One of the more delightful things about this sharp 1988 baseball comedy is that you don’t have to be a sports fan to have lots of fun with it. Written and directed by rookie Ron Shelton, the movie evokes Howard Hawks (in spirit if not to the letter) with its tight focus on a snug, obsessive world of insiders and camp followers where the exchanges between buddies and sexes have a euphoric stylishness and a giddy sense of ritual. Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon make an appealing triangle: an older, smarter, and overlooked catcher (Costner) is hired by the Durham Bulls mainly to coach a younger, dumber, and more successful pitcher (Robbins); Sarandon is a groupie who believes in “the church of baseball” and is drawn to both of them. On the level of plot, this movie somehow loses itself before the final inning, but there’s a lot of laughter and enjoyment on the way to the lockers. R, 108 min.
