Pastime (1991)

Now a lot of you movie fans will read this synopsis and immediately draw several allusions to the 1988 Baseball classic Bull Durham with Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins. It should be noted that Pastime did indeed come out a few years after Durham but the story Pastime is adopted from was written long before Durham was made.

That being said I think I like Bull Durham better even though I like this film taking place in the tail end of the 50â²s and have the relationship take place with and older white guy and a young African American kid just starting out at a time when Baseball was still getting through its bigoted phase.

The movie has a very âindyâ? feel to it while also doing enough work to make it feel like the the 50â²s. And telling a minor league ball story from this era is a cool hook (one that got me watching in the first place). The performances are pretty good as well. The cast is mostly made up of character actors and are somewhat familiar but no big names unless you count Jeffery Tambor (Arrested Development).

The movie also plays with traditional movie tropes that you are use to seeing in sports films like this. I wonâ(TM)t go into spoiler territory but for example Roy-Dean made it to the majors but he was never a great player that just got hurt or too old like in so many others. He was up for one game and gave up a grand slam and never saw the prime time again. He wasnâ(TM)t MLB material and he just sat around in the minors until he couldnâ(TM)t hack it there either, but even though he didnâ(TM)t have the tools he had the knowledge and tried to pass it on even though he was the proverbial punching bag on his team.

For its good it also had moments where the movie just didnâ(TM)t feel complete to me, like it was missing something, maybe more character development or back story would have really sucked me in more. It is a good movie that deserves a look especially if you enjoy Baseball!