posted
This movie is definetely moving up my list of all time favorites.
As longer time posters know, I'm a huge baseball fan. What many don't know is that when I was younger, I probably had a shot at playing minor league ball for a while. I stopped playing organized baseball after 9th grade, when my fastball was just starting to blossom. I'm pretty sure that I could have played a year or two low minors after high school had I continued to pitch. Which only matters because, every now and then, I regret not having tried to develop myself into a better ballplayer. I think it would have been great for me to spend two seasons on a bus going around the country staying in crummy hotels playing a game I love dearly.
Anyrate, one of the lines I love from the movie is, Keven Costner's character says something along the lines of "If you give your all, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose." Which, for a pitcher, is something you have to buy into completely. You can be roger clemens, and you'll lose 150 times in your career. Thats a LOT of times to go out there, and be told "you lost today." Its not like football, where the quarterback can say "Well, I had a good game, but we made some mistakes, and they beat us." As a pitcher, 95% of the mistakes that happen that hurt your team are your own mistakes. If you are a relief pitcher, that is often magnified. A lot of potentially great pitchers had their careers shortened because they couldn't deal with the losses. Ralph Branca comes to mind for a famous example.
Anyrate, I think the philosophy that this line expresses is true. I think that, in life, if you give your best, if you do all you can, you have to know it in your heart and mind. Other people will still tell you "You stink." But if you let that effect you, you won't be able to live with yourself. You have to be able to seperate what is possible from what is not, and that means knowing that you have to be able to live with your limitations. I'm NEVER going to be able to sweep a woman off her feet with clever, witty, romantic lines on the spur of the moment. Its not what I do. I will never be a great statesman. I get emotional too quickly. On the other hand, my home will always be full of good homecooked healthy food. I ENJOY putting out a balanced meal, and I'm good at it. I make people laugh... I'm not the wittiest man alive by any means, but I enjoy making myself look amusing, and making life look amusing, to the people around me. I've got my talents that I do well, and those that are beyond me. And I try to remember "I did all that I can in this situation," when I DID do all I can. When I didn't, well, thats when I need to work on improving my self, rather then improving a talent or ability.
Anyrate, great movie, for more reasons then this one. I think it perfectly blends baseball with a romance story. Two things I love in life are baseball and women, and one day, I'll find a special woman to share my life with. And when I do, I'm not going to try to be Prince Charming. Rather, I'm going to try to be a charming, kind, caring man, because thats what I can do. And, hopefully, I'll raise a child or two who understands the perfect beauty of a man with a sphere standing 60'6" from a man with a long wooden stick, and the struggle that takes place between those two men.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I have to agree. I thought it was a great movie, but the people I was with did not like it. But I like pretty much every baseball movie I've ever seen.
Have you seen 61*? It's gotta be the best baseball movie of all time.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I've been meaning to see this one. I'm not always a big fan of Costner, but he's at his best in sports films. Just look at Bull Durham and Field of Dreams (OK, that's less of a sports movie, but baseball is still central.) In general, I tend to like movies about sports or with a sports theme (Happy Gilmore, Tin Cup, Any Given Sunday, The Replacements, The Best of Times, The Sandlot, A League of Their Own, among others), but there's something about baseball movies that are so much more than just sports movies. Movies about baseball are movies about America, and I think that's what attracts me to them.
Posts: 4534 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
For the Love of the Game had me in tears. That movie displayed so much tumultuous passion, so struck a nerve, that I was crying my eyes out by the end.
Posts: 5600 | Registered: Jul 2001
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