Director: Ron Shelton
Year Released: 1988
Rating: 2.5
Can't say I bought it, to be honest: film tries to meld (for commercial purposes) sexuality with baseball - results so-so. Susan Sarandon is a baseball fan (and unlikely intellectual - she name-drops Susan Sontag!) who, every year, seduces one player on the minor league team, "The Durham Bulls," and, because of her advice and loving, that player usually goes on to have a career year (and maybe a trip to the big leagues). This year, she's with goofy, immature Tim Robbins (overdoing it), who has a cannon of an arm but serious location problems (he continuously pegs the mascot), but when calm, cool, collected Kevin Costner shows up, her eyes start to dazzle (Costner plays hard-to-get). Equal parts drama and comedy ensue - Robbins tries to ham it up, Costner starts to feel the pangs of old age and the end of his career, though Shelton's screenplay (more interested in one-liners than depth) is not quite meaty enough to be anything more than light entertainment. Costner (the father) and Robbins (the "young" protégé) fight over Sarandon, the mother figure, creating a classic Oedipal conflict - in the end, Robbins matures some (it's never clear how) and Costner winds up rolling around with Sue on the floor. Mercifully, it's not as stupid as Major League, which was obviously influenced by it.
