June 15, 1988 is a red-letter day in the history of the American baseball movie. Before ‘Bull Durham’ was released we as moviegoers could only look forward to cartoonish, mostly heroic portrayals on the silver screen.
Beginning with films such as ‘Pride of the Yankees’ and ‘The Babe Ruth Story’, and then continuing with more modern-day cinema classics like ‘The Natural’, baseball movies were mostly nostalgic and schlocky. (You did know that in the Bernard Malumud’s book ‘The Natural’, Roy Hobbs strikes out at the end and is forever disgraced, didn’t you?)
‘Bull Durham’, however, took us forever away from the mythic, infallible ballplayer character and showed a seemy, albeit quite entertaining, athletic underbelly where ballplayers banged groupies in the clubhouse during the game and then fought with each other outside the local hotspot afterwards. (both of which have been viewed more than once by our very eyes)
Written and directed by former actual bush-leaguer Ron Shelton, the movie also helped spur the overwhelming popularity of today’s minor league spectacle. Now legendary minor league teams like the St. Paul Saints and Ft. Myers Miracle have ‘Bull Durham’ to thank for helping spur recognition and appreciation for their lower-level on-field product.
Furthermore, ‘Bull Durham’ has changed the vernacular of the game itself. The scene where a confused Ebby Calvin LaLoosh is taught how to answer questions from reporters with boring clichés is now required knowledge as you make your way through the sticks. Today, a ‘Baseball Annie’, which refers to Susan Sarandon’s character Annie Savoy, is now liberally used to define any female baseball groupie…of which there are multitudes more than you might ever think. ‘Meat’ is a disparaging term for your young opponent and ALL fireballing phenoms are known as ‘Nuke’.
Plus, there’s the two lessons we all learned from our flawed, wizened hero Crash Davis…you definitely can’t call the umpire a cocksucker…and the rose goes in the front, big guy.
