There is no consensus as to the identity of the greatest baseball movie. Ask 100 fans and you’ll probably get 50 answers, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who does not have Bull Durham in contention.
Ron Shelton, the movie’s creator, was at Polar Park Saturday as part of the Larry Lucchino Writers Series to talk about that film; his baseball career; his book about making the movie, “The Church of Baseball;” and plans for future projects.
But first:
— Crash Davis was not based on the minor league career of Red Sox manager Grady Little. Little was managing in Durham when the movie was made there and served as a technical consultant but was not the model for the Kevin Kostner character.
— Susan Sarandon was not originally on the list of actors approved by the studio for her role as Annie Savoy. She flew from Italy to lobby for the part and, thankfully, successfully made her case.
— The scene where Davis tells the opposition batter what pitch is on the way came from a real-life at bat.
— Shelton might have been a good enough player to make the major leagues.
That he was here Saturday was by design. The WooSox were playing the Rochester Red Wings and he ended his minor league career in Rochester in 1971.
Shelton, 80, grew up in Southern California and played college baseball at Westmont, Calif. He was an infielder who spent his entire career in the Orioles farm system. His minor league teammates included players like Bobby Grich, Don Baylor, Johnny Oates, Dave Boswell, Doug DeCinces and Wayne Garland.
Joe Altobelli was the manager for much of his career. Altobelli was very, very old school and skeptical of college players. That was common throughout the game in those days. Players were supposed to think about homers, not Homer.
The 1971 Red Wings are considered to be one of the best minor league teams of all time. Had Shelton been in another organization he might have had a longer career, might have made the major leagues.
Was he good enough?
“I had a shot,” Shelton said. “Would it have worked out or not? I don’t know.”
Things worked out in a different way. Shelton’s career as a major league filmaker is ongoing. His current project is a movie about Ted Williams, who he described as the greatest hitter of all-time.
Bull Durham is not Shelton’s only good movie, but remains his Gettysburg Address. Fans can recite parts of it word for word. They can recall minute details of certain scenes. The film is like one of those “Law and Order” episodes based on real events, but portrayed by fictional characters.
The best parts?
There is the scene where Kevin Costner’s Davis character tells the opposing batter that the next pitch will be a fastball. It is, indeed, and is hit several hundred feet. That is based on something that happened to Shelton when he was playing for Dallas-Ft. Worth in the Texas League.
“I led off the game,” Shelton said, “and the catcher for the El Paso Sun Kings, an Angels farm team, said as I stepped in, ‘Curveball and it’s really lousy.’ I didn’t believe him, then the guy threw what was indeed the lousiest curveball I’d ever seen.”
Alas, Shelton did not swing.
One of the best moments for manager Joe Riggins, played by Trey Wilson, is when he berates the Bulls for lollygagging. Shelton had a post-film version of that in real life when he was coaching youth baseball.
“It’s my first day,” he said, “and I’m frustrated with the kids and I say, ‘You’re lollygagging. You’re lollygagging.’ Another coach comes over and says, ‘Hey, did you ever see that movie with the lollygaggers in it?
“About two weeks later he comes over and says, “I am so embarrassed.”
Although the specifics may not be precise, the depiction of how the players chased women, and vice-versa, is pretty accurate.
“One of the shocks for me, of signing professionally,” Shelton said, “was every guy was chasing women every minute they were off the field and sometimes when they were on the field.
“I couldn’t believe this. I was a healthy young male but, geez — guys, do you ever read a book?”
Shelton’s teams did create rainouts by flooding fields. The bull on the fence in Durham was a film prop, not a reality. He is not a big fan of baseball movies in general. Aside from Bull Durham, Shelton’s favorite is probably the original version of the The Bad News Bears.
There are similarities, he thinks, with making movies and sports. Shelton does not overanalyze and does not want his actors to do that. He likes doing just one take of a scene, and believes there is “a lot of analytic overthink” in today’s baseball, adding, “The analytics don’t know what a good manager knows about what’s going in the clubhouse, the dugout.”
No doubt some of Saturday’s audience went home after the WooSox game, and after lollygagging to get out of the parking garage, watched Bull Durham for a second time, or third, or 20th.
