity and lifestyle. Along the way, Dworski’s candor and easy
style—a stark contrast to Barnes’ Type A personality—charms and disarms
both a major client and a California debutante. When Dworski and Barnes team up,
the result is an epiphany for Barnes and a happily-ever-after-ending.
Baseball provides the motivation for Dworski’s prison break. A die-hard
Cubs fan, he wins two tickets to the World Series featuring the Chicago Cubs and
the California Angels. Eventually, the Dworksi and Barnes end up at the World
Series game at Anaheim Stadium.
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