For Love of the Game

"Write a review of your favorite sports movie."

The answer came at me like a Nolan Ryan fastball...Bull Durham.

I love baseball and Bull Durham is not only a great baseball movie, it's a great movie. Funny, philosophical and full of baseball...what's not to love? In fact, Bull has been rated the number one greatest sports movie of all time by Sports Illustrated.

So why did I have second thoughts?

I'm not really sure, but the longer I thought about it the more candidates came to mind.

For example;

Rocky, even though I'm not a boxing fan, it's still a great movie.

The Longest Yard (the original with Burt Reynolds), another classic.

Slapshot, maybe not a "great movie" but still one of my favorites because it's funny as hell.

The possibilities are nearly endless.

So what did I decide on, you ask?

Believe it or not I almost picked Mystery, Alaska because it too, is a fantastic movie, sort of a cross between Rocky and Slapshot.

However, after great internal debate, I went with the other Kevin Costner baseball movie.

No, not Field of Dreams, although it was a close call...

My favorite sports movie is For Love of the Game.

It's the story of aging Detroit Tigers' pitcher Billy Chapel (Costner) who is pitching in what could be the last game of a brilliant career while simultaneously trying to reconcile some major life issues. Namely, the recent news from girlfriend Jane (Kelly Preston) that she is leaving him.

Chapel is so deep in thought about what is important in his life off of the field that he isn't aware of what he's doing on the field, that being pitching a perfect game. For the uninitiated out there, a perfect game is about as rare as a Chicago Cubs World Series Title. Since 1900 there have been only 16 (perfect games, not Cubbie championships) out of approximately 400,000 games played.

This movie has all the right stuff. Excellent writing as well as outstanding performances from Costner and Preston, not to mention John C. Reilly's great role as Chapel's catcher, Gus.

I don't know how movies are made or who decides what the final product will look like, but whoever that person is did a fantastic job blending the "real time" action of Chapel's game with the flashbacks about his life and the events leading up to Jane's departure.

The melding of a live baseball game, complete with play-by-play legend Curt Gowdy calling the shots, and Chapel's flashbacks is done so seamlessly that it feels like you're watching a movie on one channel and a game on another while flipping back and forth between the two. And the beauty of it is that you don't miss anything important on either channel, how often does that happen?

This makes the movie enjoyable for people who don't even like baseball (if there are any).

Aside from the script, acting and editing, this movie does something that Bull Durham doesn't do, it puts things into perspective.

For most of his career, Chapel had always put "The Game" before all else, many times unknowingly hurting the ones he loved in the process. It wasn't until Jane announced that she was taking a job in London that he realized there are things more important than baseball (say it ain't so).

I think this is important whether you're a million-dollar athlete or a minimum wage dishwasher.

Yes, it's important to have a good job and to be dedicated to it, but many people lose sight of the fact that their job is merely something that provides the means to enjoy their life, not vice-versa

Like they say...You never hear of a 96 year-old man lying on his death-bed saying "I should have spent more time at the office."

A very poignant moment in the movie, for me anyway, comes when Chapel autographs a baseball for the team's owner (who is also retiring and selling the team). On the ball he tells his long time friend that he is retiring "for love of the game."

I've watched this movie many times and it never fails to "get to me" and I don't see myself ever getting tired of it.

I suppose I was predisposed to pick a baseball movie since I am a huge baseball fan, but it was not easy selecting this one over Bull Durham or Field of Dreams, they're all outstanding movies and I would watch any one of them at anytime...if for no other reason than For Love of the Game.