Eephus is the Antithesis of Field of Dreams

 

Tonight, I went to the Harvard Film Archive to take in a screening of Eephus. Following the screening, there was a discussion with the film's director, Carson Lund.

The title of the film refers to a type of slow curveball which is thrown high in the air at a very slow speed. Rip Sewell popularized the pitch with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Former Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee threw a variation of the eephus pitch which he called the Leephus pitch. More on the Spaceman shortly.

Eephus is set during the 1990s at Soldiers Field in Douglas, Massachusetts which is about 20 miles south of Worcester. The plot centers around two amateur baseball teams playing on Soldiers Field for the last time before a school is to be built over it.

In this sense, Eephus is the antithesis of Field of Dreams. Instead of "If you build it, they will come," we have a film in which baseball decays and dies. There are no lights on the field and the two umpires quit before the sun begins to dim. While the players decide to play to the bitter end, there is no joy on Soldiers Field. I found it to be a profoundly depressing film.

The one moment of genuine joy I felt was the cameo by Bill "Spaceman" Lee who arrives at the dugout wearing white out of nowhere and says, "I can give you three outs." During the Q&A period, I asked Lund how Lee got involved in the project. Lund replied that he had several players in mind but most of those had intermediaries and that got him nowhere. Lee, by contrast answered his own landline from his home in Vermont and eagerly agreed to be a part of the production.

Originally, Lee was to be cast in the lead role, but Lund noted the Spaceman couldn't stick to the script, so character actor Keith William Richards was cast instead. It is probably just as well because Bill Lee was being Bill Lee using the same schtick he's been using for 50 years up to and including his longstanding claim that strikeouts are fascist weapons. 

Unfortunately, Lee was not at this screening although he is scheduled to appear at other screenings throughout New England. I had a faint hope that Lee might show up. The reason for this was due to the release of Lee's biopic Spaceman starring Josh Duhamel. My former roommate Christopher Kain and I attended the opening night screening of the film at the Somerville Theatre. As we entered the theatre, we saw the Spaceman walking out. When I approached the ticket-taker, I said, "I had no idea the Spaceman was going to be here." To which the ticket-taker replied, "Neither did we."

I will also commend Lund's cinematography capturing the essence of fall in New England with its beautiful colors. Alas, fall is a prelude to the dead of winter.

Eephus was screened at last year's Cannes Film Festival and Lund noted it was difficult to translate baseball terms noting there is no French word for shortstop. Prior to asking Lund how Lee got involved with the project, I pointed out that I watched French language broadcasts of Montreal Expos games during my childhood and remembered how former MLB pitcher turned broadcaster Claude Raymond referred to Expos shortstop Chris Speier as arrêt-court. Lund responded by saying, "Great. Now I'll have to redo the subtitles." 

I wish I enjoyed Eephus more than I did. Alas, it served as a reminder how I have fallen out of love with baseball. While I will always be interested in baseball, my interest is almost entirely confined to the past. I have reached a stage in my life where I will never feel about baseball the way I did in childhood and most of my adulthood. The light has gone out on my love for baseball just as the darkness descended upon Soldiers Field.