Hollywood does things at its own pace and the sport of baseball is no different than anything else. While the real game in the MLB is enticing enough to watch Hollywood takes its own road and brings forth anything and everything it can in order to get the audience to respond. It doesn’t matter if it’s funny, dramatic, or in some ways thrilling you can almost always count on movies to make a baseball game into something close to a circus just to get the laughs and the added attention.
The problem is that a lot of what goes on in the movies wouldn’t necessarily happen in real life.
5. The games aren’t that fast-paced.
Have you ever watched a baseball game? Some of them get exciting and can cause fans to have palpitations when their team starts to do well, but for the most part it’s a back and forth game that neither team seems to win if they happen to be easily matched. You might think you’re sitting down for nine innings of quick and furious play, but chances are you’ll be waiting a while longer than you think for the end of the game.
4. Visits to the mound are restricted to only a few instances a game.
Unlike the image you see in Bull Durham where most of the team on the field comes to the pitcher’s mound to discuss their problems, the only people you’ll ever see out on the mound are the catcher, the coach, and the pitcher. You might see the relief pitcher making his way in to do his part, but you won’t see more than a few people on the mound, ever.
3. Scouts tend to look at EVERYTHING.
Look at it this way, are you going to recommend to your team that they need to take a player unless you know everything about them? If you watch Trouble With The Curve you’ll see that the number one prospect, Bo Gentry, can’t hit a simple pitch that most any high school kid could smack the tar out of on a good day. If your prospect can’t hit a curve in high school then you don’t want them, period. Scouts have to know everything there is to know about a prospect.
2. The penalties that go uncalled in movies are ridiculous.
I don’t care what level you’re playing at, intentional cleats to the face or anywhere on the body should be an immediate ejection from the game. In The Benchwarmers Richie, a fully grown adult, launches himself into an adolescent catcher, slamming both feet into the poor kid’s face mask and knocking him cold. That wouldn’t just be an ejection, it would be straight up assault charges.
1. Catchers aren’t allowed to trash talk as much as it seems.
It’s not so much that they’re not allowed since I haven’t found anything saying it’s illegal as far as the game goes, but it won’t win a catcher any friends if they decide to mouth off. It might be the beginning of a long night of ‘accidental’ hits to the face mask and other injuries to come if the catcher really wants to be that much of a jerk.
Baseball, REAL baseball, is played with a lot more control and poise than Hollywood likes to show.
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