Baseball Movies - Part 2

From the Seats, October 23, 2004

MINNEAPOLIS - Today I will talk about For Love of the Game, WARNING, this might contain spoilers to those who have not yet seen this movie.

For Love of the Game is a movie about a ballplayer, Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner) who has been with the Detroit Tigers for 19 years. At the start of the movie he is waiting to have dinner with his on-again, off-again girlfriend Jane (Kelly Preston) who never shows up until the morning to tell him she is leaving for England.

This all happens on the last day of the season and Billy Chapel has to pitch. My first question in this movie is, if this is the last day of the season why did the Tigers just get in town? They would have been there for the series. Maybe they were and we did not see it, I dont know, but I get the impression that they just got in town and he is going to pitch the last game of the year.

It also happens to be that if the Yankees win, they clinch. I forgot to mention, before breaking up with his girlfriend the owner of the team tells Chapel that he has sold the team and Chapel will be traded to the Giants, something that is hard for a 19 year veteran of the Tigers.

Steve Lyons and Vin Scully work the broadcast booth for Fox. This gives it a very real feel right off the back, real, good sounding broadcasters help the movie and its realism.

Another huge part of the movie that really made it realistic was the umpire choice. The home, 1st, and 2nd base umpire's are real MLB umpires. Rick Reed is still an active ump and in the movie was the home plate ump that played a large roll in the movie. Rich Garcia was the first place ump and might end up on a lot of O's fans "umpire black list" since he is looked at as possibly blowing the game for the O's. In the movie he had a roll of making close calls and having the Yankees argue with him. Jerry Crawford was the second base ump and didnt have that big of a role in the movie. Crawford and Garcia, according to MLB's web site are no longer MLB umps.

Billy Chapel shows up to the game and is in the zone. Things are on this day and he doesnt hear or see anything other than the batter and his catcher. Chapel is not thinking about the game though.

Throughout the movie Chapel thinks about the 5 year relationship with Jane. The good, the bad and the ugly that they went through together. The last 5 years is what we see during the game, to see where Jane and Billy have been and why things are the way they are for them.

As the game progresses we see more and more of it and are brought to present time with their relationship and are shown what they are currently doing. Billy Chapel gets through 6 innings of perfect baseball very easily, at least what we are shown. Than on a pitch in the 7th Chapel does something to his arm.

From that moment on he needs the help of his team mates, and of course they give it to him, with some of the best defense in the league. It does make you wonder how in the world is this Detroit team so bad? If it were not for the real Tigers people might question that. There are times that the real Tigers put on a nice display of good defense, so I think it is safe to assume that the bullpen and offense, they after all did only score 1 run, are to blame for how the team is doing.

With the real broadcasters and music selection it gives a sense of drama, that you as the viewer are not sure what will happen. There are movies now days that dont end like you might want them to, or think they should. When I first saw this the idea that he might not get the perfecto did enter my mind.

The fact that I can watch this movie 1-2 times a year and still get that feeling like it is a real game says something about how this movie was done.

The only downside to it has to be there is to much of a love story. Which is not bad, but more baseball might be better. Overall, nice job on the move, and who cant like that the perfect game was against the Yankees! I would rate this 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.