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The Rewatchables ·

The Natural

year 1984decade 80sdirector Barry Levinsongenre Sportsgenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Mallory Rubin
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 31:04

The walk-off home run

Hobbs versus the Whammer is fantastic; Joe Don Baker is the best Hollywood Babe Ruth, with the size, nose, gut and swagger, compared favorably to John Goodman; the scene dates to 1923, Ruth's 14-WAR MVP season, and both hosts prefer the Whammer as a cover rather than naming Babe Ruth, partly because a lefty would have been needed.

The foul tip taking out Duval (as transcribed), or rather the poor old catcher, with nobody wearing masks is noted, and Duval backing up twenty paces, to the Whammer's protest about how he will call it from there, is a classic moment.

The film

The Natural (1984)

Directed by Barry Levinson · Sports

138 minutes

IMDb
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Robert Redford Roy Hobbs
Robert Redford Roy Hobbs Paul Sullivan Jr. as Young Roy Hobbs
Robert Duvall Max Mercy
Glenn Close Iris Gaines
Kim Basinger Memo Paris
Wilford Brimley Populus "Pop" Fisher
Barbara Hershey Harriet Bird
Robert Prosky The Judge
Richard Farnsworth "Red" Blow
Joe Don Baker "The Whammer"
Michael Madsen Bartholomew "Bump" Bailey
John Finnegan Sam Simpson
Jon Van Ness John Olsen

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

18:07

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:07Read transcript
  • Ebert gave the film two stars and asked why they did not just make a baseball picture and why The Natural had to be turned into idolatry; the hosts stumble over pronouncing the word.
  • The critique is called a bad one: idolatry is part of baseball fandom, especially for a kid picking a favorite player, since hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in sports and the game is a myth-making machine; Philip Roth's Great American Novel and Bull Durham's existential dread are cited, and the corniness is part of the fun.
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31:04

Most Rewatchable Scene

The walk-off home run; Hobbs showing up for the final game while Brimley shaves

The walk-off home run; Hobbs showing up for the final game while Brimley shaves

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:04Read transcript
  • Hobbs versus the Whammer is fantastic; Joe Don Baker is the best Hollywood Babe Ruth, with the size, nose, gut and swagger, compared favorably to John Goodman; the scene dates to 1923, Ruth's 14-WAR MVP season, and both hosts prefer the Whammer as a cover rather than naming Babe Ruth, partly because a lefty would have been needed.
  • The foul tip taking out Duval (as transcribed), or rather the poor old catcher, with nobody wearing masks is noted, and Duval backing up twenty paces, to the Whammer's protest about how he will call it from there, is a classic moment.
  • Hobbs' first batting practice, with the Wonderboy clip played, is wonderful for three reasons: the sheer spectacle like Josh Hamilton in a home run derby, Brimley guzzling the filthy water he had complained about, and the 'I've been here every day' line that shows Roy is kind of a dick, entitled and owed something; Redford's swing was modeled on Ted Williams per the Roger Angel New Yorker piece (as transcribed), and he and Costner both looked like ballplayers.
  • Roy storming out of the meeting, deflowering Iris and immediately falling for the bad-luck niece after Pop's warning, then slumping, shows poor judgment with women and no understanding of birth control, which is excused as 1923.
  • Third on one list is Hobbs' first at bat, tearing the cover off the ball as the rain comes at the perfect time; the 'is this team alive' exchange between Red and Pop captures the rhythms of a baseball season when a team gets hot; Roy's batting-practice pitch and Max Mercy sprinting from his seat raise whether he could still pitch with the bullet in his side, answered with pain tolerance and no Toradol.
  • Other nominees: the lady in white scene with Glenn Close standing up, Hobbs' homer breaking the Wrigley Field clock, which did not exist until two years later, Brimley crossing Hobbs out of the lineup, Roy's last at bat, and the lightning bolt splitting the tree to forge Wonderboy, with the glowing stump called good special effects for 1984.
  • The 'losing is a disease' speech, comparing losing to syphilis and the bubonic plague, is hilarious, and the newspaper headline montages are praised for propelling the pace like Twitter or push notifications, though that is ruled to belong in what's aged the best.
  • One pick is the walk-off homer, the greatest chill scene of any sports movie, except perhaps Rocky getting up in the 14th round of Rocky 1; everything leading up to it, breaking Wonder Boy and 'pick me a winner, Bobby' with the Savoy special, is iconic.
  • The other pick, after 35 years of watching, is Hobbs showing up for the final game while Brimley shaves, with the 'suit up' clip played twice; a dad who calls whenever it is on to quote 'you're the best damn hitter I ever saw' is recalled.
  • Wilford Brimley's chest hair in that scene, and every scene, is like a forest, a peninsula, a platypus bill, a pelt; the hosts wonder how he does not trim it, whether it is a masculine calling card and whether he is still alive at 84.
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45:11

What’s Aged the Best?

Red and Pop (Farnsworth and Brimley), or the Randy Newman score

Red and Pop (Farnsworth and Brimley), or the Randy Newman score

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:11Read transcript
  • The incredible cast: three Oscar winners in Redford, Duvall and Basinger, nominees Glenn Close, Barbara Hershey and Richard Farnsworth, plus Robert Prosky, Michael Madsen and Joe Don Baker; Madsen was never one host's thing, though a college friend stuck by him through his problems and still mourns Bump.
  • Basinger is in the final eight of a most-beautiful-woman-in-a-movie bracket, and her constant lip licking raises whether it is deliberate or just her essence; Diane Lane in Unfaithful is a similar case.
  • Brimley and Farnsworth as Pop and Red are perfect and some of the best stuff in the movie; it is sobering that Brimley was the same age as one host is now yet seems 78, and only about two years older than Redford in real life.
  • Hobbs played semi-pro ball for the Hebrew Oilers, prompting a hunt for t-shirts on Cafe Press or Redbubble; the Randy Newman score was Oscar-nominated, is instantly associated with the film, and gets yanked for NBA and World Series montages.
  • Basinger is named again, with a nod to Alec Baldwin and their handsome couple; Max Mercy, who never played sports but makes it more fun to watch, is a model for sports media, and the hosts imagine him resisting digital media at the New York Daily News, still drawing cartoons, before being wooed by Sirius for Mad Dog Radio or a podcast.
  • John Rhodes, the Pittsburgh lefty who is a Roy Hobbs spitting image with a good throwing motion, is great casting, and the slow-motion shot of the guys flying out of the dugout after the homer is an all-time favorite.
  • Roy Hobbs is a three-true-outcomes player for the modern era, homering, striking out or walking, like 2003 Bonds or a nine-WAR player with a 184 wRC+, though his defensive value would be poor since he is slow and unwieldy and his side hurts every time he reaches for a ball.
  • The old-school baseball fashion and aesthetics, especially the Cubs uniforms, have aged wonderfully, even though the heavy fire-retardant uniforms look as warm as wildling furs.
  • Iris as an independent spirit and trailblazing feminist: Roy gets her pregnant in the barn, proposes romantic bullshit and never returns, and she raises the boy alone in Chicago with a nice apartment, a job and a drugstore where they know her name, can get an usher to deliver a note, and still gets the guy at the end.
  • The final pick is Red and Pop, with a wish for 30 minutes of deleted dugout ad-libs or a mic'd-up game, or else the iconic score.
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55:17

What’s Aged the Worst?

Robert Redford's age playing the teenage Roy Hobbs in the first 20 minutes

Robert Redford's age playing the teenage Roy Hobbs in the first 20 minutes

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:17Read transcript
  • Redford should not be in the first 20 minutes: he and Glenn Close are 20 years older than their characters, the weird lighting does not hide it, the train shots of young and older Roy look identical, and the Pittsburgh lefty or the boy who plays his son could have been 18-year-old Roy.
  • Nothing is worse than someone who cannot throw in a baseball movie: Roy's son is in the finals with Costner's dad in Field of Dreams for worst throwing motion, Tim Robbins gets a half pass for a torn rotator cuff, and the kid carries his glove around the living room yet cannot throw or catch.
  • Bump Bailey dying by running through a wall is ludicrous, recalling Fred Lynn hitting the Fenway wall in the 1975 World Series before padding went up; the death is explained by the Greek mythology and the need to remove him from Memo, plays 100% comedic with the ashes scattering, and Roy shows no emotional response.
  • Women are either destroyers or saviors, like the current Damien Chazelle experience; the Iris and Hobbs scenes are awkward and stilted with little chemistry, while he has more chemistry with Memo, with whom he has sex in a glass phone booth in a hotel lobby.
  • The stretch from the poisoning to 'suit up' is about 20 minutes of maternity ward with no mystery that Roy will play, like the hospital flaw in Rocky 2; it could be done in 10 minutes.
  • Nobody can figure out who Roy is without baseball reference or the internet, even though he was in an attempted murder and suicide with three other murders and Max, who prides himself on encyclopedic knowledge, literally met him; the same actor playing both ages makes it worse.
  • Ballpark security letting the note through, the ball and strike calls with no pitch framing, and the complete lack of diversity, set before Jackie Robinson, are also raised; one host asks why the 1984 film had to be set in 1939 rather than moved forward, the other likes the railroads and the Shoeless Joe hangover.
  • The final pick is how old Robert Redford is, with the son's throwing motion a good second, and the other host agrees Redford is too old for the first 20 minutes.
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1:04:19

Casting What-Ifs

None found

None found

Approx. transcript time · 01:04:19Read transcript
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1:04:19

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Darren McGavin as Gus Sands

Darren McGavin as Gus Sands

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:19Read transcript
  • Madsen is wanted but not getting it; Bobby the Batboy is the first pick.
  • Gus, played by the uncredited Darren McGavin, is going for it every time, and both hosts agree Gus is the better choice, partly because it leads into internet research; he was also a candidate for the Saul Rubinick overacting award (as transcribed).
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1:05:10

Half-Assed Internet Research

Darren McGavin went uncredited over billing; Randy Newman's theme; the clock homer was inspired by Bama Roel of the B...

Darren McGavin went uncredited over billing; Randy Newman's theme; the clock homer was inspired by Bama Roel of the Braves; a six-minute-longer director's cut; the 'little boy in you' quote was Ray Campanella's; filmed at Buffalo's War Memorial Stadium; the Parkside Candy Store is real; 3,000 extras at $3.35 an hour plus cardboard cutouts; no one has hit the cover off a ball; the Savoy Special bat is at Cooperstown; Hobbs modeled on Ted Williams; the 1939 Pirates went 68-85; Bret Hart's catchphrase; the halo shot was real; Bobby the Batboy was found at a produce stand; Levinson voiced the radio announcer; the $20,000 bribe is $366,000 today

In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:10Read transcript
  • Darren McGavin was cast late and would have received lesser billing than the other stars, so he chose to go uncredited; the hosts call it idiotic pride over practicality, since his IMDB is Love Boat, Fantasy Island and Rockford Files.
  • Randy Newman wrote the theme, the I Love L.A. guy whose song lives on at Laker games; Hobbs breaking the scoreboard clock was inspired by Bama Roel (as transcribed) of the Boston Braves showering Dixie Walker with glass at Ebbets Field on May 30, 1946, and the Wrigley clock was not introduced until 1941.
  • A director's cut six minutes longer trims the Redford and Close opening and adds Bump Bailey and Gus scenes; one host would not have minded more Bump given his sudden death and the Memo factor; a tangent on Bump as a nickname lands on calling Jason Gallagher Bump.
  • Roy's line that a big leaguer needs a lot of little boy in him was a Ray Campanella (as transcribed) quote; the film was shot in Buffalo at War Memorial Stadium, built in 1937 and demolished in 1988, whose short right field limited wide shots, and TriStar spent $500,000 aging it; the hosts protest the demolition and note Buffalo was good enough for the film but not Antonio Brown.
  • The lemonade shop where Glenn Close takes Roy is the real Parkside Candy Store at 3208 Main Street in Buffalo, serving ice cream, homemade candy and sandwiches; this leads to a wife who judges places by their signs and an old-school milkshake spot near Pasadena.
  • About 3,000 extras were recruited at the $3.35 minimum wage and cardboard people in straw boater hats filled the rest of the stands; the Hall of Fame has no record of anyone hitting the cover off a ball; the Savoy Special was a 1930s beer brand, and the bat and the bloody uniform are at Cooperstown.
  • Whether Roy would really bleed through a 20-pound fire-retardant uniform is parked for a later category; Hobbs was loosely modeled on Ted Williams, lefty number nine, who wanted to be the greatest hitter who ever lived.
  • The real 1939 Pirates finished 68-85 and the Reds won the pennant at 97-57; Brett the Hitman Heart (as transcribed) took 'the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be' from this movie; the Glenn Close halo shot was timed to the setting sun, not CGI.
  • Bobby the Batboy was played by George Wilcoz (as transcribed), discovered at his parents' produce stand in Buffalo for his only movie, and he lingers two seconds too long after handing Roy the bat; Ruth Ann Steinhagen inspired Harriet; Barry Levinson did uncredited voice work as the Knights' radio play-by-play man.
  • The $20,000 bribe is about $366,000 in today's money; the hosts wonder what a stake in a 1939 team was worth to justify bribing everybody in sight, guessing the gambling money was worth nearly as much since there was no TV money.
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1:15:17

Apex Mountain

No affirmative selection

No affirmative selection

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:17Read transcript
  • Redford, Glenn Close and Duval (as transcribed) are all no, and it might be no one; Darren McGavin might have been at his apex here if he had been credited.
  • A small case for Kim Basinger is rejected since LA Confidential, where she was nominated and the hosts are unsure whether she won, came at the tail end of her career, although this film moved her career to the next level.
  • A case is made for Brimley, which would stab Chris Ryan through the heart given The Firm; the hosts settle jokingly on his chest hair being an Apex Mountain.
  • Screenwriter Roger Towne is floated and met with 'didn't do much else', drawing only a 'sure, that was the best I could do'; Batboy Bobby is floated as a joke; Levinson's apex is Rain Man or Diner, and Redford's was judged All the President's Men in that earlier episode, though he won a directing Oscar for Ordinary People.
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1:17:43

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Darren McGavin

Darren McGavin

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:43Read transcript
  • Darren McGavin, already discussed, is one of those guys: very recognizable, though one host never knew his name, which is his own fault for going uncredited.
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1:17:43

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Kim Basinger

Kim Basinger

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:43Read transcript
  • Madsen is one host's first instinct: over the top, with no clear character, and kind of a dumbass.
  • A case can be made for literally everyone in the movie, but especially Kim Basinger as Memo, deliberately over the top since the character went to Hollywood to be a starlet and performs for whoever she is with, raising whether Gus, Roy or anyone sees her true self; Prosky as the judge, with the lamp going on, is also loved.
  • Basinger is agreed as a good one, with bad acting in the scene where she tries to shoot Roy, and both hosts land on her.
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1:19:03

Picking Nits

The Wrigley clock and national anthem anachronisms; Hobbs never asks how old Iris's son is; Fowler's three-hitter thr...

The Wrigley clock and national anthem anachronisms; Hobbs never asks how old Iris's son is; Fowler's three-hitter throw job; gibberish newspaper copy and shifting dates; Roy's silver bullet, stomach lining and exploding-stomach medicine; Pop's lineup construction; nobody hears the gunshot in the owner's box; Roy never changes his name though he did nothing wrong

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:03Read transcript
  • Time-frame issues: the Wrigley Field clock, and a national anthem sung before a game, which did not happen until after World War II.
  • Hobbs never puts two and two together about his son, asking 'your boy?' without the natural follow-up of how old he is.
  • Fowler, bribed to throw the last game, throws a three-hitter and makes one mistake in eight innings, when a pitcher could simply walk a bunch of dudes and give up a five-run inning.
  • The newspaper copy under the headlines is gibberish when frozen, and the dates go back and forth, making the timeline hard to follow, though the newspapers and magazine covers are loved as a gimmick.
  • Everything about Roy's internal organs is confounding: the bullet could not be removed after 72 hours in a coma yet comes out perfectly after the poisoning, the doctor warns his stomach could explode, and the blood at the end has no clear source beyond opened stitches; it is called completely illogical and a mess.
  • Pop's lineup construction is abhorrent: the slowest guy in the two spot, and a fourth outfielder subbed in to bat third in the playoff game when Roy is crossed out.
  • Nobody hears a gunshot in the owner's box before the game; Roy works to hide his past yet never changes his name, and the hosts cannot see what he did wrong, since Harriet killed three other people and jumped out a window, like being blamed for Ted Bundy's suicide.
  • Earlier, whether Max Mercy should have remembered Roy right away is dismissed as fine, while whether Roy could still pitch with the bullet in his side is parked for nits or unanswerable questions; pain tolerance and no Toradol are the offered answers.
  • Whether Roy would really bleed through his heavy fire-retardant uniform was flagged during research as a possible nitpick.
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1:25:37

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"I believe we have two lives, the life we learn with and the life we live with after that"; "Some mistakes I guess we...

"I believe we have two lives, the life we learn with and the life we live with after that"; "Some mistakes I guess we never stopped paying for"; "Go pick me out a winner, Bobby"; "That ball's as dry as your granddaddy's scalp"; "Can't spell it, but it eats pretty good"; "The only thing I know about the dark is you can't see in it"

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:25:37Read transcript
  • The two-lives line and 'some mistakes I guess we never stopped paying for' open the list with the clips played, plus 'go pick me out a winner, Bobby' and the Whammer's granddaddy's scalp line, called real poetry.
  • Pop's recurring line that his mama wanted him to be a farmer is loved every time; the quietly funniest moment is Red answering Pop's dead-mother story with 'tough'; Red's 'can't spell it, but it eats pretty good' and Pop's 'blinding' after Bump lost it in the sun on an overcast day are also picked.
  • 'Some mistakes I guess we never stopped paying for' is an awesome quote that translates to just about anything, though it would be a weird high school yearbook quote; Roy is seen as carrying the weight of his transgressions.
  • Still cannot figure out what Roy did wrong. — Bill Simmons
  • The last quote, 'the only thing I know about the dark is you can't see in it', is liked because it is not poetic but tells you Roy is a literal man just trying to see the ball and get to the next step in his life.
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1:28:45

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes, but as a basketball series, perhaps set in the late 1960s, rather than baseball

Yes, but as a basketball series, perhaps set in the late 1960s, rather than baseball

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:28:45Read transcript
  • Normally the answer is no, but a 2019 version could be a really interesting show; baseball may no longer be the right sport since basketball is now the American pastime because of its diversity, and the recent baseball show Pitch was canceled.
  • The internet ruins the premise, since Roy's old tweets or Foursquare check-ins would surface, so the fix is basketball set in the late 60s, a high school prodigy shot in 1953 who returns in 1969; the identity mystery, the Max Mercy angle and the team's background could add layers.
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1:30:07

Probably Unanswerable Questions

What did Roy do in his 15 or 16 years away? Does he stay away from Iris out of shame? Is Kim Basinger a good actress?...

What did Roy do in his 15 or 16 years away? Does he stay away from Iris out of shame? Is Kim Basinger a good actress? Why did Iris never marry? Was the barn the first time they had sex, and did she time it? Would the final game be the best sports-movie game to attend? What headlines did we not see? What did Iris's note say? What if the Whammer had made contact? What happens in the World Series? What were Roy Hobbs' stats?

In the discussion (13)
Approx. transcript time · 01:30:07Read transcript
  • What did Roy do for 15 or 16 years away from baseball, and how many women did he sleep with, since he cannot keep Wonderboy in his pants; whether he calls his penis Wonderboy is a joke question.
  • Does Roy stay away from Iris out of shame at being seduced by the first person he met after falling for her? He confesses with grace later, so it feels like a contradiction, and he seems to consciously choose her to reveal himself to; wouldn't she have read about the shooting in Iowa in 1923?
  • A mailbag answer from 15 years ago pictured Roy playing semi-pro ball in the middle of nowhere, running a general store and walking around wistfully with his hands in his pockets, not dating much after the lady in black.
  • Is Kim Basinger a good actress, since this performance is really over the top? Why did the lady in white never marry: the stigma of unmarried motherhood in the 1920s, or being in love with Roy the whole time, with a Wonderboy joke about working wood.
  • Was the barn the first time Roy and Iris had sex, and the only time in her life? Did she set a trap, timing it as a last chance before he left, since she believed he would be the best ever; the counterpoints are whether she knew about ovulation cycles in 1923 and why she does not tell him about the kid immediately when reunited.
  • Would the final game be the greatest sports-movie game to attend? One host still goes with the end of Victory with Sly Stallone and the escape from the Nazi guards; the walk-off is the reason to be there and the reason not to, since every light explodes and glass shards rain down.
  • What headlines did we not see after the walk-off? Joke headlines about an exploding-stomach injury, 23 dead in a stadium light detonation, and police failing to respond to the gunshot call.
  • What did Iris's note say and how did she phrase the reveal? A joke version has her saying the 16-year-old does not know how to play baseball and must be taught in the wheat field.
  • If the Whammer had made contact, Harriet would have killed him instead, since she was chasing the best ever; the Knights would then lose the World Series to the Yankees in the Lou Gehrig year, with neither Hobbs nor Gehrig playing again.
  • What were Roy Hobbs' stats: a 2001 Page 2 mailbag estimate became an important early writer moment for one host because it spread across the internet, and Roy now has a baseball reference page based on it.
  • Freeze-framing the digital copy redates the career: first at bat July 5, a slump in August, 11 homers by the August 14 Life Magazine cover, the lady in white game on September 3 and a four-homer barrage in Chicago the next day; the revised guess is 70 to 75 games, about 290 at bats, 28 to 33 homers and 70 to 80 RBI with a .350 to .370 average, .447 to .450 on base and .750 slugging, modeled on a Bonds season.
  • Barry Bonds' 2004 season was better than Roy Hobbs' half season, though Roy swung at an intentional walk and Bonds had no silver bullet in his stomach; Zach Cram (as transcribed) may have to figure it out, since everyone online cites the flawed original research, and a near-.400 average would have made a headline.
  • If Roy hit the open market now, critics would tear down his one-dimensional game: a throwing arm, but a possible clubhouse cancer, not a great defender, slow on the bases, a little me-first.
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1:45:30

Who Won the Movie?

Robert Redford

Robert Redford

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:45:30Read transcript
  • Robert Redford is named and agreed to immediately, with only Brimley's chest hair as an alternative; a case is made for Pop as the heart of the film, the maimed Fisher King whose Holy Grail Roy pursues as Percival, finally getting the win with help, a reminder that you cannot do it on your own.
  • Pop gives a lot, and Red is iconic but probably not in it enough to win.
Podcast choices
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Robert Redford
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More from the conversation

The guest is welcomed as the Mother of Dragons during the Game of Thrones stretch run; the film used to be one host's greatest sports movie of all time, seen third-most after Rocky 3 and Hoosiers, and on rewatch it was longer and slower but also funnier and with far more sex than remembered.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:56Read transcript
Whether this is the greatest baseball movie: one host says absolutely not, Bull Durham is a top-three film of any kind; Tim Robbins' throwing motion is an insurmountable flaw for the other; each iconic baseball movie represents a different thing, The Natural the godlike figure and myth-making, Bull Durham the opposite question of what life is like if you never get there.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:17Read transcript
The Natural and Field of Dreams belong to a pre-steroids era when fans believed in baseball heroes before the lockout and the home run chase; one host sat stunned after Field of Dreams in college and doubts a modern viewer could feel that, while the other says successful movies rise above their moment and the 1939 setting is already a different world.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:34Read transcript
Period details: gloves left in the outfield, Wonderboy dropped at the plate, Bobby the batboy in Converse like a Los Feliz hipster; the 'chill scene' concept from a 1997 ranking of the 30 greatest sports movies, with the fireworks home run called the best chill scene of any sports movie, and chill scenes judged essential even when achieved through failure.
Approx. transcript time · 00:06:27Read transcript
In the book Hobbs strikes out and the ending was controversial for being changed; one host admits to not having read it; Barry Levinson, pride of Baltimore, made Redford a hero and the story about fathers and sons, a smart call for the patriotic 80s, though a 2015 version would likely have kept the faithful dark ending given the antihero era and how fans now feel about baseball heroes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:47Read transcript
A dark 2019 remake of The Natural is proposed, casting someone under 40 who actually played baseball, with a David Schwimmer joke; Roy is supposed to be about 34 when he reaches the Knights, when Babe Ruth was done at 35.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:58Read transcript
Book facts: written in 1952 by Bernard Malamud, borrowing from the 1949 shooting of the Phillies' Eddie Waitkiss (as transcribed), who returned as comeback player of the year; in the novel Hobbs strikes out, his past is exposed alongside allegations he threw the game, and a paper boy says 'say it ain't true, Roy', a Shoeless Joe Jackson echo making it a Greek tragedy.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:17Read transcript
The Homer parallels are laid out: Hobbs as Odysseus, Max Mercy as Vulcan in red and brown, Pop Fisher as Zeus wearing number one, the judge as Hades in the dark, Memo as Calypso, Gus as the Cyclops, Iris as Penelope, hubris as the fatal flaw; Harriet asks if he reads Homer, it fits the Joseph Campbell monomyth, a silver bullet slays a mythic creature, and it also maps onto Arthurian legend with Roy meaning king, Wonderboy as Excalibur, the Fisher King and the Knights; The Princess Bride is compared as another 80s take on generic themes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:09Read transcript
The film is at 82 on Rotten Tomatoes and made almost $50 million.
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:07Read transcript
One host carried a Fred Lynn card in a wallet from childhood, had Lynn sign it in 2003, and kept it there another ten years until it fell apart; basketball players are now the idols kids want to be rather than Mike Trout; baseball fans were sappy before the 1994 lockout, when people first said fuck baseball, and Ripken, the home run chase and long-suffering teams winning revived it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:20:49Read transcript
Max Mercy is appreciated as the suspicious questioning mind who assumes the bat must be corked and whose job is to make or break the myth, compared to Daario's 'only dishonest people think this way' line to Jorah in Game of Thrones, with a joke about Ian Glenn (as transcribed) as a husband; at least one character has to ask what is going on.
Approx. transcript time · 00:23:00Read transcript
Baseball Mount Rushmore: Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, The Natural and Moneyball or Major League; eras are traced from the politically incorrect 70s Bad News Bears to the 80s rags-to-riches films, Ron Schellin's (as transcribed) Bull Durham, For Love of the Game's great baseball scenes, and Moneyball as a movement movie; kid-era favorites include Little Big League, Little Giants, Rookie of the Year and The Sandlot, with Producer Craig polled, and a son's entry points were Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, The Sandlot and Major League, The Natural being too slow for him.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:53Read transcript
Bull Durham is a tough movie for Costner's thinning hair, and the best anyone has ever looked in a movie is declared to be Harrison Ford in Witness, with sad eyes like Kyle Chandler's as the appeal.
Approx. transcript time · 00:28:04Read transcript
A tangent compares the lightning effects favorably to the awful Quidditch effects in the 2001 Harry Potter film directed by Chris Columbus, recommends the Prisoner of Azkaban match in lightning, and notes a son is entering the Harry Potter universe but is not yet listening to Binge Mode.
Approx. transcript time · 00:40:40Read transcript
Redford's Apex Mountain was ruled All the President's Men on that earlier episode; Ordinary People is one host's favorite movie of all time, a 40-year anniversary episode is promised, and a divorce-movie rewatchables with Sean and Amanda is floated with Kramer vs. Kramer called the greatest divorce movie over The Squid and the Whale.
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:33Read transcript
Sign-off: Major League and Field of Dreams are coming over the next couple of weeks, and Bull Durham is being saved for a really magical time.
Approx. transcript time · 01:46:22Read transcript

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