For Love of the Game is an American film drama based on the novel of the same title by Michael Shaara. It is directed by Sam Raimi and stars Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston. The film follows the final game of an aging baseball pitcher as he reminisces about his career and his relationship with his former girlfriend, while almost unwittingly attempting to pitch a perfect game.
Plot summary
The Detroit Tigers travel to New York to play a season-ending series against the New York Yankees. At 63-97, the team has long since been eliminated from playoff contention and are merely playing the role of spoiler for the Yankees, who can clinch the pennant with a win. For 40-year-old pitcher Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner), however, this may end up being the most significant 24 hours of his life.
In his Manhattan hotel Billy awaits his on-and-off girlfriend Jane Aubrey (Kelly Preston), but she doesn't show. The next morning, Billy learns that the Tigers' owner Gary Wheeler (Brian Cox) is selling the team, and the new owner's first move will be to end Billy's 19-year tenure with the Tigers by trading him. Billy also learns from Jane that she is leaving that day as she has accepted a job offer in London.
Billy, a famous and well-accomplished pitcher also recovering from a hand injury, goes to Yankee Stadium to start the last game of the season, during which he begins reflecting about Jane, detailing how they met five years prior and their experience together. These flashbacks are interspersed within the game along with glimpses of Jane watching the game at the airport.
Through the game, Billy dominates the Yankees' batters and recalls how his relationship with Jane was strained when he suffered a career-threatening injury in the off-season. He also continues to feel the wear and tear his age and career are taking on his arm; the pain of pitching is slowly getting worse as the game goes on.
Billy is so caught up in his thoughts that he does not realize he is pitching a perfect game until the bottom of the eighth inning. Billy's catcher, Gus Sinski (John C. Reilly) confirms this and tells him "We're the best team in baseball!" and says that the whole team has rallied behind him and will do whatever it takes to keep it a perfect game.
Before the Tigers take the field for the bottom of the ninth inning, Billy has final ruminations about his career and his love for Jane. He autographs a baseball for Wheeler, the final baseball he will ever autograph for his friend and employer of many years. Along with the signature, Billy also writes on the ball that he will be retiring, "for love of the game." Billy then goes out to the mound for the ninth inning, a moment of truth for his team, baseball and himself.
After finishing a perfect game, Billy sits alone in his hotel room, and the realization sinks in that everything he has been for the past nineteen years is over. Despite his amazing accomplishment, Billy weeps not only for the loss of baseball, but for the loss of Jane, the other deep love of his life.
The next morning, Billy goes to the airport to board a plane for London. Finding Jane there waiting for her plane, they reconcile.
Cast
The pitching coach who prepared Costner for this role was former New York Yankees/Milwaukee Brewers middle reliever, Mike Buddie. Buddie also had a small speaking role in the film as the character Jack Spellman.
The Yankees manager is played by Augie Garrido, current coach of the University of Texas Longhorns.
External links
|
Films directed by Sam Raimi |
|
| 1980s |
|
|
| 1990s |
|
|
| 2000s |
|
|
| 2010s |
|
|
