TM - Episode 9: For Love of the Game

Lance and Mike take a look at the third movie in the Kevin Costner Baseball Trilogy, Sam Raimi's For Love of the Game.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the Nerd Polity. Welcometo Training Montage, the podcast on the
Nerd Party that talks about sports movies. I'm Lance, I'm Mike. We're

(00:28):
back again. We are we areback again. A few starts and stops,
you know, here and there,you know, but yeah, it
is what it is. There's somethingelse which is back. Uh huh.
Yeah. But baseball, baby,that was a big surprise to me.

(00:48):
It's the same because I thought,legit, I thought it was like,
you know what, we're not gonnahave baseball this season, Like we're just
not gonna have it. By theway the things were going and all the
reports that were coming out during thestrike, I was like, it's just
not gonna happen. And then itdid. Yeah. Yeah, I mean
it was really interesting when you lookedat like the breakdown of the votes and
everything, like all of the ownerswere like, yes, you know,

(01:11):
we agree to this. Yeah,and like for the players, they have
like the sort of like management,you know, and then they have like
one representative from each team, likeone player representative, and all thirty player
representatives voted to return, but alleight, i think of the management people

(01:34):
voted to not returning. So theplayers really wanted to play. But I
think the people looking at the longterm thing, we're like, this is
still not great, so we shallsee. But some interesting things, some
interesting rule changes. Yeah, someof those I'm not down with. Like
they like, I'm not down withthe runner being on second base during extra

(01:59):
innings. I'm not down with thatbecause like we like, because the extra
innings and like you know extra time, you know, rules that they already
had in place. We're already fairbecause both teams get to back, both
teams get to be on offense.It's not like football where there's like you
know, you know you can havethe whole play better defense. Um,
you know argument, which I thinkis also stupid. So um, it's

(02:22):
like I think it already worked.I think, you know, having somebody
on second base is it just changesthe game too much. I'm not I'm
not opposed to it because I mean, you know, like like Brandon McCarthy
has said, like the season's alreadyone hundred and sixty two games long,
Like it's statistically significant enough that likeif you have a tie, right,

(02:46):
you're still going to know who thebest team is at the end of the
year. See, now we can'thave ties, and that's that's fine,
But I do think that you cando things to shorten, you know,
the extra innings. I mean thatI'm okay with that. What I wasn't
okay with in which I'm glad they'rereturning to I was not okay with the
seven inning doubleheader rule. Oh okay. Yeah. I don't like that either.

(03:09):
That was dumb, I think formore than any other reason, because
it cheats the fans. Like youknow that they're going to do split doubleheaders
because they want people to buy ticketstwice. Yeah, and if you get
a ticket to that game, you'relosing out on two innings. They're cheating
you out of baseball. Yeah,fair, I agree. I agree.

(03:30):
So I'm glad that they're going backto the nine inning doubleheaders. Good.
Yeah. And the other thing whichI am really happy about is universal D
Well, that's cool, you know, universal DH just have some uniformity to
whatever. But also expanding the playoffs, you know, okaying an extra couple
of teams in there. See.I like the playoffs the way they are

(03:53):
as as like right now, likelike like for last year, I should
say, or sorry, more twoyears ago, like there was a wildcard
game, not a series, LikeI like the wildcard game, and then
I liked having like so a playinggame, and then you have your divisional
round LCS World Series. I likethat format, the wildcard round. It

(04:14):
didn't didn't bother me so much.It helped. It helped the Astros in
twenty twenty, the irony like theteam that nobody wanted to make the playoffs
and then like we ended up gettingthere because the MLB couldn't get the rules
together. I think that's hilarious.Um, keep trying to get us down,
but we keep coming up to thetop. Okay, open open that
letter, Manfred, open it up, Open it up, talk to all

(04:34):
that jump, open it up.You know. I'm I'm I like the
idea of more teams being in theplayoffs because I like the idea of the
season, even the regular season manneringmore something more. Yeah, everybody,
you know, I mean, howmany times have you just checked out because

(04:57):
your team hasn't been in contention?You know, I mean not for the
last five years. Yeah, I'mjust saying, oh, I know what
you mean though, Because the funnything is, though, like if this
were the case, though, thenyou know, for my team, and
for yours, we would have beenin the playoffs like every year for like
fifteen years right just by the way, by the way, things like if

(05:20):
if we had the rules as theyare for this upcoming season, we would
have been in the playoffs a lotof those years, like yeah, and
it wouldn't have these like long droughtsand stuff. And who knows, like
you know that maybe this will beone of those like you know, you
get hot at the right time typeof deal and like and you can make
a run as a lower seed.Maybe we'll see some of that and that

(05:42):
that could be exciting. Yeah,I mean everybody says that, you know,
hockey has the best playoffs, andthey do sports hockey in the NC
Double A Tournament, Yeah, theNC Double A Tournament. I mean basketball
follows the same exact well not anymore, but almost the same exact format as
as hockey. You know. Yeah, it's very clear, and it's like,
you know, I like the ideaof like the season ends. I

(06:04):
mean, you know, the basketballseason is ending this week. Yeah,
and yet we're still going to havebasketball until what July June. I mean,
that's pretty that's pretty cool, youknow for that you know, no
more sports maybe Yeah. Yeah.So to celebrate baseball returning, We've got

(06:29):
another baseball movie this week, wedo Yeah for Love of the Game Yeah,
apptly titled Yeah Yeah, aptly titleddirected by Sam Rami, director of
Spider Man and Spider Man two andDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
He's made a lot of you know, genre obviously, that's what he's known

(06:51):
for, right, Evil Dead andeverything like that, and you know,
it is kind of interesting. Iremember back in nineteen ninety nine, Universal
had to movies that summer slash Fallthat were sort of like in this sort
of scale, and one of themwas End of Days the Arnold Schwarzenegger,

(07:14):
Yeah, like Fights the Devil orsomething. I don't know what it was.
I don't even know if I eversaw it, to be honest.
And the other one was For Loveof the Game. And they went to
Sam Ramie, who they had agood relationship with. He had just made
The Quicken the Dead for them,which was awesome, and they said,
hey, you want to direct Endof Days and He's like, fine,

(07:36):
but what I really want to directis For Love of the Game because I'm
a huge baseball fan and They're like, yeah, well that's kind of weird,
but yeah, you're not the you'renot the sports guy. You're you're
the genre guy. Right, Buthe did it. They gave it to
him, and I think it wasfor that reason that I was like really
looking forward to this movie when itcame out. You know, like Sam

(07:59):
Rami, he does baseball, Like, what's that going to be? Like?
So, did did you see itwhen it first came out or did
you see it? I did?Yeah, I saw it when it first
came out. Um, mostly becauseI was I was excited for another Costner
sports movie. Yeah, that wasthe hook for me. That's all it's
up. Yeah, I mean thisis like the third in the trilogy,

(08:22):
although you could say there's four,right because there's uh, I forget the
name of it. But that moviewhere he's like the talk show host who
like used to be a baseball playeror something. I forget that. But
yeah, yeah, but I knowwhat you mean. Yeah, so that
one always gets that's always the forgotten. Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't very

(08:43):
good, but you know so soso did you like it when it first
came out? I did? Idid. I don't know why, um,
like, but but I did likeit, um, and then watching
it again, I was like,I like this movie. It was the
first time you had seen it since? No, because I watched it like

(09:05):
early in the pandemic because it waslike it was like on HBO yea.
But yeah, you know, yesterdaywas the first time I watched it,
you know, with more intent,and I was like, I like this
movie. Yeah, I like ittoo. I've liked it since since I
first saw it, um, youknow, when it came out, and

(09:28):
I mean I was a huge fanof it when it first came out.
I put it on my top tenlist for the year and everything. Really
part of it was just like thebaseball stuff. But I mean, I
think the thing about it which reallykind of struck me at the time was
just like I had never really seenbaseball presented like that in a movie before,

(09:50):
which which I don't. I mean, I don't think they were doing
anything revolutionary, but just like,you know, you could kind of like
feel the game from like the playyours perspective, right, I mean,
like when we're watching the games,you know, as they occur. Like
even though you know, like Foxand ESPN have mastered the art of the
close up and everything like that,it's still like a different thing because it's

(10:15):
like a telephoto lens. You're faraway and you know here, you know,
when you get the camera right upin someone's face, like as this
baseball stuff is happening, like,it really feels a lot more immersive.
It feels like you're you're there playingthe game in a sense. And I
think that's like the big thing thatSam Raimi brought to this. He didn't

(10:39):
get super crazy like he does withlike Evil Dead two or anything like that,
but he did subtle things which Ithought, you know, worked really
well. And you know, Ialso think that the love story works.
You know, I agree, it'spretty paint by numbers, but I think
it's effective. Yeah. I thinkthat's the That is the best way to

(11:01):
describe it. Yeah. I know, like at the time, like a
lot of people like hated this movie. You know. I mean I would
be like, oh, for loveof the Game is great, and everyone's
like, get out of here.That movie was crap, And you know,
I don't I don't agree with that. I do see it kind of
like being pieced together. There waslike a lot of weird stuff going on

(11:22):
behind the scenes. Like I mean, you can tell watching it that it
was supposed to be an R ratedmovie. They cut it down to PG.
Thirteen, Like when she's like,I don't screw like that and I
hate that word ye it's like youhate the word screw yea yeah, just
like things like that, you know. And and there was like a lot
of I mean, it was likeall over the press and everything, where

(11:45):
like Kevin Costner was really unhappy withthe way the movie turned out because like
there was like a thing where like, um apparently like there was a scene
where like you see his butt andthey cut out his butt, and he
was all mad that they cut outhis but on everything like that. And
and then then on the other hand, he wasn't as vocal, but Sam
Ramy, for whatever reason, he'slike it should be shorter, you know,

(12:09):
Like like Kevin Costner was like,there's like an extra you know,
ten fifteen minutes which belong in thismovie, whereas Sam Ramy was like,
I wanted to cut out like tenor fifteen minutes, you know. And
in the end is this this thingin the middle, which kind of I
think doesn't really know what it wantsto be, but I still think it

(12:31):
works yeah, Okay, that's neat. Yeah. The other thing that kind
of struck me about this movie isthe star power involved in this movie.
Right, there's a lot of bignames in this In this movie, I
mean obviously Costner, h Kelly Prestonwho I love rest in Peace, Kelly
Preston, m you know, Johnc Riley, Jena Malone, Brian Cox,

(12:54):
j K. Simmons. Then Scully'sin this movie for crying out loud,
right like Steve Yeah, so ohyou know it's just like like that's
that's a lot of heavy hitters forfor kind of this random movie, uh,
for people to be involved in.But but also at the same time,
like they weren't. I mean,there was Kevin Costner, and there

(13:18):
was Kelly Preston, right, butlike everybody else was kind of I mean
Brian Cox, you know, he'salways been around, right, but like
j K. Simmons, he hewas. I mean, this was the
second time that I had seen himin a movie. The first time was
uh in I think A Simple Plan, the other Sam Rami movie, like

(13:39):
the drama that he did like rightbefore this, and he wasn't like j
K. Simmons, he was justa guy who's Sam Ramie liked to put
in his movies. Yeah, andwhich is why he used to put him
in Spider Man. Yeah, exactly. It's a tradition that's continue Yeah,
and I mean I mean that hebecame you know, Jay Jonah Jaman and

(14:03):
it's like, but I like,I remember watching Spider Man thinking like,
oh, there's that guy from forLove of the Game, you know.
And John c Riley had been inBoogie Nights and he was just about to
be in Magnolia. But I thinkhe was a good guy Chicago that hadn't
come out yet. That's coming up, it's coming up. Yeah, but

(14:24):
he's like on the verge, right, But he's not. He's he's just
a good actor who you cast.And Jenna Malone obviously was pretty young at
the time too. She had beenin Contact, you know, and that
was about it. Yeah. Soin a lot of ways, actually very
similar to Um the Quicken the Dead, which had like Russell Crowe before anyone

(14:45):
knew who Russell Crowe was like,this movie had a bunch of people who
where you look at it now,you're like, oh my god. Yeah,
but at the time everyone was like, who are these people? I
don't know any of them are youknow? But that I mean that just
speaks to their talent, right,Yeah, you know, Sam Raimi is
like, let's get the best.Who cares if people know who they are

(15:07):
one day they will you know that'strue. That's true. Yeah, So,
um, where do you where doyou place this? I guess I
guess First off, where do youplace this in the Sam Raimi cannon?
Um? Third or fourth? Itdepends? It depends on my mood,
like I'd have to put this.I mean it's after Spider Man the first

(15:30):
two Spider Man for sure. Um. I had a Spider Man three of
course, of course. Um,and it and it's I guess, depends
on my mood whether it will bethird or fourth like it like it and
this end Army the Dead. Imean it's our evil evil dead just kind
of jockey for for third. Forme, I would say, um,

(15:54):
and then Spider Man three could befifth. But but yeah, I think
that's that's that's where I would putit. How about you? Yeah,
I would put it towards the top. I think it might be my number
one, you know, I do. I do really love Spider Man two,
and I do really love The Giftand the Quicken, The Dad.

(16:15):
You know, dark Man is fun. You know I love dark Man?
Yeah? Yeah, um, butyeah, I I this might be my
number one, which you know,I say to people more to get a
reaction on anything else, like SamRayby's best movie for Love of the Game.
But I also think it's probably true. I don't know. We'll see

(16:37):
how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse ofMadness. Uh it turns out it looks
good. Yeah, I agree,it's I think this is the first movie
he's made since the Oz movie.Really, I think so. Dang,
it's been a while. Okay,yeah, okay, So now part two.

(16:59):
Okay, where do you think thisranks in the Kevin Costner Baseball canon.
I still gotta go third and mostlybut just because I've seen and watched
Bull Durham and Field of Dreams more, Yeah, I've seen them more times.
I would say it's in a particularBull Durham because that's just that's a

(17:22):
personal favorite. I mean, forme, it's definitely number one, number
one. Okay, well, well, I know your affinity for for Field
of Trains, yeah, yeah,and Bull Durham is a movie which I've
seen a couple of times and haveenjoyed, but it's not something that i've
really I mean, I don't thinki've seen it in like twenty years at

(17:44):
this point. You Okay, soI need to go back and rewatch it,
but I can't see it topping forlove of the game. Yeah.
And the thing is, and it'sit's it's not a slight because like because
I still I still love this movie, but I just the other ones have
a better, better connection with me. I guess, better history, deeper

(18:06):
history. Yeah, yeah, itused to be my favorite baseball movie ever
until Moneyball came out. But whoa, whoa, you know, but there's
there are a number that I haven't, Like I have not seen The Natural.
You have not seen The Natural?No, you haven't. I know,

(18:29):
I need to watch it. Dang, I haven't seen the Natural.
I haven't seen Bang the drums slowlyokay, um? Yeah, but you
have seen Major League and you stillput this above major League. I cannot
stand Major League? What now?That's my favorite baseball movie and also the

(18:52):
best baseball movie. Yeah, Idon't know about that. I don't know.
Oh, I can't wait to dothat without this podcast. I just
I just watched that and I'm justlike, oh God, I cannot you
are you are? You are channelingthe the Rachel Phelps energy so hard right
now? That movie it's the firstR rated movie I ever saw. Yeah,

(19:18):
I think me too. Yeah,yeah, I don't know. Um,
well I just saw something I did. I think it was Brandon Shaemtala
said that he loves three. Yeah, hilarious. I've never seen three.
I've seen two. I've never seenthree. Yeah. Two is not good.
Okay, but it has the WhiteSox in it. But they made

(19:40):
them the bad guys. Why waseverybody making the White Sox the bad guys
in that time frame? You know, because it was in the outfield?
Had the White Soxes the bad game? Do you want the honest answer,
Yeah, it's because you're cheated,and like they had to make y'all like
you know, you know the villains, right you have? Like so you
haven't had to experience the venom likelike you know, like I have,

(20:02):
you know, in in in therecent years, right. So uh.
And the funny thing is y'all wony'all was the World Series No. Five
and people people kind of left y'allalone, right, Um? And well
it was like five years ago.That is there are still players on the
team. You know that is true. I did watch it. I did
watch a documentary UM a week ago. So like the shot heard around the

(20:22):
world about Bobby Thompson's home run uhfor the Giants that that won the pennant
in the in the fifties. UM. So part of that documentary that surprised
me was them talking about the Giantshaving a cheating scandal UM where they would
you know, steal signs from fromopposing players, and they were calling into

(20:44):
question, you know, the walkoff home run hit by Bobby Thompson,
arguably the most famous home run everhit in baseball history. Uh, they're
in they're calling the question, youknow, the validity of it due to
the fact that, uh, youknow, they think that like cheating was
going on. And I was like, that sounds very that sounds very familiar,
um and like there's a kind oflike Hell's Al TV. There's no

(21:06):
evidence support that Bobby Thompson was doingany of the cheating. His numbers don't
back it up any of those typesof things. I just wanted to say
that, but it kind of showsyou that, you know, you know,
sign sealing has been going on waylonger than than like the last you
know, five years or so.So educate themselves out there, people,
educate yourselves. And isn't that oneof the rule changes or something that they're

(21:29):
proposing. There was like something thatthey were going to do to combat science
stealing or make it easier for theYankees and Red Sox to do it and
not get taught. Yeah, Ican't. I can't remember what the rule
is, to be honest, butum, it's in the fine print.
They're going to protect them and they'regoing to continue to make us parias.
It's okay, that's okay, No, well yeah, yeah, I mean

(21:53):
Tom Brady like he cheats a lot. Yeah, and he's and he's universally
recognized as the goat. So y'allcould miss me with your holier than our
attitudes about the sanctity of the gameand cheating being bad. Yeah yeah,
I mean I have no problem withpeople, you know, given the Astros
a hard time for cheating. Butthe real reason why they give us because

(22:15):
a hard time it is because we'rewinning. Because we're whooping that behind is
what's happening. Okay, that's itright, all right, Well it'll be
interesting to see what happens this year. That season. It's right right around
the corner. I mean it's crazyto think. I mean, less less
than a week from today, people, we'll have baseball. We are so

(22:40):
excited and one hundred and sixty twogames. Who would have thought, I
know, right, we're actually goingto do it. Yeah, so okay
with all these rule changes, andspeaking of one hundred and sixty two games,
with all these rule changes, whatis your like baseball rule hot take
where you're you know, something whereit's like you know they're doing this or

(23:03):
they're not doing this and you thinkit should be the other way, or
you're cool with something that everybody hatesor whatever. What's your hot take for
baseball? Um replay and its use? Right, Like, I'm cool with
replay, but like we got tobe able to, like, if we're
going to replay certain things, right, we got to include balls and strikes.
So we got to do it becausesome of these umpires are atrocious,

(23:27):
atrocious and if we could review,if you could you could set a limit
on like how you could set alimit for it, right, Like for
if you want to for balls andstrikes, because we can't do it every
every pitch, right, because that'sthat that's the you know, that is
the the flood date door we don'twant opened. But if we're gonna have

(23:48):
replay for all these other things,we got to include balls and strikes.
Okay, all right, I um, I'm down with that, you know,
and I think robo I'm sure aroundthe corner, right, I mean,
yeah, people like xist then yeah, although Joe West retired and Angelandez
Angel Hernandez is still around exactly.Yeah, but yeah, I know,

(24:11):
I think we're gonna get reboomps nextyear. I really do. It.
Is will be crazy, and I'mall for it. I know people are
very very opposed to that, butI'm all for that. Yeah. Well
here's mine. I think the seasonshould only be eighty two games long.
Who I mean, think about it, like that's what they do for basketball,

(24:34):
that's what they do for hockey.You do that for baseball. For
one thing, I think most importantly, every game means more, right,
like I mean right now, likeI'm guessing, well maybe not at this
particular moment in time, but likeif Houston is playing basketball, you'll like

(24:59):
you'll be like, oh, theRockets are playing tonight yeah, I gotta
sit down and watch this. Ipretty much do that every time they play.
Yeah, right, But like withthe Astros, I mean not that
you won't watch it when it's whenyou're at home or whatever, but like
if you got tickets to see Morbous, you'll go see Morbous instead of staying
at home to watch the Astros.I don't know about that. Okay,

(25:22):
all right, okay, you canhave to give me a better movie than
Mors Sodic two. Now, yeah, I go see Sodic two, okay,
all right, okay, And Imean that's the thing. It's like,
you know, like like I livein an area which you know,
like right down the street there's likea strip where there's like tons of bars,

(25:45):
and you know, you'll see everyonein their black Hawk jerseys whenever the
Blackhawks are playing, and that happenseighty two times a year, but like
you never see anyone like if youare outside, like wearing your white Sox
jersey on a game day, peopleare like, oh, are you going
to the game today? You knowwhat you mean, It's like, let's

(26:07):
make these games more meaningful. Butalso you do that, you you know,
have more time between games. Playersare healthier. Okay, you generate
more discussion that way. Yeah,you don't. You don't have five starting
pitchers, you have like three.You know, the quality of the of

(26:29):
the play is better. Okay,I don't know. I just think it
would be better all the way.I would be much more invested in every
in every game than I am.And you know, one hundred and sixty
two games, now, that's interesting. That's interesting. I don't know.
I don't think they'll ever do itthough, No, there's too much television

(26:52):
money. Yeah, and I guessthe other question is, like, you
know, there's lots of times theplayers are like, we need the consistency,
we need to play every day inorder to stay in the groove or
whatever. But I don't know.So that's a lot of baseball. It
is a lot of baseball. It'sa marathon, not a sprint. Definitely
is it's about to start. Yeah, So, um with back going back

(27:19):
to the movie, so oh,I did find something very interesting. So
uh sports Sports Nation and like acouple other you know, outlets and stuff
from the Ringer. They're really coolabout this stuff, like they tried,
like they watched this movie and they'relike, well, Billy Chapple is supposed
to be this you know, alltime great first ballot Hall of Fame player.

(27:42):
So what was his career like?Because we're only seeing him at the
very end and we have a flashbackof him walking off the mound in eighty
four when they won the World Series. But who is this physical, like
fictional character, Like, what wouldhis stats have been like if they were
to if you know, he iswhat he they say he is. And
so somebody actually went through and madelike a like a chart like of all

(28:04):
of his like of like all thesedifferent stats. Uh. And so from
his career from nineteen eighty one tonineteen ninety nine, h he has U.
This is with via Sports Sports Nationsp nation. And so he has
two hundred eighty eight wins, onehundred eighty six losses. As he said,

(28:25):
UM, pitch forty one over fortyone hings, UM over three thousand
strikeouts U. Let's see complete games, one hundred and fifty nine thirty one
shutouts, H one random save,a whip of one point one two one
five and a career era of twopoint nine five UM. And then they're

(28:45):
they're thinking, like for awards forthis guy, like you know, because
you have to have some hardware aswell. So they figured he was Rookie
of the Year. Uh he hasone two, three, four, five,
six, seven, eighty nine AllStar Game appearances. Uh, one
to three cy youngs and then anMVP in the World Series season. Okay,

(29:07):
so all of that put together,I was like, Yeah, that
that sounds like a Hall of Famecareer pitcher that works. I like that.
That's good that they did. Theydid the work. They definitely did.
Um and because and like this wasdone done like last year and they
were thinking, I was like,well, what player kind of like currently
kind of fits the mold of aBilly chapel, like, you know,

(29:30):
like career um, career achievements,stats and that type of stuff. And
the player that came up with,you know who the player that came up
with was. Who's that former DetroitTiger and current Houston astro, the Duke
of Houston, Justin Verlander. Yeah. I can see that. Verlander makes

(29:51):
sense. Yeah, yeah, hedoes. Um. I wonder who it
would be if they, you know, did it based on that time period,
right, Yeah, that's the that'sthe that's the more interesting thing.
And I think, uh, andone thing I one one of the things
I was looking at, like kindof did that, and I think they
were thinking with Smoltz would have beena good comp but even though he kind

(30:14):
of went to the bullpen at thatpoint, so either either him or Glavin
probably. I'm just surprised that peopleare still talking about this movie, you
know, twenty two years later.But you know, that's cool. I'm
glad that they are, you know. You know, I was thinking about
this the other day, you know, and it applies to this movie too,

(30:36):
but um, you know, withlike the unbearable weight of massive talent
coming out, you know, there'sa lot of Nicholas Cage talk these days.
And some guy wrote a book onNicolas Cage and one of the theaters
here in Chicago did a Nicolas Cagedouble feature to like sell this book.
And the movies that they picked wereRaising Arizona and let's see Ghostwriter, Spirit

(31:00):
Avengeance. You know, I mean, we could talk about Ghostwriter Spirit Avengeance.
That movie is amazing, you know, the first one is horrendously bad
almost But I was just thinking theother day, like I need to rewatch
Spirit Avengeance because that movie is insane. I love it so much. But

(31:21):
no, they didn't pick either ofthose movies. They picked Face Off,
which is like okay, And thenthe first one that they showed was match
stick Men, And I'm like,why stick Yeah, you know, and
you could tell, like because thewriter got up there to introduce it and

(31:42):
you could tell like this was afavorite of his or whatever, even though
he's like, the reason why Ichose it was because his portrayal, you
know, this character is really differentfrom what most people would have done with
it. Blah blah blah. Andit's like, okay, but still it's
match stick Men, right, yeah, And you know, I like,
I remember when match stick Men cameout, you know, and I showed
it and everything, and I rememberlike at the time, and I'm sure

(32:05):
if you go back and look atthe box office, it was a huge
success. Like match stick Men wasthe biggest movie in the world for like
a week, you know. Yeah, like it had its moment to shine.
Like if you were to play,you know, have a movie theater
which is playing Face Off on onescreen and Match stick Men on the other
screen, there'd be five people tosee Face Off and two hundred people to

(32:30):
see match stick Men, right,And that's just like and and I just
there's something about it. Like Iwas watching this print from you know,
two thousand and two or whatever,it was two thousand and three, and
I'm like, you know, it'spristine because no one's played it since.
But for you know, like aweek back in two thousand and three,
this was a really hot commodity.And I feel the same way about For

(32:58):
Love of the Game in a senseyou know where it's like, I mean,
like I remember running it. Wehad a sneak preview of the movie,
you know, the week before itcame out, and it sold out
like everybody wanted to see For Loveof the Game, and you know,
a week later it was gone.And it's like, it's just I don't
know, it's just a weird,a weird little thing that I was thinking

(33:20):
about. But I think it appliesto For Love of the Game. I
still, you know, now,if I were to try, like showing
For Love of the Game in thetheater, no one would show up.
Yeah, And it's it's it's thatyeah. Yeah. But also they I
mean not to sound like old,but they don't make movies like this anymore,
like a story, not really likein like a love story like this

(33:47):
where it's just like two adults,you know, doing their things. I
mean, there was a market forit back then. Now people just don't
don't come to see things like that, don't. I mean, well they
don't. Well, they make Iguess that's that's right in the sense because
they make other things that have adultsand then love stories featuring adults rather than

(34:08):
like kids and stuff. Um,it still happens. Not to the same
extent that it was you know inthe nineties, that's for sure, but
it still happens, I guess alittle bit. I think most of those
end up on like streaming services orwhatever. Right, yeah, I mean
they're still getting made, I guessso. But yeah, I don't know.

(34:30):
It's kind of disappointing. You knowone other thing about the movie.
You know, it's based on abook by Michael Shara, that's the dude's
name. He wrote, um,what is it? Killer Angels, which
was the uh the book that Gettysburgwas based on. Oh okay, And

(34:52):
and you actually see him reading acopy of that book in in the movie,
right, yes, But like theguy wrote the book and never released
it, never told anyone about it, and after he died. His son
was like clearing out his desk andhe found the book sitting in his dad's

(35:12):
desk and was like, oh wow, look at this. So he you
know, his dad wrote a wholebook that never got published. Yeah,
so so they published it and thenyou know, turn it in the movie
and everything. But um, inthe book, like it takes place a
Yankee stadium, right, like that'sconsistent and everything. But the team that
he plays for is a fictional teamcalled the Atlanta Hawks, which is an

(35:37):
interesting choice but whatever, but whatever. They're very much real, yes they
are, but they don't play baseballthat often. No, but that'd be
funny watching Trey try to play baseballthough. Yeah, yeah, that'd be
good. That'd be good. Butso so for when they were making the
movie, they were like, okay, well we need to change that.

(35:58):
If we're going to have the Yankees, you got to have a real another
baseball team. It's like, whatwhat team do you do? And Sam
Raimi, having grown up in Michigan, was like, it's gotta be the
Tigers. Gotta be the Tigers,man. Yep, yeah, so that's
why it's the Tigers. Okay,Yeah, good to know. Okay,
with that. Okay, that works, Yeah, that works. How many

(36:22):
movies have the Tigers been in?Do you know? Uh, like have
they like we're there like the featuredteam and something. Can't be that many.
I mean most teams don't have that, right, Yeah, the White
Sox do. The Cubs due tothe Astros not yet, We're gonna be
like, We're gonna be like youknow, the Monstars and whatever. I'm

(36:45):
coming the thing that comes out.Um, the Twins have something that little
big league. Um, Yankees obviously, Yankees are in pretty much in everything.
The Angels have have obviously a famousone. H Um. Yeah,
I think that's it because the youknow, the Natural is a fictional team,

(37:06):
the Knights. Uh and technically that'sa that's that's the part of the
DC universe because the Gotham Knights arethe baseball team and Gotham that's true.
They are, Yeah, and um, well they don't they don't have I
mean, I mean I was justtrying to think of other Uh well,
the Durham Bulls their minor league teams. Yeah, and they are real.

(37:29):
Yes, Yeah, I've seen theirstadium. Yeah, I have two.
I didn't see a game there,but I saw the stadium when I was
a kid. Yeah, yeah,yeah, well, um, they just
need to make more oh the OaklandAthletics of course, of course. Yeah,
yeah, they need to just makemore baseball movies. I think that's

(37:51):
all there is to it. Yeah, I mean I think they're gonna so
yeah. Baseball is a good vehiclefor storytelling. So yeah, so I
think it works right. Well.Any more thoughts on for love of the
game. Oh no, just again, it's I don't know, not like

(38:13):
it's a good movie. I'm notexactly sure what it is that keeps the
hold on me that I'm like,yeah, I love this movie, but
it just has that quality to it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I
probably like it more than I should, but I do. I do love
it, you know, And Ithink a big part of it is just
not even so much the portrayal ofbaseball on screen, which I think is

(38:36):
good, but also the portrayal oflike the life of a baseball player,
right yeah, which I think Moneyballhas kind of bested it in all of
these things, you know, sincethen, But at the time, I
can't think of anything that quite capturedthat, you know, yeah, in
that particular way. Yeah, it'sa good movie. Check it out for

(38:57):
sure. All right, So,Lance, where can people find you on
the Internet. They can find meat Sir Lance Laster on all of my
social media's and you can also findme over on the Nerd Party talking about
all the things that make Arrow Arrowon Always Hold on the Arrow. And
you can find us on Twitter atDo Not Fail Our Pod. You can

(39:21):
find me on Twitter and letterboxed atMumbles three k, and you can also
find me on my website, filmdamagepod dot com doing a show called film
Damage, which we haven't done ina while. But oh my god.
Star Trek Picard has been all abouttime travel this season, and as much
as they've tried to say, likelook, guys, it does make sense,

(39:44):
boy, it does not make anysense. So we're gonna have to
talk about that very soon. Sowatch for that in the not too distant
future. And if you're at theStar Trek Mission Chicago thing, keep an
eye out for someone in a whiteSox jersey. It's probably me. All

(40:07):
right, Well, that's it forthis week. We'll be back. I
don't know what we're gonna be talkingabout. Hope we do something out it'll
be something good. Yeah, yeah, all right until then clear the mechanism.

(40:32):
Join the Revolution, Join the NerdParty,