strictly minor league

Rating: 3/10 (9 November 2010)

Two favorite warm weather diversions (summer movies and professional baseball) are ill-served by writer director Ron Shelton's debut feature: a thinly disguised third-person daydream of fistfights and fastballs in the Carolina League. Kevin Costner portrays a veteran 'player to be named later', doing what he can to mature a hot shot but dim-witted rookie pitcher (Tim Robbins), while competing against him off the field for the heart (and body) of local groupie/baseball guru Susan Sarandon. Shelton draws on his own experience in the minor leagues for background, providing a few good laughs about interview etiquette and pitching mound conferences, but the film is more about Sarandon's libido than the ballgame itself, with all the expected male fantasy frills: locker room humor and easy sex, to be specific. It proved to be a popular crowd pleaser (such is the devalued state of the Romantic Comedy these days), but it's a pity Shelton couldn't have taken a few cold showers while writing his script.